Shadism from the Perspective of Intersectionality in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

Ahmed Seif Eddine Nefnouf

doi:10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.4.24

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss shadism from a perspective of intersectionality and how people with a darker skin tone suffered particular forms of discrimination due to the issues of shadism and its interaction with the class, gender, age, ability, and race. Shadism has infused the black society for many centuries, hence outlined during slavery. Shadism is the discrimination against a person with a darker skin tone, typically among individuals of the same racial group. In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison describes how African American women and girls like Pecola are considered ugly by her family and the community due to her darker skin tone. in this research paper we are going to explore shadism and examine intersectionality theory like race, gender, sexuality and class, and their influence on dark-skinned black women, through the main character Pecola Breedlove. Using intersectionality theory to understand shadism helps to know that there are different ways a person could face oppression and domination. This paper gives a new vision of shadism which have been studied as amatter of racism, but throughout the intersectionality of the the identity component. The analysis shows that shadism is influenced by race and other aspects of intersectionality such as gender, race, age and ability, and other aspects of identity.

Highlights

IntroductionThis paper studies Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye and the stories of black women and young girls relating to the beauty standards established by white America as well as the role families and society play in their reactions to these standards
1 Shadism is the unfair treatment of persons falling within the same racial class based on color
The analysis shows that shadism is influenced by race and other aspects of intersectionality such as gender, race, age and ability, and other aspects of identity

Summary

Introduction

This paper studies Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye and the stories of black women and young girls relating to the beauty standards established by white America as well as the role families and society play in their reactions to these standards. This chapter analyses the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and other identity aspects and how they influence shadism. This work intends to analyze how the intersectionality categories like race, gender, and class are portrayed in the novel and how it relates to the problems of white beauty standards and self-loathing or self-hatred. Instead of supporting the idea that blackness is beautiful, the novelist portrays that the characters become obsessed with beauty standards and acknowledged by the whites to the extent that they end up hurting others and themselves

Objectives

Conclusion