About Beauty in Black:

We aim to portray the role of white supremacy in diet culture as marginalized bodies and races are discriminated against and vilified in order to promote privileged identities and supremacist ideologies.This type of discrimination against larger black bodies can be seen as far back as the 1700's with women like Sarah Baartman, also known as Hottentot Venus, put on public display as freak shows and sexually abused. Here’s to empowering black women of ALL shapes and sizes and dismantling fatphobia. Let’s AMPLIFY their voices! There needs to be increased representation for fat and black women. Diet culture's idealization of the thin Eurocentric female prevents this from happening and puts many at risk for disordered eating. A quote from @hellosunrisenutrition :

“Diet culture is rooted in colonialism and white supremacy. It is simply another culturally acceptable way to police black bodies.” 

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Fatphobia: the fear of the word "fat" or of being fat is extremely prevalent in today's society as fat people face discrimination in social, cultural, medical, and legal arenas. It is critical to recognize that fat phobia has racist roots as demonstrated with individuals like Sarah Baartman in the 1700's and Adolphe Quetlet with the creation of BMI in the 1830's. BMI was designed to graph the "ideal" height and weight of French and Scottish men into a bell curve. Quetlet was a mathematician and astronomer with no medical background. Not only does the continued use of flawed, racist, and fatphobic systems like BMI fail to provide accurate representation for BIPOC with different genetic makeups, it is used to charge insurance premiums, therefor leaving larger bodied people at a disadvantage. Going back to Sarah and the creation of Hottentot Venus, racism against black women created the groundwork for fatphobia. Fatphobia lies at the root of all eating disorders. Eating disorders are the leading cause of death for mental illness, taking countless lives yearly. Not only is it valuable to recognize the role white supremacy plays in diet culture and fatphobia, but it's also important to acknowledge the injury to the identities of black women caused by Eurocentric beauty standards. We need to redefine the word fat and increase representation for black women of all body types in media. 

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"At the end of the day, me just walking, breathing, being a proud plus size woman is an act of defiance. I should not be proud according to society. I should be ashamed. I am not ashamed. I am proud." -Bibi Chevallier

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Produced by Hello Self Project

Directed by Sofia Mahdavi

Photographed by Joseph Gaines and Lourdes Araiza Beltran

Modeled by Bibi Chevallier, Kylia Acevedo-Jones, Kailey Symone

Lighting Technician by Joanie Sylvain