After her recent Oscar win, actress Lupita Nyong'o gave a touching speech at the annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon, when she collected an award for Best Breakthrough Performance. In this video, Lupita addresses the curse of western perceptions of beauty and her personal battle with confidence:
She talks about how she experienced the same disappointment everyday, as her reflection in the mirror didn't change, no matter how much she willed it to. She talks of how the colour of her skin was an obstacle, which stopped her from feeling beautiful. Even after watching the black model Alek Wek being praised for her skin colour and beauty on the television, Lupita makes an interesting comment; "It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy.". And this is what I think is most damaging about the society we live in. Through our television and the internet, we are continuously fed a look and a lifestyle that we are led to believe will result in our happiness if we can somehow obtain it. As we continuously fail to meet the standards set, we become so familiar with the feelings of inadequacy, failure and self-loathing. What is really scary about this mental state, is how comfortable it can be. It's safe, removed from a place where potential failure is possible, but instead an accepted way of life. With so many people existing within this mind set, no wonder personal growth, compassion and gratitude are slipping away from so many.
When speaking of her own struggle with the concept of beauty, Lupita says "Suddenly I realised beauty was not a thing I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be and what my mother meant when she said that 'you can't eat beauty' was that you can't rely on how you look to sustain you. What actually sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty inflames the heart and enchants the soul." She goes on to suggest that the little girl to whom she is indirectly aiming this speech towards, who represents all those who feel inferior to their beauty rivals, that whilst feeling the validation of their external beauty, it is the deeper business of being beautiful on the inside which truly counts. "There is no shade in that beauty."
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