Raízes, Marcas e Colonialidade: o padrão de beleza e as mulheres racializadas

Abstract

The colonization process in the countries of the global south resulted in far-reaching changes in the relations of power, domination, and subordination of the different existing peoples and societies. Eurocentric knowledge imposed a single mode of rationality that was perpetuated throughout the colonized countries, standardizing ideals and diverse experiences. On the other hand, the epistemological insubordination of subalternized peoples resulted in fundamental debates about their social, cultural, and knowledge differences that contributed to the emergence of struggles for decolonization. The Eurocentric standard of beauty as an aesthetic ideal and model of civilization during the process of colonization of the Americas served as an instrument of domination of black bodies and brought profound consequences to their subjectivities. In the case of non-white women, such mirror reflects an Other who does not correspond to this standard, revealing to us a universalization of beauty, as well as the structural roots of racism. This paper aims to discuss the universalizations arising from the colonization process and its links to the Eurocentric standard of beauty based on the idea of race. For this purpose, a bibliographic research of theoretical investigation was carried out on decoloniality, race and gender, tracing their relations with the imposed aesthetic standard. Interviews with racialized women were also used, forms, and semi-structured interviews that allowed us to understand the dimensions of the standard of beauty in the lives of these women. It demonstrates how the process of white hegemony in the world produced and produces white beauty standards generating consequences for racialized women.