The Bluest Eye and Precious

The Bluest Eye and the film Precious explore the definition of beauty through the eyes of black women who long to be white. Pecola and Precious endure difficult lives that lead them to believe that beauty is achieved through skin color first before all other elements.
Precious lived a life of abuse which includes physical abuse from her mother and being raped by her father. When she experiences this abuse, she tends to go to her “happy place,” which is usually a world in which she is famous and has a lighter skinned boyfriend. When she looks in the mirror, Precious sees a blonde-haired white girl staring back at her, which indicated that she thinks if she were white, she would not be in her situation.
Her longing for lighter skin says that the culture Precious lives in is a very poor one where being white represents wealth and happiness. However, author Rebecca Walker in Body Outlaws is a white women who hates her body, but for a different reason. According to Walker, “The depth of my obsession with skin revolves around color, and what I perceive to be my lack thereof (Walker, 1998).”
Historically, white skin represented power, wealth and beauty because of the slavery system. In the film, Precious’ life seems to prove that this theory still holds true. Walker, ironically, is a white woman who considers it a burden to be white, because her mother is tan, which is considered by her peers to be beautiful.
For Precious, she thinks her life would be better if she had light skin because she would be considered beautiful and then the possibilities for her life would be endless. Her mother calls her ugly and says no one loves her, but Precious thinks this would change if she were while. Lisa Jervis, author of “My Jewish Nose” in Body Outlaws, states “…when we scratch the surface of what “prettier” means, we find that we might as well be saying “whiter” or “more gentile” (Jervis, 2003).”
By the end of the film Precious has gathered her life together a bit, and so her body image has improved. It is by no means perfect, but it can be inferred that she doesn’t considered her skin to be as big of a hindrance as it was before. Her teacher, Ms. Rain was the first person probably to tell Precious she was loved and that was a big turning point. It started the journey of Precious learning to love herself. Towards the end of the film, Precious stops dreaming about being famous, but comes to face the reality of having HIV and taking her children out of the dangerous situation she is in. She finally develops confidence, even if it is only on a small level.
Pecola’s story takes place before the Civil Rights movement, so her skin color is even more of an issue for her than it was for Precious. It is very evident that Pecola wants to be white because she idolized Shirley Temple and drinks white milk out of a white cup with Temple’s picture on it. For Christmas, Pecola’s classmate Claudia always received white baby dolls, which is evidence that her mainly-black town sees white skin as the ultimate beauty. Claudia is baffled by white girls and wants to “discover what eluded me: the secret of the magic they weaved on others. What made people look at them and say ‘Awwwww,’ but not for me? (Morrison, 1970).”
Pecola endures the same type of abuse that Precious did, so being white to her represented to her privilege and love. Her classmates tease her and call her black and make fun of her situation with her father. Morrison says that Pecola is made fun of for the two most embarrassing things a person has. Pecola privately idolizes a white classmate, Maureen Peal, because she possesses beauty and wealth, which Pecola associates with her skin color. The Beauty Myth comes into play for Pecola because, according to Naomi Wolf, “Competition between women has been made part of the myth so that women will be divided from one another….Women’s identity must be premised upon our ‘beauty’ so that we will remain vulnerable to outside approval, carrying the vital sensitive organ of self-esteem exposed to the air (Wolf, 2002).”
Pecola’s self-image evolves through the book, but not in a healthy way. After she becomes pregnant by her father and loses the baby, Pecola goes insane. She is obsessed with white beauty, specifically blue eyes and asks a local man to give her blue eyes. This astonishes him, because of all the things she could want in the world, all she wants is blue eyes to be considered beautiful. Even when Pecola does think she has blue eyes, they are not blue enough for her. There is nothing that can satisfy her need to feel beautiful and needed. In the conversation she has with herself, she begs the other person not to leave her and promises the person she will posses the bluest eyes.
The Bluest Eye and the film Precious are perfectly named because the titles embody traits that the main characters do not posses. The Bluest Eye describes exactly what Pecola wanted most in the world, which was to have blue eyes. Although there were other characters in the book, blue eyes represent beauty that seems unattainable to black women because it belongs to white women. Pecola idolized Shirley Temple and loved to drink white milk out of a cup. Shirley Temple had blonde hair and blue eyes, so to her, and the black women in the book, this was what the picture of beauty is. If Pecola could just change her eyes, then she could change her life.
Precious at the beginning of the film does not live up to her name at all which makes the title ironic, but at the same time it represents the aspirations her mother had for her. In the emotional scene where Precious and her mother meet in the social worker’s office, Precious’ mother tells the story of how Precious’ father raped Precious. The emotion with which she tells the story relates that she really did consider her daughter Precious. However, she did not grow up in an environment that made it easy for her to live up to her name. Despite all the terrible things that happened to her, Precious discovered that she was indeed precious, but she had to be validated from within.
Precious’ story ended where it did because she found some resolution in her life and within herself. Her mother told her she was ugly and nobody loved her, but it was when Precious was loved by Ms. Rain that she really began to love herself and care about her children. Her children were what gave her hope because she wanted to be a better mother than her own mother was.
Her story ended on a on a hopeful note when Precious chose to take control of her own life. It was appropriate to end the movie when it did, because there was the promise of a new life without showing how her life progresses. I envision that Precious goes on to live a fulfilling life, with a damaged, but improving self-esteem and body image. After the many years of abuse inflicted upon her, Precious’ body image may never fully heal, but I think with the help of professionals, she goes on feeling comfortable in her own skin.
Pecola’s story ends on an incredibly sad note, where she loses her baby and essentially goes crazy and is shunned by the town. It doesn’t end with Pecola narrating, but rather with Frieda and Claudia narrating. The whole novel focuses on the aspect of beauty and ends with Claudia comparing herself to Pecola, and stating that anything was beautiful next to Pecola. Because of the horrors that had been done to Pecola, everyone in the town felt superior to her, whether in beauty, cleanliness, or wealth. The ending of Pecola’s story sharply contrasts with Precious’ story.
Pecola’s self-esteem and body image are ruined forever, because even though she thinks she received blue eyes, she has a conversation with herself where she doesn’t think her eyes are blue enough. Even though, in her mind, she was given blue eyes, they were not enough. She wanted to have the bluest eyes of anyone. Cholly raping her took away her childhood and innocence, and with it went her sanity. I don’t think Pecola will ever see herself as beautiful enough, and because of her behavior, no one else will see her as beautiful either.
Black women for the majority are represented negatively in pop-culture. One that is prominent for small children is the American Girl doll Addy. Each American girl doll represents a time period in history and most of the other dolls are white and their stories reveal privileged lives. Addy’s story, however, takes place during the Civil War and she and her family are runaway slaves. At this formative age when children learn to differentiate between races, this surely encourages racism and negative body images for black girls.
Music videos for rappers are no better. 50 Cent’s video “Candy Shop” portrays women solely as sex objects and his video is just an example of the vast amount of music videos that exploit black women. The lyrics are degrading, so women think they must lower their standards to get a man.
Advertisements often sell beauty products that are meant for white women, but to diversify them, they throw in black women. However, through Photoshop and model selection, they alter the images to make the models appear to have “whiter” features. This is true in make-up ads for Revlon that show Halle Berry. She is barely recognizable they have altered her face so much. In a L’Oreal ad, there has been controversy over whether or not her skin was lightened. This implies that it is not ok to be a darker skin color.
Niecy Nash is the host of “Clean House” on the Style Network and is currently on “Dancing with the Stars.” After her first performance, she announced that she was dedicating her performance to thick women everywhere. Nash is in good shape herself, but obviously will never have a stick-thin body like some of her other contestants. This teaches black women to be proud of their shapes.
Society is also slowly learning to integrate more positive messages about black women into pop culture for children. The first black Disney princess was created for The Princess and the Frog which is a huge leap forward in diversity for Disney. Traditionally their characters have been all white, while other shows, like Sesame Street, have been integrating other races into their shows for years.
Women in general have a long way to go to create healthy body images, whether it comes from pop culture, their environment, or within the home. However, for black women, our culture makes it even more difficult to see themselves as beautiful. Beautiful is not blue eyes and blue hair; beautiful is the person, regardless of any imperfections.



Works Cited
Daniels, Lee. “Precious.” 2010. Film.
Jervis, Lisa. “My Jewish Nose.” Body Outlaws. Ed. Ophira Edut. Seal Press, 2003. Print.
Morrison, Toni. The Bluest Eye. Vintage Books, 2007. Print.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women . Harper Perennial, 2002. Print.
Walker, Rebecca. “Foreward.” Body Outlaws. Ed. Ophira Edut. Seal Press, 2003. Print.