Creative Work

I’ll Never Be Enough, 2024

Staci Jordan

Multimedia

This first collage depicts the conflicting beauty standards Black women face in their lives. The mainstream U.S. beauty standards tell women that to be beautiful they should have traits like long straight hair, light eyes, a skinny body, and fair or white skin. Most women cannot fully or even partially meet these standards. Black women have been introduced to a modified version of the mainstream standards to account for the areas of the standard that may be almost impossible to achieve. This piece sheds light on the dissonance that arises when a Black woman finds that she does not closely align with either of the standards.

Black Women ARE Beautiful, 2024

Staci Jordan

Multimedia

This last collage proposes a new standard for Black women that goes beyond physical appearances and allows them to have a broad range of traits. While this piece is aimed at a young Black female audience, a similar concept can be used for other minority women. Real women come in many shades, shapes, and sizes. While each of the women depicted in the collage may be physically beautiful, beauty fades. Character traits on the other hand can last forever. Black women often use beauty standards to evaluate their self-worth, but it is their other traits that make them valuable.