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PSA: Dark Skin & Broad Noses Are Not Masculine

Sanni Lark
3 min readAug 18, 2024

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Our society cannot seem to make room for feminine beauty standards that do not glorify lightness, both in color and in weight, as the standard of womanhood.

Credit: thehindeogunsanya via Pexels

Colorism is rife in the black community, and the world in general. As a result it is common to lazily associate dark skin and large facial features, both of which I possess, as masculine. Hence the, “You look just like your dad” statement many, many dark-skinned daughters like myself are forced to hear out of mouths that could be kept shut.

It’s like, do I actually look like my dad? Or, do we both have dark skin and large noses and you’re too goddamn lazy to see me as an individual woman, a feminine individual woman at that, because you hold a deep-rooted cultural stigma that it is impossible for black women to look like anything other than a man if they aren’t light-skinned with dainty facial features?

If you think I am being dramatic, keep in mind that the association between blackness and masculinity is so strong that it is socially acceptable for people to gather online and question the gender…

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Sanni Lark
Sanni Lark

Written by Sanni Lark

Channeling sacred, unadulterated, feminine chaos and wisdom through writing. For more primordial womanhood activation visit: https://www.sannilark.com

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