In “Dark-Skinned Love Stories,” Robin M. Boylorn shows the negative narratives imposed on dark skinned girls. Her hints of auto-ethnography, heterosexual love stories, and colorism play integral roles in this article. She starts off with telling the story of Pecola Breedlove, a character in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, an abused child who was ridiculed and tortured for her dark skin and thus imagined blue eyes. Pecola was “a girl who is described by the pre-pubescent narrators of the story as “ugly”; beauty was linked to blue eyes (which were) linked to (whiteness) happiness. The dismal circumstances of her life caused her to hide behind her ugliness: “concealed, veiled, eclipsed—peeping out from behind the shroud very seldom, and then only to yearn for the return of her mask” (Boylorn, 2012). With this description alone, Boylorn was able to relate to Pecola’s pain as she struggled with the intricacies of colorism and skin color: “The sister-narrators of the story did not realize that Pecola’s supposed ugliness was linked to her skin, that her desire for blue eyes was not a pitiful reaction to rejection, but a result of societal self-hate, and their self-congratulatory approach to accepting her despite her being a “case” was due to their neutrality, being neither too light nor too dark themselves” (Boylorn, 2012).
Boylorn herself was aware growing up that being a darker skinned woman made her different from the others in the same community. If you’re a “dark skinned,” you were made to feel less than or for the most part an outcast.
Colorism plays a key factor on the mental state of a Black woman. Having to undergo these forms of abuse for just the color of your skin by women that are possibly lighter than you can play a role on not having the actual strength to be proud and confident amongst manipulative and abusive heterosexual men. As Boylorn explains, her “melanin proficiency”, as she liked to call it played an integral role in her color complexion issues. While dealing with these issues in her country or community, it was always a battle of having to deal with the comparisons between herself and her sister who was lighter: "They (the adults and other children in my life) always knew my sister was beautiful, but for me it took time, years, deep long looks, and depth of consideration to finally determine that I was cute, shit, beautiful even for a dark-skinned girl” (Boylorn, 2012).
Colorism also plays a heavy toll on the desirability of a dark skinned woman. When these key factors influence the minds of dark skinned girls growing up, these issues can lead them to wanting and searching for love in the wrong places. This could play an integral role in intimate partner violence.
Robin M. Boylorn. (2012). Dark-Skinned Love Stories. International Review of Qualitative Research,5(3), 299-309. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/irqr.2012.5.3.299