âPrettiness, with a capital P, is about much more than oneâs appearance, and it required one to reckon with what it means to experience structural advantages over someone who is Ugly. When I capitalize the P in Pretty and the B in Beauty, or the U in Ugly, it is to name who does and does not have access to Desire Capital-- that is to say, who owns or embodies more of less of the identities that grant one access, power, and resources. More to the point, âpretty,â âbeauty,â and âuglyâ-- all with lowercase letters-- are subjective. They are not identities but are rather determined by the individual. Rooted still in anti-Blackness, but are not structural identities. Pretty, Beauty, and Ugly, however, are determined by the structures through which people are marginalized for their race, their gender, and their bodies. Beauty standards, especially in the United States, are predicated on anti-Blackness, anti-fatness, anti-disfiguredness, cisheterosexism and ableism.
As such, people who are Black, fat, disabled, and/or trans more generally do not have access to Beauty. However, as with all capital, one can embody identities that are valued in modern society and still also hold identities that are marginalized, which is why the term âprivilegeâ is not quite specific enough and often does not go far enough. Desire is complex. Privilege insinuated that there is a possibility that you can opt out, and that if you donât feel pretty, then you canât possibly benefit from any structural violence around Prettiness. Desire/ability politics and Desire Capital, however, suggest that one does not need to feel pretty to be Pretty; one does not need to feel beautiful to be Beautiful; one does not need to feel ugly to be Ugly. How one benefits or suffers from the subjugation of particular people is not determined by their feelings; it is determined by the identities they embody.â
theartofmadeline
areudirty
blakekathryn
