Dark Girls in Art/Entertainment / Identity VS Nature
What does hiding, disguising and performing all have in common? They’re all about putting on a show of being someone you’re not. Someone you don’t want to be for whatever reason that may be. Perhaps you’re ashamed of or insecure about your true face - true self - and so want to cover it up and hide yourself behind a blank slate. Or maybe you feel like hiding yourself isn’t enough. You have to fashion yourself a whole new persona - a character to play and perform as to distract your perceivers - your audience - from the real deal. And so your disguise - your costume - if you wear it long enough eventually becomes your identity. It’s all people ever see of you now and so it’s more natural to you than authentically being who or what you are.
The only thing is - just how long can you keep it up? And if you can’t keep in character - how is that going to effect you when you’re so desperate to disappear and crawl out of your own skin? How are you going to react when you realize it’s over and there’s no fooling them anymore? They can’t be convinced of your act and you no longer have control over their perception.
Dark girls (or guys I guess) are all about this. It’s what makes them such compelling characters. Because they’re so unpredictable. You don’t know what they’re going to do next or who they’re going to be next. They keep you guessing and therefore keep you enthralled. They never show up authentically. May not even be aware of who they authentically are in the first place. Yet they play the part as if they know who they are. And perhaps it’s because they’ve played it too long why they aren’t aware of their authentic selves. And so they go on an existential journey of discovery as if who and what they are already isn’t them and isn’t enough. As if parts of them are missing and they have to search those parts out and retrieve them. It’s like a dog trying to play fetch with its own tail in a way. At some point they will stop circling around themselves and catch whatever it is that they believe they’ve lost.
But I think the thing that’s most intriguing about this characterization is that the person they are and want to be is always one in the same anyway, and so there was never really any need to go looking for it. But it’s always in the looking for it that is what shows this to be true. That is what tells that character that it is true. And that’s always more compelling if that character happens to be a dark girl (or guy) because it often comes with a shift in tone as well as perspective. Hence the term “dark” as the adjective for them. You’re not merely watching some character development of consciousness. You’re getting the whole fucking package all in one. All their evolution emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually at once. And that’s why they’re constantly changing identity. Because they’re the embodiment for CHANGE itself.
They’re not ever authentically who they are precisely because they’re ALWAYS authentically who they are. And I know that’s contradictory. But somehow - when it comes to art/entertainment - it just fucking works! To have a character who’s entire characterization is essentially identity vs nature hot potato - in a constant fluctuation that they never settle on any one solitary specific identity in their entire character arc - that’s honestly the most authentic a person can be because what it represents is that identity isn’t solid or isn’t a permanence. It’s just a costume that we wear for the time being until we find something else that is more appropriate or better fits us. And sometimes that “something” doesn’t even exist and therefore has to be created. What we eventually come to realize through the journey is that what we believe is “missing” or “lost” in us is always with us as part of us. But you can’t ever come to that realization without going on the journey and believing that it isn’t and never will be. Thus the journey is important to go on even if pointless because the journey of going missing or getting lost is what brings us the realization that nothing was ever missing or lost in the first place.
When characters in art/entertainment go on that journey either out of their own volition or they’re forced into it - there’s something profound to be learned from it that’s akin to that old but effective method of spiritual masters advising you to seek enlightenment. All ways are the right way always.
Even if they’re wrong. Especially if they’re wrong.
