Y’all getting BBLS? [This Black-Ass Life]
Welcome to the 104th installment of This Black-Ass Life! This week, we want to explore BBLs, beauty standards and disordered eating and body dysmorphia in Black women. In our Other Things, we talk Fast & Furious, because Y’ALL, what a series.
CW: We will be mentioning content related to disordered eating. Please skip ahead to other things if this is a triggering topic.
Don’t forget: We've managed to grow this list thanks to y'all forwarding it to friends, so please keep it up! Forward this link to subscribe to five friends. And send us topics you'd like to see covered, texts from your Black-ass people, and any Black-ass anything from around the world and web.
I. The Facts
The Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), a procedure that has been increasingly targeted toward Black and Latina women, takes a combination of fat grafting and liposuction to add volumes and curves to the butt and hips.
BBLs are one of the most dangerous surgeries yet the number of BBLs performed globally increased 77.6% from 2015 to 2019. About 40,320 gluteal-fat grafts and implants were performed in the U.S. last year.
A recent study showed of 692 surgeons surveyed, 3% had patients die and 7% reported at least one pulmonary fat embolism in a patient over their careers.
One of the concerns about BBLs is the wide variety of providers for the procedure. Given the popularity of the industry, people seek certified and noncertified providers in places ranging from basements in the U.S. and abroad, to hospitals and alleys.
Terrifyingly, the range of cost can be anywhere from $3,000 to $30,000.
Why does it matter?
Black people’s relationship with our bodies and beauty is complicated. We spend 9x more on hair and beauty, have become a significant percentage of plastic surgery patients aaaannnddddd we also find solace and community in our collective quest for beautification.
However, the psychological and sociological implications of our obsession with beauty sometimes belies more darker underpinnings.
For example, scholars like Alisha Gaines believe the BBL is the commodification of toxic beliefs around Black women’s bodies dating back to Saartjie Baartman, a South African woman who was brought to London in 1810 and exhibited for onlookers to gawk at.
Two hundred years later, Black and Brown women are being driven to the “world’s most dangerous procedure” to achieve her now “ideal body type,” and like Saartjie, they are then shamed and gawked at mercilessly.
What can my Black ass do?
If you want a BBL, go for it. But(t)! This is not the time for a Groupon deal. Get a board certified surgeon you have vetted. It is too risky to not do so (read above).
Watch these very smart video essays by Black women on beauty: Instagram is Bad for Black Women, Beauty is a bad investment, The Reign of the Slim-Thick Influencer.
Be skeptical of the normalized ways we’ve welcomed weight obsession, diet culture and symptoms of body dysmorphia into our lives. Do you work out before a big meal so you are more “deserving,” how often do you weigh yourself, do you have anxiety when you are enjoying “bad food,” how often are you tracking the food and calories you’re eating, how much does your weight and how you look interfere with your day to day? Please know these are difficult questions for us because the answer to some is yes, but we’re glad to pose them to challenge the ways we’ve internalized shitty diet culture norms.
Don’t believe the wildly false notion that only cis rich white teenage girls are susceptible to body dysmorphia and disordered eating. Black 👏🏾 Women👏🏾 Are 👏🏾 Diagnosed👏🏾 With 👏🏾 Eating 👏🏾 Disorders! As are men, the elderly, children, fat people and poor people. Just because psychologists don’t bother to study us doesn't mean we are immune.
Understand the ways disordered eating shows up differently in Black communities.
Enjoy food. Food is not a special treat, it’s not a cheat, it’s not this or that, it’s food for your body to sustain itself.
We are inundated with images of unrealistic bodies, and the wellness industry has become a trojan horse for diet culture. That we have a fucked relationship with our bodies and/or food is to be expected. Be gentle with yourself and remember nourished, healthy bodies come in different sizes.
II. Other Things: 2Fast2Curious
We wanted to understand the hype and have decided to watch the Fast & Furious series for the first time in our Black-ass lives. There is no plot so far in the first three films, just cars, zoom zoom, family and respect, and we LOVE it.
You MUST review this thread of times Tyrese has been wild on and off social media.
The Rock improv’d this line in the movies and Ludacris and I (Mitu) both lost our faculties when we heard it the first time.
Do you remember when Vin Diesel danced to Bey and Katy Perry?
Vin Diesel recently walked goddaughter and late co-star Paul Walker’s daughter Meadow down the aisle at her wedding. Jordana Brewster was also in attendance. FAMILY FIRST.
A deeper dive from NPR into the franchise and why it is wonderful.
Reply to this email and tell us your thoughts on these perfect movies.
Our Black-Ass song(s) of the week (Mitu):
I know she is problematic but I am enjoying Summer’s Ex For A Reason ft. JT.
Things we look forward to / don’t look forward to:
Just a few weeks from turning 34, I (Jumoke) got carded! I look forward to being young and fresh foreveerrrr. A youth, that's who I am!
I (Mitu) look forward to Fast & Furious 4. I hope there is no plot, only Dom, vroom vroom and Family.
lll. Text from a Black-Ass Parent
My (Jumoke’s) dad just wants you to be good.
Stay Black, thrive and have a nice day wherever you are! We'll hit your inbox next on November 8.