The Essence article highlighted Black women in the 20th century. This article is so liberating because it touches on topics of feminism and beauty standards. When beauty standards are discussed, usually one thinks of American ideologies, and those ideologies are promoting and specific towards white women only. The New York Times decided to highlight Black women, which is very special. The beauty standards included in this article discussed nothing but positivity. Including natural hair and adding photos are darker skinned women. Since publishing this magazine, Essence’s company grew as well. This article is so significant because the beauty standards portrayed are rebellious, but beautiful. In the 20th century, Black women did a lot with their hair, but one thing they did was “relax” or perm their hair, which made it processed. For this magazine to only have natural haired women says a lot about the promotion of beauty standards for Black women.
The right newspaper article about Zora Neal Hurston describes her work ethic and personality. Within the article, it is discussed that she is in Haiti working on her fourth book. In one of my secondary sources, Hurston also occurs. She is described by her passing, which stated that she died living in poverty. I find this statement to be very interesting because she was such a successful woman. Not only within the Black community, but outside of that as well. I wanted to use this source to describe social theories of race and gender. Even though Hurston made many successes with the Harlem Renaissance and her books, she was still a Black woman, which lowered her chances of being successful completely. I wanted to utilize this article in order to highlight her success and happiness, while also connecting this to her years to come and passing as well. The article is also very significant to understand how hard she worked and dedicated she was to relay a message through her books.