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Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts
by
Ayana Byrd ,
Sonia Sanchez
Provocative essays on body image by black women.
Candid, witty, and insightful, Naked is a compelling collection of essays that captures what today's black women think about their bodies-from head to toe.
Tackling such issues as hair texture, skin color, weight, and sexuality, it follows women on their paths to acceptance-and enjoyment -of their unique features...to a pl...more
Candid, witty, and insightful, Naked is a compelling collection of essays that captures what today's black women think about their bodies-from head to toe.
Tackling such issues as hair texture, skin color, weight, and sexuality, it follows women on their paths to acceptance-and enjoyment -of their unique features...to a pl...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
August 2nd 2005
by Perigee Trade
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Aug 27, 2007
Demetria
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
black women and anyone who is interested in the intersectionality of black women's lives
Shelves:
non-fiction
This book is a compilation of essays written by black women about black women. Writers, doctors, inmates, rappers, video vixens, college students and women from so many other walks of life, offer up their personal stories. The essays pretty much revolve around issues of identity and sexuality and self-confidence. Most of the essays are very well-written and offer compelling, diverse real life stories that most black women (and maybe most women) could relate to on some level. Some of the pieces a...more
"Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Lips, and Other Parts" by Akiba Solomon and Ayana Byrd is a compilation of essays that articulates the black female experience. As a black woman, I found it easy to invest my emotions in the text, and in much of the writings I could see myself and people I know. Even though the essays are exclusively by black women, the sources are diverse. Women from all regions of the African diaspora were represented, as were socio-economic backgrounds, sex...more
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Naked strips away all the mystery surrounding the thoughts held by black women about their bodies. Often raised in a subculture that is not tolerant of a woman sharing their fears, reservations and insecurities about their bodies African American ladies have had to long keep their thoughts to themselves, at least until now. Often over-sexualized in music and videos, Naked sheds a rainbow of light on the way black women from all walks of life, view their bodies, from Melyssa Ford and Jill Scott t...more
This is one of those texts that should be required reading for adolescents (girls and boys) and African American youths, in particular.
All of the essays were written by Black women brave enough to voice their views, issues and personal experiences with/on topics like the concept of beauty, the complexities of African American hair and skin color, sexual behavior, dating choices, body image and weight. The contributors included entertainers, writers, scholars, professionals, activists and a numbe...more
All of the essays were written by Black women brave enough to voice their views, issues and personal experiences with/on topics like the concept of beauty, the complexities of African American hair and skin color, sexual behavior, dating choices, body image and weight. The contributors included entertainers, writers, scholars, professionals, activists and a numbe...more
One day, long ago, my husband suggested a book for me to read with the glowing praise of "this is the type of book you might like." Not believing he had even paid attention to any of the books I read, I responded with a question. "What type of books do I like?" He paused and said "You know, about women." I grimaced. My husband, who is a pretty intelligent man, could only recommend a book to me based on the fact that it was about "women." He couldn't even fully explain what he meant by that. I di...more
i was looking in the olympia library's very small "color" non-fiction section, trying to find something written by native women. all i found was a book full of edward s. curtis photos about native women's "ancient spiritualness." i passed on that book because i took it home once and discovered it was written by white folks and very static. like native women don't wear jeans and drive cars.
anyway nothing on the shelves by native identified women, but i did find Naked. an amazing raw real and curr...more
anyway nothing on the shelves by native identified women, but i did find Naked. an amazing raw real and curr...more
A very thought provoking and readable collection by various black women, some of whom are celebrities and some of whom are just regular folk. There were some essays about body image, love, sex, gaining weight, losing weight, hair, skin colour and the media. I found this book rather empowering and would recommend it to many.
Every black woman who finds herself struggling with who she is as a black woman and what her place is in a world of images that do not look like us should read this book. It's a times funny, at times sad, but utimately uplifting. I was glad to have read it, but wish that I read it many, many years before.
This book relates to ALL women. The stories are about African-American women but in most cases we can just substitue ourselves, what ever our color. Under the color of our skin we are closer than we think.
This book is phenomenal. There was so much in it that I could identify with. It's a must-have for every black female.
This book is very touching. Phenomenal. A lot of black women I know can identify with this greatly.
This touched my heart.
FANTASTIC!
We African American women share so much. I recognized myself in a lot of these essays. It's amazing how much baggage we carry as a result of the racism and sexism that are the legacy of slavery.
Accepting yourself
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Ayana Byrd is a writer and editor living in Brooklyn, New York. A Phi Beta kappa graduate of Columbia University's Barnard college, she is an entertainment journalist whose work has appeared in Vibe, Rolling Stone, Honey, TV Guide and Paper magazines.
Aside from writing, Byrd has appeared on numerous panels, including Harvard University's Black Arts Festival and Barnard College's Scholar and the Fe...more
More about Ayana Byrd...
Aside from writing, Byrd has appeared on numerous panels, including Harvard University's Black Arts Festival and Barnard College's Scholar and the Fe...more
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