Ask Code Switch: What Does Race Have To Do With Beauty?

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This time of year, folks are being inundated with messages about how to become more beautiful. But beauty is an ever-changing goalpost that has everything do with race, class and power.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Code Switch from MPR.
0:02.3	I'm Karen Googsby-Bates.
0:04.4	It's that time of year when a lot of people are looking in the mirror,
0:07.4	seeing some new wrinkles, maybe a few gray hairs.
0:11.0	I know I have.
0:12.4	Winter has made our skin dry and dull, and we think to ourselves,
0:16.3	it is time for a new beauty routine.
0:18.6	New year, new me, neutral, right?
0:21.6	But the things we do to make ourselves more beautiful,
0:24.8	and the reason we think of certain features as beautiful,
0:28.1	is never neutral.
0:29.4	And it has everything to do with race, class, culture.
0:33.9	So today we're bringing you one of our favorite past episodes.
0:36.9	It's all about beauty, and we suggest you listen
0:40.2	before you start doom scrolling, looking for
0:42.6	individual deals on plastic, surgery, and wrinkle filler.
0:45.8	No judgment, though.
0:46.9	You do you.
0:48.0	Alrighty, on with the show.
0:49.9	Here's Gene.
0:52.7	Shrine.
0:54.2	Who's the most beautiful person that you can think of?
	...

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