This is a paper I wrote for my class on the Global History of Race. The prompt was to answer the question: “In what ways have the legacies of colonialism and slavery continued to impact racial ideologies beyond the eras of emancipation and national independence?” I chose to write about how the effects of colonialism perpetuated the patriarchy.

    A common misconception lies around the idea that colonialism is a thing of the past and only exists nowadays in the context of history classes. Contrary to this belief, the legacies of colonialism manifests itself in our day-to-day lives through systemic racism, violence against minority groups, and global beauty standards. A distinct pattern emerges as we explore the experiences of women in Brazil and India, revealing a theme of the exploitation of non-white womens’ sexuality. This exploitation, rooted in the history of colonialism, has played a significant role in fueling the rapid growth of the beauty industry, which favors European features, as well as patriarchal norms. Two specific examples this paper will delve into are the lives of Chica da Silva, a former enslaved Brazilian woman who lived during the eighteenth century, and how the Dalit women in India have been treated in both the past and present. 

    Studying Chica da Silva’s life uncovers both her strategic navigation of the stereotypes surrounding black women’s sensuality and the idea of rejecting her “blackness” by physically whitewashing herself to climb the social ladder, becoming the most powerful and wealthy woman in her area. To do this, according to the most common retelling of her story, which is often romanticized, she and João Fernandes, the man who enslaved her, had fallen in love. He granted her freedom on Christmas Day, and they eventually got married and had thirteen children together. Their children also wholly rejected their African ancestry, grew up in white society, and eventually went on to marry individuals of white descent. What this narrative suggests is that in Brazil, race is more fluid and something that an individual can escape from because of its roots in social class. In contrast, in the United States, the common misconception is that race is inextricable and embedded in nature. 

    Chica da Silva’s life illustrates perfectly Gilberto Freyre’s point that “sexual relations[between slaves and slaveholders] were much more fluid on Brazilian plantations than in the US.”¹ This idea stemmed from the fact that when Portuguese settlers first arrived in Brazil, there was a scarcity of white women available for marriage in the country, leading to a situation very similar to what we observed in France. What essentially happened in France was that non-white women were seen as “tools” that French men married in order to continue their family lines. In Brazil, it was the same idea, except with enslaved women, and the “philosophy” behind it was that this practice would, over time, whiten the gene pool. Already, the “white race” is being put on this pedestal and essentially being seen as “dominant” or desired. 

    A very similar, if not identical, idea that European or “white” features are beautiful was also illustrated when Chica da Silva physically whitewashed herself to fit into society. This is reflected in modern-day beauty standards in Brazil and how fair skin and European/white facial features are desired, making Brazil a world leader in the plastic surgery industry. ²

   Similarly, the theory of intersectionality can be applied to the situation of Dalit women in India “whose lives are at the intersection of at least three systems of inequality: gender, social class, and caste,”³ offering valuable insight into the way they are perceived in society and in general. Because of their low status, “incidents of gang rape, stripping, and parading women naked through the streets, as well as making them eat excrement, are all crimes that have been reported against Dalit women in India.”⁴ Even today, access to healthcare, education, and subsistence wages for these women are incredibly disproportionate to women from higher castes. Additionally, “sexual abuse and other forms of violence against [these] women are often used by landlords and the police to inflict political ‘lessons’ within the community.⁵” Historically, Dalit women whose male relatives are sought by the police have also been reported to have been arrested and tortured in custody as a way to punish their relatives. These instances suggest that Dalit women were seen as “bargaining chips” who would be punished, even if they had nothing to do with the crime. In other words, they were not seen as individuals but as a fraction of their male relatives who would be at the receiving end of punishment. These instances, the idea of the patriarchy is perpetuated because male lives are seen as too “valuable” to reap their own consequences, violence against their female relatives is wrongly inflicted.

     The Indian caste system and British colonization played a significant role in constructing the building blocks of modern beauty standards, which led to significant success in the makeup industry. Historically, people from a higher caste typically did little to no work that required them to spend time outside, resulting in lighter skin because they did not get a tan. On the flip side, people from a lower caste spent more time working in the fields and doing menial labor and, naturally, got a tan. Obviously, because of the melanin present in South Asian skin, these tans will manifest in significantly darker skin, and what is really interesting is how, in the West, tans are desired. But, in Asia and South America, because of the effects of colonization, it is undesired. The British also saw the caste system as advantageous to them economically because “it was possible to classify all of the various groups of indigenous people according to their ability, as reflected by caste, to be of service to [them].”⁶ They also brought with them the idea that color was a distinguisher of human worth and “promoted the idea that their skin color was part of the justification for their dominance over Indian people.” ⁷They also drew a connection between their prejudice against skin color and differences in skin color between higher and lower castes, asserting that lighter skin was inherently better. Today, skin-lightening creams are a “$200,000  industry in India”⁸ and a billion-dollar industry globally. What stands out to me is how so much monetary success has come from an ideology with a dark past rooted in the exploitation of power and, like all unrealistic beauty standards, has such a negative impact on women’s lives today. 

   Women’s rights have been a part of the global discourse for decades. Still, its colonial roots in the treatment of women of color and the Eurocentric beauty standards developed during this time are often overlooked and, in some cases, even entirely ignored. Why? Because it involves scrutinization of colonialist ambitions and the way European settlers treated indigenous peoples, and most would like to believe that era is long gone. 

1.  “Brazil: A Racial Paradise,” Directed by Ricardo Pollack, Public Broadcasting Service, 2011, documentary, https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/brazil-a-racial-paradise-4. ↩︎
2.  “Brazil: A Racial Paradise.” ↩︎
3.  Judy Root Aulette, “The Caste System in India,” in A Global View of Race and Racism, (Oxford University Press, 2017), 73. ↩︎
4.  Aulette, “Caste System in India,” 73. ↩︎
5.  Aulette, “Caste System in India,” 73. ↩︎
6.  Aulette, “Caste System in India,” 69. ↩︎
7.  Aulette, “Caste System in India,” 70. ↩︎
8.  Aulette, “Caste System in India,” 70. ↩︎