Daphne S. Valerius is the writer, director, and producer of the documentary The Souls of Black Girls, a film which interrogates whether Black women in America have a self image disorder.
I saw the film at the center of the Black woman’s intellectual universe, a.k.a., Spelman College (I’m a grad and very, very biased) last fall, with the members of my Images of Women in the Media class. The funny thing was that the film wasn’t revelatory for us, as veterans of Black female discourse. Being at Spelman for four years, you learn all about The Hottentot Venus, Shirley Chisolm, Alice Walker and womanism, etc. But what we did realize, is that for a young Black girl, 14 or 15, seeing the film might shed light on some new issues. Many young girls do not know that thinness, or straight hair, or light skin, while considered norms to some, do not have to be so.
Please let all the young women of color in your life know about this film.
~Kyla Marshell, Intern
