The Fetishisation of Lupita Nyong'o

[ismnotwasm]

I have to admit this is creeping me out as well. Combine that with the " White Privledge" deniers, and I'm more than creeped out. It's actually frightening. And I'm white.

Lupita Nyong’o won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress last night, for her powerful role in 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen. Go Lupita!
But lately I’ve been feeling a little fatigued by the “Oh-my-god-Lupita-Nyong’o-is-so-beautiful-I-can’t-DEAL-WITH-IT” attitude.

The current fad-like coverage of the Kenyan actress, overshadows the more interesting aspects of her background; the things that do not get reported. True, I assumed she was a nobody until this slave narrative film, but a quick skim of Wikipedia reveals the stuff that the media isn’t all that interested in.

Black and white people alike are enamoured with Nyong’o for, what I believe, are different reasons. Black people are proud that Nyong’o crushed it in her portrayal of Patsey and I’m personally excited that we’ve got another black woman winning major acting awards. White people seems to be most preoccupied with Nyong’o's exotic looks and I think that’s something we, as a society, need to address.

For those who didn’t know, Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico City and hails from an affluent family of artists, doctors and scholars. She attended Hampshire College, here in the states, and graduated with a degree in film and theater studies. She’s also a Yale graduate and a polyglot, fluent in several languages.

What I was excited to know was that Nyong’o actually wrote, directed and produced a documentary, in 2009, called In My Genes, where she investigates how Africans with albinism experience life in the predominately black Kenya. I was stoked to know this because all I’ve seen of Lupita Nyong’o, is how beautiful she is on every red carpet she walks. Which is wonderful because Nyong’o is indeed quite beautiful! But she’s also extremely talented in other, more important ways.

I’m also weirded out by the onslaught of white people who are just plain gob-smacked by her exquisiteness. I’ve received an enormous amount of trending Facebook articles from various fashion sources that seem almost amazed by how beautiful Lupita is. It irks me that people don’t find it ironic how Nyong’o has preformed one of the most gut-wrenching representations of an enslaved black woman. Her character, Patsey, shows the reality of an enslaved body; this body is allowed to be ogled, worked to death, beaten, and raped. This body does not belong to Patsey and for some reason, it feels as though Nyong’o's body doesn’t belong to her either.

http://www.blackfeminists.org/2014/03/05/the-fetishisation-of-lupita-nyongo/