PUBLIC STATEMENT: First and foremost, I want to apologize to all of individuals for using pictures without your permission. I want to also apologize to the entire Howard community for a careless article that was poorly constructed and didn’t even begin to articulate the point I was trying to make. I plan on reaching out personally so I can resolve the mistake that I have made. I wasn’t trying to call anyone out or even gain clicks, but that’s what happened. I had a message I wanted to be known and I did a very poor job in constructing what it was that I had to say, made poor judgement, and offended a LOT of people. Those were not my intentions, and with that I have reconstructed my article to say what it is that I really wanted to say, and know I will be hit with criticism, but I no longer regret putting my writing out there for everyone to see, and that the point I am making is exactly the message I want to send.
Thank you so much for your support and dragging me back in the right direction. ;)
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#HowardGirlsDoItBetter...what comes to mind when you hear this? When I first saw this hashtag, I thought wow! Beautiful, Black, educated women doing their thing and looking amazing at that. It made me even more excited to come to Howard because I had never been in an environment where showcasing these qualities were acceptable or even possible for that matter.
It wasn’t until I got here that I noticed a trend within my freshmen class, #HU19, that I am able to observe firsthand.
Now, Howard University is known for showing out when it comes to fashion for reasons such as networking, staying “on” at all times, etc. It’s been that way since this school opened. It was a matter of Black Excellence, being Black and educated, all in one. This is what Howard University has represented for years!
And I love that concept. I love popping out so I can look good while I grind, and I make sure if I’m too busy that I’ll at least look presentable if a spontaneous opportunity were to arise. People respect people that respect their image and how they are seen. I feel this to be very true, and there isn’t one set way for a person to mold their own personal image. But with hashtags like #HowardGirlsDoItBetter and the pictures that reign behind them, it’s no wonder there’s some sort of unrealistic standard our Howard Freshman feel they have to uphold - at parties, in classes, at Punch Out, on the Yard, wherever it may be.
For example, you see a Howard girl on Twitter, “popping out”, with a beat face and some bomb shoes and nice weave. Not saying all Howard women look like that, of course not. But then I keep scrolling and I see another Howard girl, with a beat face as well, gorgeous in fact, headed to wherever it is that she’s going. She looks good and in my head I’m like huh, maybe I should beat my face too. And lastly I see a photo of a group of girls, heading to a party in their club fit and stilettos. Personally, do you. Wear what you want, put whatever it is you want on your face, but the point that I’m getting at is when you look at Howard women on social media via #HowardGirlsDoItBeter, you get a very limited supply of what Howard has to offer. There are hundreds of pictures associated with this hashtag, and I can’t speak for all of them, but I can speak for the majority of the photos that I’ve seen personally.
We Freshman see that on social media, which has a very strong influence on the Howard community, and then we say to ourselves, we have to look like that too. “I have to ‘glo up’ before I can step foot into a que party.” “I need to buy a new dress, I have to get some weave so I can look like these Howard girls.” All of these things I’ve heard have morphed a reputation of dressing for success to dressing simply because it’s an obligation to look this way. Due to that shift in which I have seen, I have seen some in School of B, in my classes, everywhere look like the girls from the hashtag, and they are beautiful, and their fashion sense is bomb. But I also see them struggling in classes, some only doing the bare minimum to get to classes, SOB students not taking the “wear your business suit to class” concept seriously; they only need it for the grade. What has our Howard mentality come to?
Hence, my title. Some Howard girls just want to pop out, and this is the new reality. It’s a very superficial trend that needs to be broken. It’s like yes, #HowardGirlsDoItBetter celebrates and takes pride in the beauty of our Black, educated women of Howard, but it does so in some sort of disillusionment that all Howard girls and women are meant to look a certain way in order to keep up with the trend of “popping out”, and there’s so much more to that at Howard. There are so many opportunities, and so much importance and significance in how Howard students carry themselves and what phenomenal things a Howard student goes off to do. There’s work to be done behind the suit.
This is a trend that needs to be broken, and seeing this instance of a budding problem is the first step to reevaluating why it is we, as Freshman, came to Howard, and if that reason is solely based upon being cute, and of course, popping out. If it is based on being cute and upholding a controversial norm, then that’s a problem. The biggest message I want you to get out of this, for #HU19 freshman females in particular(and even the guys), is that “popping out” may be what you see and what Howard is known for, but don’t shorthand the work you got to put in that goes with that look.
