A lot of black women put up an exterior that says: “Everything is together. ‘I’m fine. Perfect. Don’t worry about me. Keep it moving.’ That is the trend,” Andrews says. “Put on new stilettos. Put on a mask of bitchiness.” But that image — prevalent in both the media and the workplace, Andrews believes — is one-dimensional.
“When people think about black women, they have only one adjective for us, which is ‘strong,’ ” Andrews says. “The girl you see walking down the street looks like she has it all together,” but she may not.
Helena Andrews is the author of the unreleased book and soon to be movie Bitch is the New Black. She writes about women in the Washington, D.C. area “who appear to have everything: looks, charm, Ivy League degrees, great jobs. Closets packed full of fabulous clothes; fabulous condos in fabulous gentrified neighborhoods; fabulous vacations, fabulous friends. And yet they are lonely: Their lives are repetitive, desperate and empty.”
Honestly I seems like my worst nightmare is being put into book form.
I’m still in college working toward this lifestyle and I already feel the weight of many of her words and sentiments. The disappointment she describes in the article is something my best friends and I talk about all the time. So what is the solution? That is the question that will probably never be answered. At the end of the day it will probably just be written off as another bitter black woman writing about other bitter black woman looking for sympathy. I look forward to the books release in 2010 along with the response it receives.