Brazilian Barbie: Racist Beauty Standards

Apologies Accepted

Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel, Xuxa for short, is a world famous entertainer, singer, model, and businesswoman. She's worth over $300 million dollars thanks to her talents and it all started thanks to her looks. She was (and still is) beautiful. Tall, thin, blond, and white, she not only met the beauty standard, she raised it. People called her the Barbie of Brazil and her fans around the world adored her for her beauty and charm.

Recently Xuxa issued an apology for being used by corporations and the entertainment industry to reinforce racialized beauty standards. Brazil is a country filled with people of many colors, but on Xuxa's show everyone was white. Over the years Xuxa has realized that not only was she used to reinforce a racialized beauty standard, but that she inadvertently contributed to making non-white unbeautiful people feel bad about themselves. She's take it all back if she could, but she's keeping the money!

Is Xuxa really sorry, or is this a chance to grab some headlines now that the Barbie movie is set to become the top grossing box office film of all time?