ABSTRACT
White women 'stars' like Madonna, Sandra Bernhard, and many publicly named their interest in, and appropriation of, black culture as yet another sign of their radical chic. For masses of black women, the political reality that underlies Madonna's and our recognition that this is a society where 'blondes' not only 'have more fun' however, where they are more likely to succeed in any endeavor is and racism. In this sense Madonna has much in common with the masses of black women who suffer from internalized racism and are forever terrorized by a standard of beauty they feel they can never truly embody. Like many black women who have stood outside the culture's fascination with the blonde beauty and who have only been able to reach it through imitation and artifice, Madonna often recalls that she was a working-class white-girl who saw herself as ugly, as outside the mainstream beauty standard.
