Black American women are exposed to mainstream beauty standards, which may have implications for body image satisfaction. Given that beauty standards are often based on idealized depictions of White women’s physical features, scholars have called for body image research that extends beyond body type/weight (e.g., skin tone/hair) to better examine the experiences of Black women. In examining body image satisfaction and protective factors (e.g., ethnic identity), empirical research has yet to attend to these experiences at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender. The current study used an online survey to examine whether womanist consciousness (WC) was a protective factor for Black American women (N = 211). Findings indicated that after controlling for ethnic identity, higher womanist consciousness significantly predicted higher body satisfaction with historically racially defined features (e.g., skin tone/hair) and lower self-ideal discrepancy. Darker skin tone was linked to higher body importance and higher ethnic identity level. Last, increased frequency of wearing hair weaves was associated with lower body satisfaction while more frequently wearing Afrocentric hair styles/textures was associated with higher body satisfaction.

美国黑人女性受到主流美容标准的影响，这可能会对身体形象满意度产生影响。鉴于美容标准通常基于对白人女性身体特征的理想化描述，学者们呼吁进行超越体型/体重（例如肤色/头发）的身体形象研究，以更好地检查黑人女性的经历。在检查身体形象满意度和保护因素（例如，种族认同）时，实证研究尚未关注种族/民族和性别交叉点的这些体验。目前的研究使用了一项在线调查来检查女权意识 (WC) 是否是美国黑人女性的保护因素 ( N =211)。研究结果表明，在控制种族身份后，较高的女性主义意识显着预测了对历史种族特征（例如，肤色/头发）的较高身体满意度和较低的自我理想差异。较深的肤色与较高的身体重要性和较高的种族认同水平有关。最后，穿发辫的频率增加与较低的身体满意度相关，而更频繁地佩戴非洲中心发型/质地与较高的身体满意度相关。