Where Did Vanessa Williams Get Her Blue Eyes?
Pieter Maas
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Five People with Blue Eyes 1. The photo captures our attention because the African boy’s eyes are blue. Theuns, the four-year-old boy, is dark skinned with huge, startlingly light blue eyes. His unusual eyes command ours. His gaze is innocent, slightly frightened, as he looks up at the camera.
Ours is demanding–we must know how he got those pale blue eyes. The Boy with the Sapphire Eyes was published in Africa Geographic in 2012, Vanessa Bristow, a photographer living near a remote area of communal lands in an unnamed African country, writes that she encountered Theuns while looking for her dog.
She asked his mother for permission to take his picture. It sparked international attention and, along with it, reader questions about whether the picture had been photo-shopped (it had not, according to Bristow). It is unlikely that the photo would have been published on Africa Geographic if Theuns’ eyes were brown.
- The uniqueness of his eyes makes the photo newsworthy—a study in contrasts.
- Arguments broke out in the comment section, more than 150 comments–disputes about genetics and race.
- Accusations of “blatant photo shopping” and a “doctored” photograph were hurled at the photographer.
- Surely, readers implied, those eyes can’t possibly belong to Theuns, despite the fact that they are part of his face and his most dominant feature.
They struggled to make sense of his eyes, which don’t seem to match his blackness. Tethered to the notion that blue eyes are at home only on a white face, in their minds he must have stolen those eyes from their rightful owner. Bristow went back to take another picture of the boy a week later, and again his eyes were the same color as in the first photo.
This time, a shy smile covered Theuns’ face. The eyes were still distinctly his own.2. I was about 14 when I became aware of America’s fixation with blue eyes as a symbol of beauty. American fashion magazines, with which I was obsessed, seemed to feature a disproportionate number of cover girls with blue eyes.
In the 1980s, covers were shot close up, with only the model’s face showing, unlike today when models are posed full-body, often with a group four or five models on a single cover. In those days, the eyes were a central focus of the heavily airbrushed covers staring back at me from magazine stands.
- More than any other, it was Brooke Shields, star of The Blue Lagoon, whose face graced thousands of international magazine covers, that I thought was the most beautiful girl in the world.
- The contrast of her long brown hair, slightly upturned nose and wide-set blue eyes captivated the press. And me.
- Would Brooke Shields have rocketed to fame if she’d had brown eyes? We’ll never know, but her unassailable good looks sold magazines.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we have been conditioned to accept a rigid standard of attractiveness. We the beholders, no matter our color, internalize these rigid standards so intensely we bleach our skin, wear colored contacts and attach hair cut from other women to our heads.
- My African American mom used to tell my sister and me, “I’m glad you girls have dark brown eyes like mine.
- It makes you look more like me.” My dad, with his green eyes and white skin, didn’t seem bothered by her blunt remark.
- It was the late 1960s and my mom participated in the Civil Rights Movement mostly by organizing protests against police brutality.
She stopped straightening her hair with lye and wore a medium-sized afro. “Black is Beautiful,” she’d remind us, repeating one of the most compelling slogans of the movement. We played with black dolls when she could find them. Our hair was thick and curly, never relaxed, even as we became teenagers.
- Maybe because of my mom’s efforts, I don’t remember wanting blue eyes as much as admiring them, trying to figure out why they were a feature of privilege.
- I’d spend hours poring over every detail about Brooke Shields: what she ate for lunch, her lip gloss color, her Calvin Klein jeans.
- Shield’s prominent, perfectly symmetrical eyes seemed to be her only feature, despite the voluminous number of facts about her life I memorized.3.
In 1984, actress Vanessa Williams became the first African American to win the title of Miss America. Until 1970, Miss America stipulated contestants had to be “of the white race.” It was Williams’ blue eyes that stood out. They signaled that she was worthy of the crown.
- For a black woman to win, she needed those eyes, no matter how beautiful her face or how worthy her talent.
- Vanessa Williams’ blue eyes are no different than those of a white person.
- Blue eyes are a recessive trait.
- To have blue eyes means either both parents have blue eyes or one parent carries a recessive gene for blue eyes.
For too long in our country, when an African American woman gave birth to a child with blue eyes, it meant that she’d been a slave who had been raped by her owner. After slavery was abolished, interracial relationships remained taboo. Black men were lynched for merely looking at a white woman.
With such a violent, segregationist history, it’s not surprising that black or mixed people with blue eyes are uncommon. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court ruled in Loving vs. Virginia that marriage between blacks and whites was legal in the U.S. My parents married in 1963, and were allowed to do so only because they lived in California, one of a handful of states that allowed interracial marriage.4.
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison’s masterful work of fiction, Pecola, an eleven-year-old black girl, longs for blue eyes and idolizes Shirley Temple, whose whiteness she equates with beauty. Pecola believes her self-perceived ugliness is the result of her dark skin.
- Through a magical intervention, she is gifted blue eyes, a blessing in the mind of her benefactor: “Dear God I, I have caused a miracle.
- I gave her the eyes.
- I gave her the blue, blue, two blue eyes.
- Cobalt blue.
- A streak of it right out of your own blue heaven.
- No one else will see her blue eyes.
- But she will.
And she will live happily ever after,” says the omniscient third-person narrator. I was a college junior when I read The Bluest Eye. I remember our adjunct professor, a black woman, telling the small class of 15 black students, that it was Morrison’s finest work.
- She helped us understand how skillfully Morrison interrogates America’s obsession with blue eyes—and our country’s racism.
- It was, I thought, the best book I had ever read.
- It still is.
- Pecola’s blue eyes come with a price: her sanity.
- In the end, her metaphorical blue eyes don’t make Pecola beautiful as she’d hoped.
Instead, she descends into mental illness, unable to understand that having imaginary blue eyes doesn’t protect her from racism. She has lost her grip on reality, unable to withstand her own shame and self-hatred in the face of American racism in the 1940s.
- Like Pecola, Theuns, the African boy, possesses the primary feature of Western good looks.
- I wonder what his life is like.
- Do Africans fixate on his eyes? Or will that be left to the readers of Africa Geographic ? 5.
- Through the fluke of genetics, my white, blue-eyed husband and I gave our son blue eyes.
Carson, now 16, is brown-skinned with eyes the color of sparkling Caribbean waters. When he was younger, strangers would sometimes ask me if he was mine. The supermarket cashier and the dad in line at bakery wanted answers. The couple walking past our table at a café who impulsively stopped, stared and began to ask the inevitable question about whose kid he was.
Is he yours? Stunned whenever this happened, I wondered if people realized how insensitive it is to ask a mother that question in front of her child. Other times, they tried to be more diplomatic by asking me where Carson got his blue eyes. Where did he get those gorgeous blue eyes? The rudest strangers asked Carson the question directly.
Honey, where did you get those blue eyes? Carson would refuse to respond, averting his eyes or staring up at them, unblinking. Politely, I explained more times than I should have that my husband has blue eyes. After years of these encounters, I know their real questions are about miscegenation —the mixing of races.
They want to know the identity of the white person who gave Carson his eyes. These strangers weren’t asking to start a friendly conversation with a mom and her young son. They put their curiosity about a mixed-race child above our right to privacy, our right to shop unbothered or eat uninterrupted at a restaurant.
These questions are only asked by white people. They find Carson’s eyes unsettling. Beautiful, sure. But, unsettling. Black people can instantly tell my son is mixed-race. White people are often uncertain. Blue eyes on a black boy, whether it is Theuns or Carson, make them uneasy.
- Now that Carson is 16, he’s too big to be accosted by random white people in public and quizzed about his eye color.
- He’s well on his way to becoming a black man, who must be careful shopping, walking, driving, existing.
- The beauty of Carson’s eyes, far beyond their color, is that he has the exact same blue eyes as my husband.
They are their eyes–the feature that undeniably bonds them as father and son. : Five People with Blue Eyes
What is the real color of Vanessa Williams eyes?
Actress Vanessa Williams has Baby blue eyes. Actor Chris Williams the brother of Vanessa Williams has true blue eyes Boxer Suga Shane Mosley has grey eyes. Actress Stacey Dash i – : photos of people with beautiful eyes – Google Search | Black girl green eyes, Dark green eyes, Girl with green eyes
Are Tyra Banks eyes real?
10 Celebs Who Embraced Coloured Lenses One of the coolest things about style is that it’s fundamentally evolutionary, changing to fit you, a trend, or both. We can match our clothes and accessories or wear one bold thing for more focus on your outfit.
- But the ability to change our eyes with coloured contact lenses can be as important in pulling together a look or perhaps creating a different you for a hot minute.
- Actors, models, and musicians have all been known to dabble in the world of coloured lenses either subtly or outrageously.
- Some do it for a role, others just for a cool change.
Here are ten celebs who have switched up their eye colour to inspire you: Everyone’s favourite Friend is a natural brown-haired, brown-eyed girl who has been known to wear blue or green contact lenses depending on how light her hair is.
The model and former partner to some of hip-hop’s most well-known MCs (Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa) has deep brown eyes but switches up her colour with icy blues and sometimes even white lenses to give her a bit of an ethereal look.
Angelina Jolie: actress, director, humanitarian, and overall one of the world’s most famous humans. Jolie has striking features overall with a lot focus on her piercing eyes. Jolie has naturally blue eyes but is known to wear lenses to make her eyes appear green. The queen of Smizing may have a secret explaining why her eyes are so expressive in photos. Supermodel/mogul Tyra Banks has natural hazel eyes that are further enhanced with subtle green lenses to sharpen her gaze.
This iconic supermodel is known to drastically switch up her look all the time, and that includes her eye colour. Campbell can go from brunette to blonde in a flash and from brown eyes to blue just as quick. Famous socialite-turned-DJ Paris Hilton is known to pair her sweet blonde locks with opaque grey coloured lenses to make her natural browns appear blue. Kim Kardashian-West and Kanye West
During Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary show, the Wests showed up with deep blue coloured lenses that were both terrifying and awesome. Kim posted to Instagram this startling change with the caption “Wolves,” a shoutout to the song ‘Ye sang during the show.
If you remember Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” you’ll also remember her giant doe eyes. Those aren’t natural. Turns out eye enhancement via lens isn’t just limited to colour; you can also make them pop a little bit more by playing with iris size.
To look more vampiric, actor Robert Pattinson switched up his naturally grey-blue eyes for topaz in the Twilight movies. His skin wasn’t the only sparkly thing about him in that movie.
Actor Wesley Snipes doesn’t always go all-natural. For the 1993 movie Demolition Man, Snipes traded up his natural brown for purple coloured eyes. If you’re looking to add a splash of colour to your daily style in a fresh way, start with your eyes with the help of, Terms of Service and,”},”cetDataVars”: }> Subscribe to our lifestyle email. Realness delivered to your inbox By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our and, : 10 Celebs Who Embraced Coloured Lenses
Who inherits blue eyes?
Before you request a paternity test, spend a few minutes looking at your child’s eye color. It may just give you the answer you’re looking for. According to Bruno Laeng and colleagues, from the University of Tromso, Norway, the human eye color reflects a simple, predictable and reliable genetic pattern of inheritance.
Their studies 1, published in the Springer journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, show that blue-eyed men find blue-eyed women more attractive than brown-eyed women. According to the researchers, it is because there could be an unconscious male adaptation for the detection of paternity, based on eye color.
The laws of genetics state that eye color is inherited as follows:
If both parents have blue eyes, the children will have blue eyes. The brown eye form of the eye color gene (or allele) is dominant, whereas the blue eye allele is recessive. If both parents have brown eyes yet carry the allele for blue eyes, a quarter of the children will have blue eyes, and three quarters will have brown eyes.
It then follows that if a child born to two blue-eyed parents does not have blue eyes, then the blue-eyed father is not the biological father. It is therefore reasonable to expect that a man would be more attracted towards a woman displaying a trait that increases his paternal confidence, and the likelihood that he could uncover his partner’s sexual infidelity.
Eighty-eight male and female students were asked to rate facial attractiveness of models on a computer. The pictures were close-ups of young adult faces, unfamiliar to the participants. The eye color of each model was manipulated, so that for each model’s face two versions were shown, one with the natural eye color (blue/brown) and another with the other color (brown/blue).
The participants’ own eye color was noted. Both blue-eyed and brown-eyed women showed no difference in their preferences for male models of either eye color. Similarly, brown-eyed men showed no preference for either blue-eyed or brown-eyed female models.
- However, blue-eyed men rated blue-eyed female models as more attractive than brown-eyed models.
- In a second study, a group of 443 young adults of both sexes and different eye colors were asked to report the eye color of their romantic partners.
- Blue-eyed men were the group with the largest proportion of partners of the same eye color.
According to Bruno Laeng and colleagues, “It is remarkable that blue-eyed men showed such a clear preference for women with the same eye color, given that the present experiment did not request participants to choose prospective sexual mates, but only to provide their aesthetic or attractiveness responsesbased on face close-up photographs.” Blue-eyed men may have unconsciously learned to value a physical trait that can facilitate recognition of own kin.1.
What is the rarest of eye color?
Green Eyes – Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it’s been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don’t possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment. This effect makes the eyes look green, but they don’t actually have green pigmentation.
Did Queen Victoria have blue eyes?
Queen Victoria at Balmoral with her daughters Princess Alice and Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, beside a portrait of her late husband, Prince Albert, in 1863. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Born in 1819, Victoria was a fat, jolly baby, who as a toddler had the most appealing dimples and fair hair. A c1924 portrait of the future Queen Victoria as a child, holding a miniature of her future husband, Prince Albert, set into a bracelet. An engraving by J Thomson after John Lucas. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) At age 10 Victoria seemed “fresh and round like a red rosebud with flying curls and large luminous eyes”, according to Caroline Bauer, her Uncle Leopold’s mistress.
Who were Queen Victoria’s children? Everything you need to know about her sons and daughters
Queen Victoria with her husband, Prince Albert, and their nine children. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)
Are Megan Fox eyes blue?
Top 5 Most Gorgeous Eyes – Blooming Beauty – Permanent Makeup Songs and poems have been written about eyes for centuries now, yet nobody managed to perfectly capture their magic. Yes can be blue as ocean, brown as Mother Earth or green as emeralds, and these ladies have some of the most beautiful eyes on the Hollywood scene: It would be so wrong to talk about beautiful eyes, and not talk about Jolie’s blue eyes. Angelina, apart from her award-winning roles, humanitarian efforts and plump lips, is known for her gorgeous blue eyes which are considered one of the sexiest in the world.
No matter how many actresses come and go, Audrey Hepburn is always remembered as the true diva. Though officially recorded as brown, the real color of her eyes remains a mystery with co-actors and fans finding it green, gray, blue and even hazel.
The actor started off early, at the age of 15 in the hit TV series ‘That ‘70s Show’ and has ever since morphed into a gorgeous woman and an actress to reckon with. Kunis also suffers from heterochromia, which gives her two different eye colors. Her left is a vibrant green color, and her right eye is much darker, almost brown.
To say that Adriana Lima is the epitome of hot Latinas would probably not be an exaggerated statement. Her blue eyes are a reminder of Brazillian coastline where she was born. No wonder, the woman has been slaying it for years now. At 36, Lima is one of the longest serving Victoria’s Angel, and the face of brands like Maybelline and is known for racy Super Bowl and Kia Motors commercials.
When it comes to oozing raw sensuality, few can hold a candle to Megan Fox. Though she’s known for her appealing lips and figure, a major part of her sensuality actually comes from her deep blue eyes. She epitomizes the word femme fatale. : Top 5 Most Gorgeous Eyes – Blooming Beauty – Permanent Makeup
Does Angelina Jolie have blue eyes?
What is the real color of Angelina Jolie’s eyes? – Angelina Jolie Angelina, apart from her award-winning roles, humanitarian efforts and plump lips, is known for her gorgeous blue eyes which are considered one of the sexiest in the world. |
Does Kate Middleton have blue eyes?
What color eyes does Duchess Kate have? – Kate Middleton has hazel-green colour eyes, and dark brown hair, while Prince William has fair hair and blue eyes, and it seems each child takes after them in different ways. Prince George has dark brown eyes, which he appears to have inherited from the Middleton side of the family. |
Did Queen Victoria adopt a black daughter?
At the age of five, Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies, born into a Royal, West African dynasty, was taken to England and presented to Queen Victoria as a “gift” from one royal family to another. A unique and admired figure in history, she spent her life between the British royal household and her homeland in Africa.
– Sarah Forbes Bonetta Davies, a West African Yoruba girl, was captured by the King of Dahomey in 1848 during a “slave-hunt” war in which her parents were killed. In 1850, when she was around eight years old, she was rescued by Captain Frederick E Forbes of the Royal Navy whilst he was visiting Dahomey as an emissary of the British Government.
Forbes convinced King Ghezo of Dahomey to give Sarah to Queen Victoria saying: “She would be a present from the King of the Blacks to the Queen of the Whites.” The young girl was subsequently given the name Forbes as well as that of his ship, the ‘Bonetta’.
She returned to England with Forbes who presented her to Queen Victoria, who in turn gave her over to the Church Missionary Society to be educated. Sarah suffered from fragile health and in 1851 she returned to Africa to attend the Female Institution in Freetown, Sierra Leone. When she was 12 years old, Queen Victoria commanded that Sarah return to England, where she was placed under the charge of Mr and Mrs Schon at Chatham.
Queen Victoria was so impressed by the girl’s natural regal manner and her gift for academic studies, Literature, Art and Music that she gave her an allowance for her welfare and Sarah became a regular visitor to Windsor Castle. Sarah’s genius became admired throughout the royal court and she continued to outshine her tutors with her advanced abilities in all studies.
At the age of 18, Sarah received a proposal from James Pinson Labulo Davies, a 31 year old Yoruba businessman of considerable wealth who was living in Britain. She initially refused his proposal and it is reported that in order to persuade her to accept Sarah was sent to live with two elderly ladies in Brighton whose house she described as a “desolate little pig sty”.
Queen Victoria sanctioned Sarah to be married in St Nicholas Church in Brighton in August 1862. The wedding party, which arrived from West Hill Lodge, Brighton in ten carriages and pairs of grays, was made up of “White ladies with African gentlemen, and African ladies with White gentlemen” There were sixteen bridesmaids.
The newlyweds moved back to West Africa and Sarah was baptised at a church in the town of Badagry, a former slave port. They settled in Lagos where her husband became a member of the Legislative Council from 1872-74 (in which year Lagos Colony was for a time amalgamated into the Gold Coast). Shortly after her marriage, Sarah gave birth to a daughter and was granted permission by the Queen to name the child Victoria – the Queen also became her Godmother.
Sarah visited the Queen in 1867 with her daughter then returned to Lagos and had two more children. Later, upon Sarah’s death the Queen wrote in her diary: “Saw poor Victoria Davies, my black godchild, who learnt this morning of the death of her dear mother”.
- So proud was Queen Victoria of Sarah’s daughter, that when she passed her music examination, teachers and children had one day holiday.
- Throughout her life Sarah had a long lasting cough that was caused by the climate change between Africa and Britain.
- In 1880, suffering from tuberculosis, she went to convalesce in Madeira off of the coast of West Africa.
She died, around the age of 40, in 1880 and was buried in Funchal, Madiera. Her daughter Victoria was given an annuity by the Queen and she continued to visit the royal household throughout her life. In his journal Captain Forbes gave an account of his mission with relation to Miss Bonetta.
- I have only to add a few particulars about my extraordinary present The African child”.
- In a former portion of this journal I have mentioned the Okeadon war; one of the captives of this dreadful slave-hunt was this interesting girl.
- It is usual to reserve the best born for the high behest of royalty and the immolation on the tombs of the diseased nobility.
For one of these ends she had been detained at court for two years: proving, by her not having been sold to slave dealer, that she was of a good family. So extraordinary a present would have been at least burden, had I not the conviction that, in consideration of the nature of the service I had performed, the government would consider her as the property of the crown.
- To refuse, would have been to have signed her death warrant which, probably, would have been carried into execution forthwith.
- Immediately on arriving Of her own history she was only a confused idea.
- Her parents were decapitated; her brother and sisters she knows not what their fate might have been,
- For her age supposed to be eight years.
She is a perfect genius; she now speaks English well, and has a great talent for music. She has won the affections, with but few exceptions, of all who have known her, she is far in advance of any white child of her age, in aptness of learning, and strength of mind and affection.”
What color are Serena’s eyes?
Some Lesser Known Facts About Serena Williams –
Does Serena Williams smoke: No
Does Serena William drink Alcohol: Yes
When Serena Williams won the US Open in 1999, she became the first black woman to win a Grand Slam tournament since Althea Gibson in 1958.
The scenes of her first movie “Black Knight,” featuring Serena, were removed from the final cut.
Yetunde Price, Williams’s eldest sister was murdered in Los Angeles, in 2003.
In 2003, at the age of 31, Serena Williams became the oldest female Tennis player to be ranked No.1 since computer rankings began in 1975.
The Williams sisters starred in the reality TV series “Venus and Serena: For Real” which debuted in 2015.
In 2009, Serena was fined $82,500 and placed on probation for allegedly threatening a lines-woman. This was the largest punishment ever levied on a tennis player.
In 2009, Serena released her autobiography titled “Queen of the Court.”
In 2009, Serena Williams launched a signature collection of handbags and jewelry called “The Signature Statement” sold mainly on the Home Shopping Network.
In 2011, Serena underwent emergency treatment for a hematoma related to a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lungs.
She appeared in two Television series viz. “Trust us with your life” & “Drop dead diva”, in July 2012.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, she won two Gold medals, one each in the Women’s singles and Women’s doubles category- her first singles Gold medal.
Serena developed her own “Aneres” (Serena’s name spelled backward) clothing line.
Serena Williams has been ranked No.1 in the world five times and has earned more prize money than any other female tennis player.
Serena was a voice on the Playhouse Disney show “Higllytown Heroes.”
On 2 September 2022, she played her last match against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović at the US Open and lost in the third round. According to ESPN, the three-hour match averaged 4.8 million viewers, making it the most watched tennis match ever on the network; the match’s final set pulled in 6.9 million viewers during the quarter-hour between 10:15 and 11:00 pm.
Serena WilliamsFour matches in one week.A three hour final match.A 40-year-old mom.A 29-year-old opponent. Still the GOAT. 🐐 — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) : Serena Williams Height, Weight, Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More » StarsUnfolded
What was the real color of Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes?
Elizabeth Taylor Eyes Earrings – Getty Images The real answer: They were not purple at all, but a vibrant dark blue. Her eyes merely appeared to be purple when exposed to certain lighting, makeup, or clothing (and plenty of retouching of her images, we’re sure!).