Rachel Dolezal has been stirring up a bit of new controversy after it has been announced that she is set to appear in a new documentary about Black beauty.
The film, title, Subjects of Desire will be center around the stereotypes and the societal pressures that Black women have faced for decades, so it’s surprising to learn that Dolezal will appear in the film.
In 2015, Dolezal caused national outrage when it was discovered that she was presenting herself as a Black woman when she is in fact white. In the film, Dolezal speaks about how she is scared of white men and feels like she is being forced into a white mold.
During an interview, the director of the film Jennifer Holmes spoke on casting Dolezal. “It wasn’t a commercial thought. It wasn’t like I thought, ‘Oh my God if I put her in, it’ll be controversial!’ No, not at all. I’m doing a film on Black women and beauty and this is the first time that I’ve come across a white woman pretending to be Black for 10 years when there wasn’t a massive financial benefit.”
She continued, “The standard of beauty historically has been white and that has been protected and upheld, so as someone who has that standard, she’s blonde with freckles and green eyes, and stepped away from that, there’s something there.”
The film is set to premiere at this week’s South By Southwest festival.