Are black women generally less attractive then white women?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Before everyone goes nuts, please read the OP.

Then go nuts.:slight_smile:

The first thing to note is that I am from Ireland, so it’s possible that some of what I say may not apply in America.

I suppose I should tell you first what made me start what will no doubt be a spirited discussion.

I was in a pub with two friends for several hours a week ago, and one of them said that he didn’t find black women attractive.
I was pretty surprised and questioned him on it, and the more he talked, the more I realised that he was kind of right.
I put several famous black women, generally considered beautiful, to him, such as Beyonce, and the girl from Battlestar Galactica (Dee), and he rejected them, saying that both were at best pretty. And, when I thought about it, I agreed with him.
In the end we ended up with a challenge - I have to find a black woman who he finds attractive - so far I have nothing. I thought of Leona Lewis, but again she’s not that great.
I can name numerous black women with great t and a, and many who are just damn sexy, but none that are beautiful.

And it appears my friend is not the only one who thinks so with half of black men in Britain dating a white woman. I have no cite for the number of black women dating white men, but I’ve seen figures suggesting the number is far, far lower.
Although just today I saw a white man and a black woman, I have to say that in general I see far more black men and white women (there was a post here today or yesterday about this too).

So while beauty is often subjective, it appears that black men tend to not date within their own race to a larger extent then any other racial grouping, and that people from other races are less likely to choose black women.

[Tangent]And now that I think of it, where are the Black-Asian couples? I’ve never seen a single one.[/Tangent]

So (1) Are black women by and large less attractive then white women (or people of any race)
and
(2) Could people please post up pictures of beautiful black women so I can prove that they exist - I want to win this.

And to anyone who says this is racist - Bollix.
There are differences in appearence between the races (and within, the Polish and Irish are both ‘white’, but the Polish women are amazing:p), and while the features that are considered attractive presumably change with race and culture (someone once told me that the Japanese have a thing for necks - beyond the normal), there is probably going to be a race which is generally more attractive than another, even if attractiveness is judged by majority opinion (and what better way to judge attractiveness).

EDIT: I’ll be up for about an hour to chat about this, then I’m going to bed.
Lets all try and have a calm debate, and I’d be particularly be interested in hearing if people have any ideas on how to conduct valid comparisons based on attractiveness. I have suggested majority opinion, and the opinion of those within the same racial grouping.

2

I’m white, live in the middle of the US surrounded by white women of German & Scots-Irish descent, & I see a lot of unattractive white women around. I mean, no attraction at all. Sexual arousal flatline. They’re about as attractive as a wall of crumbly plaster. To me. To a black guy, they might be attractively exotic. Heck, to some other white guy, they might be sex on a stick.

I think there are outstanding individuals in different populations, & a lot of boring individuals. And what someone finds beautiful is going to somewhat culturally informed (not determined; informed). So maybe it’s just that your Irish friend’s idea of pretty is more to the white side.

3

Your friend is displaying a parochial world view. The notion of what is beautiful can only ever be subjective, and will change for cultural reasons, as noted above, as well as personal reasons, including prejudice.

4

Oh, I am well aware that beauty is down to each person (never found the model Jordan that hot, but I kinda have a thing for Leona Lewis in the video run Shut up, I know, I know), and I know that plenty of white women are last up at the ceili, but I don’t think that it’s entirely cultural or personal.

5

I don’t think that he is prejudiced (even if he does sound like a landlord;)), but I see no reason why majority opinion cannot be taken as indicating a difference.

6

Cider Depot isn’t calling your friend prejudiced - he/she is just pointing out that there is no objective standard for what constitutes ‘attractive’

Majority opinion might not be very useful, if it’s ever capable of changing - the best you’d be able to say is something like ‘majority opinion tends toward this or that at the moment’

7

I’ve seen some very beautiful black women; I wish I had had the opportunity to date one or two. The only one I asked out turned me down flat but I think that had more to do with me than with my whiteness.

8

According to wikipeidia, England is 1% black. So if people chose their mates completely randomly with regards to race, 1% of black men would be dating a black woman. The fact that 50% are doing so suggests that black men find black woman disproportionately attractive compared to non-black woman, basically the opposite of what you claim.

Actually kind of ironic since the stereotype in the states are that white British woman are ugly, hence their men folks need to go conquer exotic equatorial countries.

9

I’m of Irish decent and generally find Black women MORE attractive then white women.

Gina Torres from Firefly/serenity is one of my favorites.

10

If you could demonstrate some kind of objective standard, such as - I don’t know - psychological studies that show people in general are more attracted to people who have greater facial symmetry, and then measure up the faces of subsets of different ethnic groups to determine if the females of that ethnic group have more or less facial symmetry than the females of another. Beyond that, it looks to me like it’s a simple case of subjectivity, with a small dose of a parochial viewpoint being applied globally.

11

Stephen Lynch doesn’t think so: Vanilla Song

Lynch apparently has quite a following in Ireland and England.

Otherwise, what Cider Depot said, mostly.

12

Surely beauty is in the eye of the beholder, although the beholder in modern times may be weak enough to let Madison Avenue define beauty.

In my home office is an ebony carving of a Masai woman.
She is stunning–the only non-family image of any kind to merit a place in my home, now that I think about it.

And by “beauty” I am not talking about some sort of bogus “What’s in your heart” deal. As it’s been said,

“Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.”

13

White women tend to not age gracefully, so I will stick to some color, even if only for the sake of future proofing my investment. :wink:

(And I have yet to see a beautiful Irish woman, sorry)

As for Black-Asian couples, I haven’t seen too many, but I know many offspring of those and they are for the most part really beautiful.

14

:rolleyes:

15

(Bolding mine) Yeah, we know you, too. :smiley:

There was a time when I was not attracted to black women, except when they were light with white features. A while back I realized that judging them by the same standards of the Nordic women I was used to was idiotic and logically false, so I tried judging them (yeah, I know “judging” a person’s physical beauty is really tacky, but it’s a nice way to spend an idle hour) by something more like how black guys judge women. You know: Jim Crow, separate but equal horndogginess. :slight_smile: I found I could make a judgment, but I wasn’t turned on. Okay, that was another pointless and loathsome enterprise, so I reminded myself that I was married. After that, I realized that, as a group, I enjoyed the company of fat, middle-aged, black women. Still wasn’t turned on, but I know who I like to be around on a casual basis, and it shows what spending ones formative years Down South can do.

As for my white wife, she was waiting at a doctor’s once and struck up a conversation with a black woman who shared the first and last names of wife’s grandmother. After a few rounds of Cracker Genealogy they figured out where the line probably split.

OTOH, when I was a little kid my family watched Sing Along With Mitch*, and I developed a crush on his girl singer, Leslie Uggams. before that my crush was Teresa Brewer and I was grossed out when my older brothers told me (inaccurately, I believe)** she had a glass eye, but was nonplussed when they said Uggams was black. I shrugged and continued to crush on her. I guess I grew up some between 1959 and 1961.

    • Good God! Mitch Miller is still alive! Born in 1911, so he’s worth squat in the Dead Pool.

** - Have I ever mentioned I didn’t have a good relationship with my older brothers? They were the ones who shoved me into a closet and then tossed in Grandpa’s WWI hand grenade.

16

Here is an article you may find interesting:

Is Love Colorblind?

17

Hey, it’s what I always say. We may kid ourselves that we’re colorblind, but we’re never going to be sexblind. What we really do is transfer and update our stereotypes to account for sex.

It’s not just marriage that discriminates on sex/color. It’s society as a whole. And it’s going to be a while before society can own up to it.

18

Bollocks. “Bollix” is a different word, with a different meaning. Learn to spell your vulgarities.

And, yes, by definition, the proposition that “black women are generally less attractive than white women” is racist. That’s not a moral judgement, just a matter of fact.

19

Quoth Sapo:

Funny, I’d say just the opposite. When I visited Ireland for a couple of weeks, some years ago, I noticed that the lasses there, without one single exception, seemed to range from the high end of average to oh-my-god-drop-dead-gorgeous. By American standards, at least: Maybe that just means that the American standard of “average” isn’t setting the bar very high.

20

Rules of thumb, though there are exceptions: Blondes don’t keep, but Black don’t crack. :smiley:

Gotta say your experience and mine don’t match, brother. Sure ‘n’ begorrah, though I learned to be afraid of Irish women at me pater’s knee, I can (possibly) summon enough courage to say that, while the lion’s share of our Irish sisters are as fair as a summer morn, there are some like a woman in my database class whose Donegal accent was like the very angels in full song, but whose face could stop a clock.

ETA, because I know which side is buttered: Not that I noticed, y’know.