Are black women generally less attractive then white women?

[Jettboy]

I don’t think beautiful women come in any particular size, shape or color.

[Cat_Fight]

@Laudenum

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).

(bolding mine)

That’s a ludicrous statement. Why? All right, perhaps if you said ‘There is probably going to be a race that is held up by the advertising industry as more attractive than another’ I’d have to admit that the blue eyed, blond-haired, buxom white girl thing as a status symbol is pretty prevalent, even in countries like India and Japan. But it’s an odd statement.

And, as someone else mentioned, it’s ethnocentric to the point of parody that the debate would be ‘If white men aren’t with black women, what’s wrong with black women?’ as if men are simply going out and choosing which women they’d like, reciprocity be damned. (Perhaps there is some colonial precedent, when white women could barely choose a partner let alone one of a different race while their husbands and soldiers raped and pillaged, but this is 2008.)

[Marley23]

@Laudenum

I do not recall any study that said that Irish men have smaller penises, but I have never investigated the matter.

That’s odd. Suddenly you seem less comfortable with absurd overgeneralizations.

[Razncain]

How anyone can not think of Halle Barry as one of the most stunning beautiful women on this planet, would really baffle me. I think pretty much most races have their share of beautiful women; although can’t say I would find the pygmy or aborigine women attractive. Does that make me racist?

I do think when black women started straitening their hair it really did wonders for them. It does it for me! Halley Barry and Beyonce, also both have the inner beauty to match, which makes them even more beautiful over all.

razncain

[AHunter3]

How is this thread in Great Debates? This is totally IMHO material!

[Horatio_Hellpop]

The heart wants what it wants. It’s easy to fall in love with Rosario Dawson and less so with Loretta Devine. But looks are only one aspect. Ella Fitzgerald was no swimsuit model, but my God whenever she sang she was the sexiest woman alive. Women who sing jazz and blues well are part of this secret club of incredible coolness, a club I wish I knew better.

I’m kind of a pussy around black women, though. I’ve only dated one, and she was crazy as a bedbug. I don’t think she’s representative of the race, but if I was intimidated before, she kinda worsened things for me.

[Cisco]

I once brought up Rosario Dawson in a discussion of hot black women with a (dark-skinded) black friend of mine, and she was like ROSARIO DAWSON AIN’T BLACK!!! So I wasn’t gonna go there :D. And it turns out my friend was right, anyway. Rosario is only something like a quarter black.

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@razncain

How anyone can not think of Halle Barry as one of the most stunning beautiful women on this planet, would really baffle me. I think pretty much most races have their share of beautiful women; although can’t say I would find the pygmy or aborigine women attractive. Does that make me racist?

I do think when black women started straitening their hair it really did wonders for them. It does it for me! Halley Barry and Beyonce, also both have the inner beauty to match, which makes them even more beautiful over all.

razncain

If you follow this thread carefully you`ll realize that when black women are attractive it’s because they are white looking or have white features. Only ugly black women actually look black or have black features.

[Whack-a-Mole]

Beauty is of course subjective.

Personally (just my opinion) I find a much larger “gray” area of beauty with white women than I do with black women (note I am a white male). Which is to say I either think a black woman is gorgeous or she just does nothing for me at all as far as sexual attraction goes. White women on the other hand have a lot of middle ground for me and provide a broader spectrum of beautiful to ugly for me.

I was recently in London and noticed that the black women there were, again IMO, far more beautiful on the whole than American black women. I saw many flat out stunningly beautiful black women just roaming around. I was seriously impressed…just gorgeous. Note part of this was that they seemed, generally, to be much more physically fit (or well put together if you prefer) than their American counterparts (i.e. not considerably over weight or with overtly big butts and so on).

Again just IMO. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Sapo]

@Marley23

That’s odd. Suddenly you seem less comfortable with absurd overgeneralizations.

buurrrrnnn!

[tomndebb]

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

If you follow this thread carefully you`ll realize that when black women are attractive it’s because they are white looking or have white features.

No. If you follow the thread carefully, you’ll realize that the perception of beauty is very much a factor of culturally instilled values combined with personal preferences.
Psychologists have discovered that there are some traits that are commonly recognized as “beautiful,” but those traits have to do with symmetry and regularity without regard to specific shapes of foreheads, eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, noses, lips, chins, etc.

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

Only ugly black women actually look black or have black features.

This would be a stupid comment regardless how false it is.

[Whack-a-Mole]

@tomndebb

Psychologists have discovered that there are some traits that are commonly recognized as “beautiful,” but those traits have to do with symmetry and regularity without regard to specific shapes of foreheads, eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, noses, lips, chins, etc.

No cite (it has been awhile since I read this) but IIRC studies have shown only two universal measures of beauty across all societies. Youth and health (with youth meaning sexually mature but young).

[tomndebb]

Some of the comments in this thread remind me of the anecdote from a Western researcher, (Diamond, perhaps?), who noted that he was teased by the men among whom he was living that if he really wanted to settle down, he should ignore all the ugly white women and hook up with one of the beautiful women among whom he was then living.

[tomndebb]

@Whack-a-Mole

No cite (it has been awhile since I read this) but IIRC studies have shown only two universal measures of beauty across all societies. Youth and health (with youth meaning sexually mature but young).

An example of a statement that I have read frequently in the last 20 years.
I do not hold it up as the final word on the subject, just a pointer to the sort of statement from the psych and anthro communities I recall having read:
Averageness, symmetry, and sexual dimorphism are good candidates for biologically based standards of beauty.

[you_with_the_face]

@Kimstu

If black men are more likely to date white women than white men are to date black women, why should we assume that it’s because black women are less attractive than white women? Maybe it’s because white men are less attractive than black men.

I was gonna say something like that, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

[gigi]

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

If you follow this thread carefully you`ll realize that when black women are attractive it’s because they are white looking or have white features. Only ugly black women actually look black or have black features.

Yeah, it was just a matter of time before hair-straightening was mentioned.

[levdrakon]

I have a friend who wrote a paper on beauty, and ambiguous ethnicity is the current big thing among models.

How unfair to all us unambiguous ethnicities.

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@tomndebb

No. If you follow the thread carefully, you’ll realize that the perception of beauty is very much a factor of culturally instilled values combined with personal preferences.
Psychologists have discovered that there are some traits that are commonly recognized as “beautiful,” but those traits have to do with symmetry and regularity without regard to specific shapes of foreheads, eyebrows, eyes, cheeks, noses, lips, chins, etc.

I was alluding to these posts:

@brazil84

What’s interesting is that most of the women you cite seem to be rather caucasian-looking compared to many other black women. i.e. they seem to have straighter hair, lighter complexions, and finer features.

@foolsguinea

Respectively: White, white, white, actually hot, mixed & meh, and bleh & mostly white.
You have one actual fine lookin’ black lady there.

@mecaenas

Also, I’d avoid making any suggestions or examples such as NDP’s as they all (except for Lauren Hill and Naomi Campbell) have arguably primarily caucasian features - to the point that in black-and-white photos (IMO) if you didn’t know who they were you’d probably assume they’re caucasian (especially Halle Berry).

@tomndebb

This would be a stupid comment regardless how false it is.

Was it stupid per se, or stupid as a deliberately ironic simplification of what I think the above posters are suggesting? Do I need to make use of that green face more often?

[you_with_the_face]

@Laudenum

As mentioned above, nearly all of those are basically white.

Not any more so than Beyonce, who you mentioned in the OP as a “pretty at best” black girl. So not only is beauty debate fodder in this thread but so is blackness, apparently. That ain’t no surprise, though.

The world is a big place, though. There is a continent called Africa where there are lots of beautiful women who as are black as they come. There’s also the Carribean. Nowadays, with internet technology at our disposal, it’s not necessary to actually go to these foreign lands to see these people. You can let google do the work for you. All I did was type “Miss <insert country>” in google images and found these pics.

http://africapage.i8.com/images/miss7_375.jpg

http://www.supernegro.com/admin/wysiwyg/images/miss_tanzania_2007.jpg

You might not find these women attractive, but then you also might be crazy. It’s all good.

[tomndebb]

@Fuzzy_Dunlop

Was it stupid per se, or stupid as a deliberately ironic simplification of what I think the above posters are suggesting? Do I need to make use of that green face more often?

Well, you need to indicate that you are being ironic in some fashion. We have enough posters who would have submitted the same words with no irony intended that recognizing irony in a new voice is a bit difficult when there is nothing against which to compare it.