A few months ago, I saw a trailer for “Bringing Down the House.” I hoped that the movie was going to go out on a bit of a limb and have the Steve Martin character and the Queen Latifah character fall in love. But, by the end of the trailer, it was apparent that wasn’t going to happen.
When I commented about my disappointment to a friend, he said that it wouldn’t have made sense because he thought only black men would find Queen Latifah attractive.
I don’t know how to prove or disprove that particular theory, but if it were true, would it be fair to call such cultural norms “bigotry” or “racism”?
Js, do you mean cutural norms as in “only black men would find Queen Latifia attractive”? I don’t see the cutural norm per se with that, unless he stated a specific reason (she’s too pretty, her boobs are too big, her skin is too dark,ect) But then it woundn’t make it a cutural norm.
If he isin’t giving a specific reason why he thinks white men would not find her attractive, then I don’t think it’s racism or bigtory, unless it’s aginst whites for saying there types of preference are limited to “Barbie.” I would say he’s just ignorant piord.
I’m pretty sure, from other conversations, that it was because of her size. He thought white men would reject her for her size while black men wouldn’t or might not.
I guess what I’m asking is this: If there is a cultural aspect to what we find beautiful, and if those “beautiful” people always fall within certain racial lines, does that have a name? It would be a culturally reinforced bias for or against people of certain appearance. And appearance can have an impact on many things.
I’m having difficulty articulating what I’m thinking. Apologies.
I think Hermann’s on the right track here… judging “beauty” is anything but a cultural norm. We all do it, and we all have our own standards by which we make those judgments. It’s in the eye of the beholder, and nobody finds beauty in the same things as anyone else. Despite what Cosmo might say every month, there are many standards of beauty.
As to the OP… whether or not cultural norms represent bigotry depends greatly on the culture. If one could consider the KKK or the neo-Nazis a culture (and I think the argument can be made for that), then obviously at least some of those cultural norms represent bigotry. But one cannot just say cultural norms without defining one’s terms a little more closely. For example, among white American culture in the first half of the last century, the use of the word “nigger” was certainly an example of a bigoted cultural norm. However, in the new millenium, use of the same word in a large segment of African-American culture is not only widely accepted, it is practically a term of affection.
So, I guess the thing is, the question in the OP can’t really be answered unless you define which culture, and specifically which norms that apply to that culture, are being discussed.