I certainly don’t have any cites to prove this one. It is in fact mainly an observation I have made. But I will show you what leads me to it.
Interracial marriages in the US are predominantly Black male/white female. This is actually what started me thinking along these lines.
When Black men reach a place of prominence in the US, they are usually male. Fredrick Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, just to name a couple.
Also, I find many Black men attractive, but have never notice Black women too much in my life. I know I am gay now, so that is not surprising. But I noticed it early on, too.
Plus, I invite you, the reader, to share their own experiences and views on the matter, when helpful or what adds to (or even against) my theory.
Does US culture value Black male beauty more than female? As I said, it is mainly a personal theory. But I have found it to be true again and again. (Consider Anita Hill v. Clarence Thomas too. It wasn’t a matter of beauty per se. But it does show a tendency to lean towards Black men more than women.)
They ought’a, being men and being male is usually linked.
Neither of which has ever been held as a sex symbol that I can tell, and both of which came to prominence in contexts in which becoming a famous woman was much more difficult than becoming a famous man.
You may want to check the strength of your coffee and to stop confusing “I know this person’s name” with “this person would generally be considered good-looking”.
One factor might be that professional athletes are predominantly black, and so people see them a lot on TV, and usually in the context of their athletic and physical prowess.
But about the interracial dating and the lopsided gender ratio - I get the impression it’s not so much that white women want black men as it is that white men don’t want black women.
White men want black women. But black women carry a stigma wrt their sexuality that black men don’t have.
Black women have been stereotyped in three harmful ways. First, there is the Mammy stereotype. Loving and nurturing in a motherly way, but lacking all aspects of a sexuality or physical beauty. Second, there is Jezebel. The temptress whore who basically lives to entrap an otherwise upstanding man with her wicked nastiness. Her attractiveness is purely sexual. And then there is Sapphire, who is loud, brash, mannishly aggressive, mannish-looking, overbearing, “sassy” and unattractive. These images are burned into the American psyche and still show up in popular media.
The internet sphere seems to be heavily infested with guys who just can’t help but to express their negative feelings about black womens’ looks. I really don’t get it. I don’t get what compels guys to express this opinion so emphaticallyand incessantly and I don’t get how someone can even hold this opinion, given the diversity contained in the category “black women”. Nia Long, Beyonce, Halle Berry, Angela Basset, Queen Latifah, and Lupita Nyong’o look nothing alike but they are all black women. And though I understand that beauty is subjective, I can’t conceive of a mind that sincerely believes these women are unattractive. I can conceive of a mind that is so saturated with anti-black women imagery that it refuses to acknowledge black feminine beauty, because to do so is to require the admission that one has the hots for one of the stereotypes I mentioned earlier. And for a certain kind of guy, that’s only something losers would do.
(For a similar reason, you don’t see a whole lot of guys fawning over fat women, despite the fact that they frequently date, have sex with, and marry fat women. Guys claim they are only attracted to certain types, but their boners frequently say otherwise.)
I’m a white guy and I think Beyonce and Halle Berry are hot. Nia Long and Lupita Nyong’o are pretty. Neither Angela Basset nor Queen Latifah do anything for me, but there is nothing wrong with them.
Not always a direct correlation between “attracted to” and “will sleep with”
Right. Which begs the questions why guys make such a big deal over who they are and are not attracted to. I know women play this game too, but not nearly to the same extent.
Because I have spent five minutes on the internet and I can read the words that appear in my screen.
Seriously, are suggesting men gushing over “hawt” chicks is just figment of my imagination? Just give it to me straight so I know how much time I should waste on you.
what’s interesting if not ridiculous on some sports forums I read when a white poster says “Serena Williams looks like a man”–what men is hanging with that have 40D cup breasts?
Have you ever heard of Robert DeNiro (nicknamed Coal Miner by Hollywood for his preference for Black women). Presumably, OP is only talking about contemporary society. It’s ironic (actually hypocritical) for KKK and supporters ranted against “race mixing” but they were ones raping Black women. When it comes to sex, white men are equal opportunity (I’m white myself married to black woman)
Can I say you’re “making a big deal”? No, but you are doing that thing that a lot of white men do: treating your individual opinion about the hotness of black women as if it’s actually important, interesting, or informative. It’s a bizarre kind of oversharing, this impulse to grade and then talk about these grades as if they are actually relevant.
Beauty is completely subjective. I think the ‘US Culture’ is heavily influenced by basic European views of beauty. Not really that surprising. In fact, those same values permeate much of the globe, as you can see if you visit other countries and see movies or pictures of blonde model types all over the place.
The majority of Americans, as with many places around the world, is that female ideal. Personally, it is not my thing, but I think that is why black females aren’t generally looked at in the same way, except those that attempt to or naturally do conform to parts of the idea (i.e. long hair, trim hourglass figure, with narrow waist, large but firm breasts and a swell of hips…but not TOO much of a swell). Hispanic women are kind of in the same boat wrt mainstream US female ideals, with, again, some very identifiable exceptions. That said, I’ve noticed a shift in this to a more voluptuous female model in the last few decades, though it doesn’t seem to have penetrated the fashion scene that much (though, honestly, I wouldn’t know if it had).
Just so I understand, guy saying who they think is hot is making a big deal about who they find attractive?
I don’t think it’s important. But I thought I was giving information to someone who thought that white men only expressed their opinion on the unattractiveness of black women.
Also, big deal. A lot of white men do a lot of stupid stuff. Why is our opinion of black women any more important?
A guy who has a tendency to express this kind of opinion in an unsolicited fashion is revealing that he puts a lot of value on attractiveness, yes.
Ask any woman over a certain age whether men make a big deal over who they find attractive, and I guaran-damn-tee the answer will be yes. Because it is damn-near impossible to go through a life as a woman without being catcalled or hearing some rando dude say “what’s up, beautiful” or listen to a guy talk about women’s bodies in an objectifying manner.
I can’t seriously believe you’re questioning something as basic as this, but I guess I’ll keep playing along.
