# Men: Do you like brown skin? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 10, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951 "2004-09-10T20:32:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/21 "2004-09-11T04:25:21Z")
I am going to go against the grain here and say that it does matter to me at least for sexual attractiveness. I am just not attracted to women with very dark skin regardless of the race. I have been attracted to light-skinned black women, Indians etc. I love attractive Hispanic and Middle Eastern women. At some point though, there is a limit where I don’t even notice that person as a potential sexual parter. It is not something I even think about, it just is. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/22 "2004-09-11T04:50:48Z")
I think it is really attractive when women have a deep tan, but that is not to say fair-skinned women can’t be equally attractive. I do however shudder when I think of those fifty year old women who go to the tanning salon a little too much and their skin looks like a dried out leather bag. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/23 "2004-09-11T05:11:10Z")
Would you consider these ‘light’ or ‘brown’? [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6813/cts/](http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6813/cts/) [http://www.homunculus.com/profane/reliquary/connellyjennifer/images/connelly0186.jpg](http://www.homunculus.com/profane/reliquary/connellyjennifer/images/connelly0186.jpg) [http://www.luizboi.blogger.com.br/kimberlywilliams.jpg](http://www.luizboi.blogger.com.br/kimberlywilliams.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/24 "2004-09-11T05:12:23Z")
Dammitt!!! I screwed up the 2nd one! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/25 "2004-09-11T05:26:21Z")
They’re all white to me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/26 "2004-09-11T08:07:47Z")
I like brown. In the abstract, I’m less attracted to very pale or very dark skin, but there’re still a hundred exceptions each way. Plus, of course, any and all physical preferences take a back seat to personality. Way back. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/27 "2004-09-11T12:28:26Z")
Brown skin and thong tan lines! Drives me crazy!! ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/28 "2004-09-11T14:25:49Z")
I’m of mostly German descent, so I guess brown skin is kind of nice in a sort of exotic-esque way. I also like to get out in the sun. Fair or not, my first impression when I see a woman with pale white skin as that she either is a homebody or she is too afraid of getting skin cancer to enjoy hiking, canoeing or any other outdoor activity. But the most appealing thing to me about a woman’s skin is that she is comfortable in it. The color doesn’t really matter that much. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/29 "2004-09-11T15:29:04Z")
Brown’s fine with me, and it’s better if you were born brown. Women who do a lot of tanning to get brown usually look 15 years older in the summer. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/30 "2004-09-11T16:04:09Z")
Mmmm… brown skin… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/31 "2004-09-11T16:50:52Z")
It’s an interesting question. Yes there have been a few brown skinned (and other non-white hued) girls I have been attracted to over the years, but always felt the cultural barriers were probably going to be too much to overcome. Plus there was always that nagging doubt that if I inadvertently made a serious cultural fox paw, and she took offense, she’d grab a pair of poultry shears, and off go my nuts! It’s true that the same risk exists with the paler hued women, but you’d usually get at least one heads up warning in standard English that your nuts were in peril, and could take nut removal avoidance measures like a long trip to the countryside, or possibly changing secretaries for a less bodacious model. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/32 "2004-09-11T17:17:49Z")
To me, skin color is about as important as hair color, and not as important as eye color. Attitude and personality (and yeah, physical attractiveness) is frankly more important than actual skin tone… although I, too, don’t much like the look a woman gets when she’s addicted to baking in a tanning booth. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/33 "2004-09-11T17:33:44Z")
It’s all pink on the inside, baby! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/34 "2004-09-11T18:20:59Z")
> [@astro](#): > > . Plus there was always that nagging doubt that if I inadvertently made a serious cultural fox paw, and she took offense, she’d grab a pair of poultry shears, and off go my nuts! Like spelling _faux pas_ as fox paws? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/35 "2004-09-11T18:49:43Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Like spelling _faux pas_ as fox paws? Nahhh… only a an editrix would do that, and she’d use a sharpened letter opener. [sub]_Oh the pain!_[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/36 "2004-09-11T18:54:07Z")
I attend SC State University full time. They teach engineering and I can commute so I don’t have to move. SCSU is a predominantly African American institution. This doesn’t bother me because, being from this area, I have attended predominantly African American schools all of my life. I walk around the campus all day, every day, look at the coeds and mutter, “SWEET BROWN SUGAR!!!”, especially now that my wife has passed on. But I am 41 years old and white, so I don’t believe any of these coeds would be interested in me. ☹☹☹ ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/37 "2004-09-11T20:08:59Z")
My ancestry is Irish and German and skin color is relatively unimportant to me. I would say of the entire range of hues the least atttractive to me is fish-belly white which describes about half my immediate family. The tanning booth addict look is worse though. When I was younger I generally wasn’t attracted to darker skinned women but a torrid relationship with an African American woman cured me of that. ---
**Author:** ![randomlyblanks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@randomlyblanks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomlyblanks)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/38 "2004-09-11T20:31:14Z")
Well my girlfriend of one year is half Kashmiri-Indian and half Cuban. Her dark olive skin is absolutely gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/39 "2004-09-13T19:55:24Z")
Well thank you all very much. For those of you who said, “it doesn’t matter”, of course it doesn’t. I was just curious if there really were men out there who thought brown skin was hot. > [@Shibboleth](#): > > BTW, thanks for giving more visual clues for this thread. Holy cow. :eek: :o Forgot. > [@Sesiron](#): > > I like white and black girls fine too, but I have a bit of a thing for girls with a really healthy mocha skin tone, especially if it’s combined with long black hair and really deep, dark eyes. Well, no mocha skin, and long really dark dark brown \*curly \* hair. I do have the deep, dark eyes, though. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951/40 "2004-09-13T22:43:38Z")
Sure, I like it, as long as it smells good! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/men-do-you-like-brown-skin/263951.md?page=3)