Fair women, dark men – a dying prejudice ?

Posted by Ritesh - 10/12/09 at 06:12:17 am

I recently was part of an interesting debate about “Obsession with looking/being fair and impartiality based on color” and here are my thoughts. A fellow colleague even pointed me to this book  Fair Women, Dark Men : The forgotten roots of Racial Prejudice. (Yes, I pinched the title from it) The book documents the findings of an antho researcher who studied different cultures and their preferences when it came to skin color.  Here are some of the interesting results:

  • Although virtually all cultures express a marked preference for fair female skin, even those with little or no exposure to European imperialism, and even those whose members are heavily pigmented, many are indifferent to male pigmentation or even prefer men to be darker.
  • The author reports that out of 51 different cultures in the anthropology profession’s famous Human Relations Area Files, 44 cultures favored lighter complexions on either only women (30) or on both sexes (14). In only 3 cultures was fair skin preferred on men only, and in just 4 cultures was darker skin desired.
  • Lighter ladies were favored in many countries with little exposure to Western beauty standards, such as medieval Japan, Ethiopia, Aztec Mexico, and Moorish Spain, where the dominant culture was darker skinned than the conquered natives.

Of course, my first thoughts were : could this all be social class prejudice? Well, my claim is that the answer is not so simple. My colleague made the point that preferences based on color were more of an evolutionary trait rather than a  product of social sanction. Even though  I am no expert on evolution, I would think evolution would ensure (genetically) passing of only those traits that would aid in survival. All characteristics of human beings  like the ability to walk on our hind legs,  herbivorous diet, even the gestation period points in that direction. Could preferences of color be another similar trait? I have read about men preferring voluptuous women and women with wide pelvic bones, because they see them as fertile and being better equipped for child birth. This is something that seems like a characteristic passed genetically. But color based preferences .., I dont know.

Colors by ferran-jorda on flickr

I will quote Jared Diamond when he says, the whole world looks at life/society through western goggles, primarily because they were the ones that first to put indigenous technology to use. Would the preferences have been different if people from the sub saharan region of Africa were the most wealthiest, technologically equipped and the most powerful people on earth. The balance of power, at least in documented human history, has always been in favor of western civilizations. Given that people from western societies were the first to explore the world via the high seas, they could have very easily exported a powerful social prejudice.  The fertile belt, where most of modern civilization is said to have originated, lies mostly in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region. These regions are surrounded mostly by Africa and the middle east, most of which are tropical and are home to people with relatively darker skin tone.  Its not hard to imagine that “different looking” people were treated as hostile and alien and eventually this turns into social prejudice.  Could this be a simple explanation to a very complex question?

I quote:

In the classical world calling a woman white or fair was a compliment. People were more ambivalent about color in men. In the Old Testament Ham saw his father drunk and naked and was cursed with darkness. This is the biblical theory of the origin of human races. Thousands of years later original Christians were Medeteranians/Semites of an intermediate color between Northern Europans and Africans. “Ethiopians,” as they called black Africans, were used as the symbol for ugliness and sin. An early Christian wrote “What is more lowly, what is more like Ethopia, than our bodies, blackened, too, by the darkness of sin?” Satan would often appear as an Ethiopian. The black woman was the antithesis of beauty. A story reaches us about monks wanting to turn themselves off sex. They were encouraged to think of something disgusting. One thought of the Ethiopian woman.

Given that our societies are becoming muti-racial it will be interesting to see what will be of these preferences. My take , even if evolution did have a part to play, our generation must get over such prejudices and hopefully aid evolution( a sort of induced evolution) to rid people of this preference. It will be interesting to hear some of your thoughts on this topic. Comment away.

17 Comments »

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  1. I think one more fact is that historically people have perceived Positive VS Negative as being White VS Black. Moreover, there are explicable reasons for this perception too. This could also be why all religious figures (gods, saints etc) are depicted as white or fair-skinned (there are exceptions though).

    I agree with the ‘exported social prejudice’ point that you have made. For that the Victorian/British era in India makes a good example.

    Comment by Sagar — December 10, 2009 #

  2. I like the comparison of power and prevalent social prejudice. I think the debate is much older and finds its place in Indian History even before the Britishers….the north Indian considered themselves from fairer Aryan race – the fair including the skin colour and the beyond the vindhyas was considered the scary unknown territory.

    Comment by Neha — December 10, 2009 #

  3. These biases are even built into our languages.
    eg: the word ‘fair’ in itself is used in multiple connotations to imply ‘justice’ ‘unbias’ which is a postitive trait.
    the word ‘dark’ on the other hand is used to denote ‘evil’ for whatever reason.

    Going back a bit further its interesting like you said to see how color might have aided reproduction which in turn would be the reason ‘fairness’ was preferred in natural selection.
    For eg if you compare fair skin versus dark skin, the fair skin reflects more light in turn being more visible in a dark setting. It might have been the case that a million years ago, when there was no electricity humans found it easier to mate with fairer skinned women as they were more visible. And as it has already been proven, visual stimulation is very important for a male to be aroused.
    On the other hand, females do not consider visual stimulation as that important, which could be the reason why there is not such a strong bias against dark men..
    Yes dark skin was visible during daylight but thats only 0.5 percent of the time. So fair skinned females were possibly mating 100% more no of times than dark skinned ones.

    All said, given that we have electricity now, I think its time we stop being primitive in our thoughts and look at that how we can get over this stupid bias that our ancestors have left us with.

    Comment by P — December 10, 2009 #

  4. correction: s/0.5 percent/50 percent/

    Comment by P — December 10, 2009 #

  5. @P I disagree, like I always do :) , about fair skin playing a part in natural selection. If that were true, then there would be no dark skinned people. Skin color is determined largely by the kind of climate a person lives in. People from tropical/desert like conditions tend to be more darker than people closer to the poles. Also, if what you say is true, then we should have seen a dramatically large difference in population wrt skin tone. But, that’s not so either.

    As far as your comment about language goes, informal languages probably started emerging in the last 10000 years, which came much after the Homo Sapien. Natural selection had already played its part by then.

    It would interesting to note any such traits wrt to Orangutans and Monkeys, next us in the evolutionary path and see if they exhibit such biases.

    Comment by Ritesh — December 10, 2009 #

  6. @Neha For an Indian context, probably the Aryan invaders did consider themselves more superior to the Dravidian settlers. The divide could have been further strengthened by the imperialists who were more partial than the North Indian settlers themselves. This post was written with respect to a global context. How do you explain that?

    Comment by Ritesh — December 10, 2009 #

  7. @Ritesh, I vaguely remember you disagreeing with me when I had said that ‘fair skin has to do with climate’ :-)

    Anyway, to your point, Who ever said that we are finished evolving? We are going to continue to evolve.
    But it is interesting to note that in those days, with no globalization humans mosly mated locally. So there was no way for a sub saharan dark skinned male to choose a north pole fair skinned female over his neighbor as he probably did not even get to meet such people. So that is a valid argument against my theory.

    And about languages, clearly languages evolved that way purely because of the already built in bias in our minds and not the other way round. Im sorry if I sounded like I meant the opposite.

    Comment by P — December 10, 2009 #

  8. Considering the majority of civilization development took place in some kind of agriculture state (after hunting-gatherint and before industrial) which as the civilization evolve from all farmers to some farmers, some craftsmen, some tradesmen, and statesmen.

    As these changes happen, the higher class the women are the less they have to do physical labor and being expose to the sun. So after generations, the higher the social standing of fairer the woman and more ‘fragile’ and is considered more lady-like. In consequences, men started to consider these traits as the more desirable one in woman because it is more commonly found as one goes up the social ladder.

    Comment by Anon — December 11, 2009 #

  9. Location determines color, skin tone, features. Men like fair, small, lean women because it’s built into them. Women on the other hand like huge, strong, talented (not skilled), wealthy men because it’s built in to them.

    If you don’t believe, in the USA and the UK women pay no less than $300/hr for BLACK male escorts. They are the most sought after men by any other race (women). Why black men? Because they are naturally bigger, stronger and are talented in sports, music, theater the areas women like. An average black brother can get any white p*&&* even without trying. They eventually marry white males or rich black males because of wealth. A black male escort earns close to a CEO of a mid-sized company.

    Hope this reaches a few Big Black Indian men in India, they definitely can make a fortune in India if they get in to it.

    I’m a big girl who always wanted to be small to get those BIG BLACK … GUYS.

    Men like fairer, smaller women.
    Women like stronger, wealthier men. But some mature women may consider color concerned about numerous offspring.

    FYI, a study showed that women enjoy S** more with wealthier men. And I do.

    THE END.

    Comment by Mayor — December 18, 2009 #

  10. I think @Anon nailed it. That makes a lot of sense.
    And thats probably why women are said to prefer physically strong men (as pointed out by mayor) as it suggests that they are good at ‘hunting and gathering’.
    However when it comes to women’s preferences , nowadays in this metrosexual world, i find that its changing quite a bit. Personally I find wit,charm and intelligence way more attractive than muscle power. Because in today’s world thats what you need to survive. And somehow a man who is strongly built comes across to me a someone who has spent all his time pumping iron in a gym whereas he could have been doing better things with his time. It also suggests that given a predicament, the person is more likely to use brawn power than brain power which in today’s world doesnt work as well.
    Its interesting how the society we live in, the challenges we face and the gender roles that ppl assume can potentially make such a lot of difference to personal preferences.
    Similiarly I hope that soon, as more and more women step out to work (even though its not hunting and gathering ), people will stop associating feminity with being passive, introverted, fair and puny and start associating it with features that might suggest more courage,intelligence and strength.

    Comment by P — December 18, 2009 #

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  14. this is a very interesting system, but it is very harmful to women. in our modern societies, where races have intermingled and are living in the same areas, a preference for light skin in women leaves dark women in a position of uselesness. even the loved black actresses are usually mixed-race or very fair-skinned. it also should be noted that women worldwide are harming themselves by using skin whitening creams, which can lead to cancer, to better fit our image of an attractive woman. one may say that recently being tanned has been deemed attractive, but other features associated with fair skin such as light fine hair, clear eyes and small noses are still favored.

    Comment by bison — July 4, 2010 #

  15. Thanks Bison for the brave comment! You’re right, women ARE in danger, and unfortunately, no one cares as long as this is what men desire, as if..it’s a man world.. only! I wonder why there are too many dark women if all men prefer white women?hemmm.. what kind of stupid evolotion is this? like.. let me see.. if there are 1milion dark guys.. very darky dark, and let’s say.. 1.5 million darky dark girls for them (I’m sure in reality the women outnumber men), and on the other hand there are a half million white men (whites are lesser in numbers), and 1million of shiny white women, and.. assuming that all of those people are straight and ready to get into a ‘serious’ relationship;-)… and of course, all those white women are also ‘acceptable’.. yeah.. it’s men who choose.. sorry.. cruel world.. it’s life.. anyway.. are you good at math? ok.. let’s say that 0.5 of those daaaaark guys took 0.5 of the white babes, the other half for the white guys, and the rest of the dark guys will be ‘forced’ to take half million of the dark girls (while they still can cheat on the with those marrid wihte babes.. just in case;-).. you know, it happens!)..now.. half million of dark girls are leftovers on the table of ..what? evolution? What does evolution mean? going from the raw to the well-done? like.. we’ve been monkeys we’re now humans is like.. we’ve been black we’re now.. beige? I don’t really call it prejudice, I call it.. fear! yep! I’m white by the way:-)… you know.. if we’re (the whites) are the minimum in numbers, then it’s not good to say that others are just as ‘beautie’ as us, we have to remain ‘superior’ somehow, to make others always feel ‘lower’, and in sequence.. worshipping us! we were always the best, aren’t we? So we want to remain so! I’ve seen lots of non-white people killing themselves to be fairer, or having a relationship with a fairer partner, espcially men.. ooops! we men are really bad creatures! a man who thinks visuallay beleives that the society would consider him more succeful if he has a fair girl.. or even better a white.. oooo..how about blond??? wow!!!!! I remmember that I once read that every decent.. hardworking American guy dreams of getting married to a..’blond’ girl and have some cute kids.. i was shocked! I’ve never had that dream, it’s not that i’m gay, but never thought of it from the ‘color’ side! To make all this short, yeah.. it’s the European occupation of those ‘dark’ areas of the world, and again.. it’s the media that really continue and brain-programming day and night. Ladies and gentlmen, we’re the same humans, color.. is.. simply.. color! I like the yellow shirt you like the white shirt.. and we can happily wear the balck one, but.. if I keep stuffing your head with other ideas, your preferences will change. I mean.. if your mother is ‘bleaching’ herself then you’ll probably ‘understand’ that she’s cleaning some dirtiness! why the hell does she ‘covering’ her darkness then? I mean.. if it’s ok.. then why the shame? However, there’s that ‘shame’ of bing dark, means that dark is.. yugh! Poor mommy..was too much happier in the past, there weren’t those TV with lots of white women showing their a….ooops…Now..I’ll sound like an old fashioned, but many people were happy the way they are till we start telling them that we’re the best, and many were happy till we start showing more naked bodies in media to tease them even more and more! Many married couples were happy till the husband starts the comparison game, it’s itchy! Women DO have a big problem, bigger than wether it’s good or bad to have sex at the a young age and then keep the baby! It’s a long list..a womam has to be.. white.. or at least very fair..thin.. tall..soft.. with nice straight hair.. with small nose.. with big eyes.. and oh .. am I missing something? yeah.. those ‘good’ boobs and hips, and oh.. your age too ..sorry.. not older that 35..40 maximum, so.. no need to any math here, but I’m sure millions and millions of women will be thrown in the garbage, they’re just as bad as useless! I’m just amazed why women keep shouting everywhere calling for thier rights to have fair opportunities in work but they’re so ‘quiet’ regarding to demand their rights to have fair opportunities in LOVE and being ACCEPTED the way they are! Only God knows how many times a woman should change herself to ‘fit’ and how many stages she should pass before that really happens! I’m the heavy impact is on women, this all is truely inhumane, cruel, and needless to say.. so unjust!
    I find a woman, any ‘real’ woman, who’s clean, healthy (healthy here means medically healthy.. not a model-fashion), and who’s sincere, warm-hearted, loyal, smart and elegant.. I find her .. beautiful, and what makes her sexy is that she’s sexually so into the man, desires him, loves his male sexual nature, admire his male-bdoy, and forgets the world with the man she really wants, to the limit that he doesn’t even give a damn waht her color is and how big are her boobs! I had sex alot, and I enjoyed it, there was love and passion and..I just understood that a real woman is not so precious to find, but no one cares to look for her and discover what beneath the skin and juicy body! Why don’t all grow up and understand what really makes any female a woman instead of being busy of what make the woman just a miserable ‘female’.. oh.. forget to say.. we’ll end up just ‘males’! Doesn’t sound promising, huh?
    For many years, there were different colors of flowers, trees, bugs,fish, animals, even mountains! Why haven’t all of those evolved to make one or two mild colors? Why do we still see the light and the dark here and there? Why humans, who are supposed to be smarter, can’t just accept how different they are, and how difference make them beautiful or at least.. harmonic? Yep.. we’re idiots! Nice blog! feel sorry again for women, both white and dark!

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