Is it just me or do most black women on American television look either ugly or loose? While Asian women, on the other hand, are pictured as being better looking than they are?
I have no facts or figures or university studies to prove it, but it has seemed this way to me for a long time.
I am pretty sure I am right about Asians: when I came to New York one of the first things I noticed were the Asian women: they were not nearly as good-looking as I expected. But then it hit me: most of the Asian women I had seen before then were on television or in magazines – nearly all of them model beautiful. Like in those ads for Singapore Airlines (pictured).
Not so with black women. There is like the Pine-Sol Lady (“That’s the power of Pine-Sol, baby!”) on the one hand and video vixens on the other, with not all that much in between. Where is the broad middle of Claire Huxtables? You have to pretty much go back to R&B videos from the early 1990s to see black women regularly pictured as having both grace and beauty.
The cover story of the June 29th 2009 issue of TV Guide is “Hot Bods!” You turn to the story and all the men and women are white. Go through the rest of the issue and there are only five black women (listed here in order of age):
- 55: Oprah Winfrey
- 45: Michelle Obama
- 45: Gloria Reuben
- 39: Niecy Nash
- 37: Jada Pinkett-Smith
I do not know anything about Nash, but the rest are admirable women. I think Gloria and Jada are still physically beautiful. But the youngest of them is 37! All the young, beautiful women in that issue are white. They do have young, beautiful women who are black on television, but, apart from old network reruns, most seem to be video vixens in rap videos shaking what they got.
A good example of what I am talking about is “Night Court” from the 1980s. I loved that show. It had both black and white characters, so it was doing good on that count, but look at the top female actresses, black and white, Marsha Warfield and Markie Post:
Markie Post is pretty. Meanwhile Marsha Warfield is what? The Pine-Sol Lady.
So why is this? I offer the following reasons:
- Television is written and produced mostly by white men who do not take black women seriously as women: they are either undesirable or prostitutes – sexless or oversexed. There is no healthy, ordinary male reaction to them as women.
- Blacks mostly play supporting characters. Supporting characters are not supposed to upstage the main characters. So in practice that means blacks on the whole are not allowed to upstage whites.
See also:
Hey Agabond!
I have to disagree on this one. I cant speak on Asians because I dont really have an interest in that culture but with beautiful, classy black women on tv, specifically commercials, Ive seen several. theres a few for hair products, birth control products, dental products, make up products, medication products, etc. But since Im hard-pressed to name anyone tv SHOWS, I do get the gist of what you’re saying.
BTW: Neicy Nash is one of my favorite tv personalities. She’s the host of “Clean House” and stars in “Reno 911”. Not sure how she made the “hot bods” list since she’s not considered skinny or even toned, by any means. She’s a very voluptuous woman. She’s stylish and classy everytime I see her.
Good topic, nonetheless!
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Neicy was not a Hot Bod. There were no blacks in that particular article, but there were five black women in the rest of the issue.
Good point about ads: the image of black women there is way less stereotyped and more middle-class and respectable.
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i agree with thatchick. i do see a lot of beautiful black women on t.v. when it comes to beauty products and even on television shows. there are starting to show more classy black women than the ones we are use to seeing, ghetto, booty shaking women that don’t represent black women at all.
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abagond,
I agree with your analysis about how MOST BW are portrayed in comparison to how MOST AW and WW are portrayed in the media.
Hollywood/American media has a LONG way to go when it comes to portraying the DIVERSITY of Black beauty and promoting a POSITIVE ATTITUDE/RESPECT for the HUMANITY, DIGNITY, and BEAUTY of ALL BW.
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@ abagond: oh okay, I misunderstood.
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Come on! You get ugly people in all races and then you get some beautiful people. The majority of people are average.
Abagond, don’t run down a race because of what you experienced in NJ. That’s racist and BS.
“Thatchicknik” “I have to disagree on this one. I cant speak on Asians because I dont really have an interest in that culture” Maybe you should take an interest as they have an interesting history!!!
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Ads of beautiful black women are all over the place here (Maryland) but that might just be because this area has a large black population. Follow the green, Abagond.
“In fact most were plain and some were downright ugly.”
No you didn’t, Abagond! Actually, my husband said the same thing about Asian women this weekend; he thinks they’re too small and scrawny. You are both wearing black-tinted glasses, I’m afraid.
Okay, I’m sooooo going to get a beat-down for saying this but:
Isn’t that true of all races? After all, beautiful women wouldn’t be valued so highly if they were common.
That’s something that always bugs me about “that race is ugly” statements. You get a lot of internet comments like “Most black women I’ve seen aren’t attractive.”
Well, duh! Of course not. The truth is, that “Most (insert any race of) women I’ve seen aren’t attractive.” So OF COURSE most of the black women you’ve seen aren’t attractive. Most of the white women you’ve seen aren’t attractive, either. You just gave them extra points for being white, as Abagond (and my husband) give others extra points for being black.
It’s like when racists start posting on some forum and there’s the inevitable comment “White women are more beautiful than black women” (it’s ALWAYS a black-white thing).
Invariably one of them will post two pictures like this:
as proof that white women are more attractive and black women are all ugly. They find that very entertaining.
Have you noticed that they never post two like this:
Are they delusional, or something? Do they really think all white women look like models and black women are all fugly? What planet do they live on?
Had to call you out on this one, Abagond.
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Abagond:
Check out the SciFi TV show Eureka:
A main character is portrayed by Salli Richardson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salli_Richardson
Her son is portrayed by Meshach Peters:
Another important character is portrayed by Joe Morton:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Morton
The TV series Battlestar Galactica had
Kandyse McClure
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anastasia_Dualla
You can toss in Rachel Luttrell of Stargate Atlantis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Luttrell
Gina Torres was on Cleopatra 2525 and Firefly:
There’s also Rutina Wesley on HBOs True Blood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutina_Wesley
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Tyra Banks
Condy Rice – Evil but still a killer body and something about uber intelligent women and little gaps between teeth is very sexy to me.
Michelle Obama – I think she’s hot. Curves and a killer sense of style – when she takes it off, you know it’s sexy.
The woman lesbian cop on The Wire – forget her name, but DAMN!
Also, who ready TV Guide or lets mainstream media dictate beauty. And, we all know, if there nothing intelligent coming out of the mouth, then beauty fades quick.
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Condy’s definitely hot. A German cousin of mine always got really excited when she had a press conference. He didn’t even speak English but he’d sit and watch the whole thing anyway.
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Abagond:
Of course, most of the Asian women used on tv/magazines are model beautiful. That’s what gets all the attention. And I agree with Wayne. There are ugly people, average, and beautiful people of all races.
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I agree that in every race some women are beautiful and some are ugly and most are somewhere in between. The percentages of each will depend on one’s preferences.
On television, however, it is another story and that is the point of the post. Ads will tend to have good-looking women, particularly if they are selling beauty products. But on shows it seems to be much less true.
I have no way of measuring this so, yes, this post is based on how it seems to me. I was curious if others saw it the same way or if it is just me.
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Gina Torres, Salli Richardson and Kandyse McClure are all great looking in my book (despite how they may look in the Wikipedia). I have never been one of those who thought Condi Rice or Michelle Obama were (not that they are ugly or anything).
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What you say about BW I agree, but I hardly ever see any Asian women on TV other thing Margaret Cho (who was overweight when she had her show in the 90’s), Lucy Liu, Lisa Ling, and Jennifer Hu. I would have a hard time naming another 4 Asian women on TV after those 4. I barely see Asian women in commercials. (Of course I don’t watch as much TV as I use to.)
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I meant Kelly Hu not Jennifer.
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Another thing, the Asian women you do see on tv in America is a far cry (looks-wise) from the Asian women in Asia. Margaret Cho, Lucy Lius, and Lisa Ling with the exception of Kelly Hu are considered unattractive in the the eyes of people living in Asia.
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Great point! I did not know that.
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L.T. said:
Of course, most of the Asian women used on tv/magazines are model beautiful. That’s what gets all the attention.
Right. That makes sense. But why then is it not applied to black women to the same degree?
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That, my dear abagond. I honestly don’t know. And coming from an Asian (Filipino), I’ve found it unfair that black women aren’t given that consideration.
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Does anyone else find this post to be insulting?
I’m just tired of all the posts dissecting what makes a black woman beautiful and what type of black woman would a white man go for, etc, etc. Usually, I feel that the posts are somewhat enlightening, but today I feel like this post is just nasty. Why are you specifically comparing black women to Asian women on t.v? And where do you get off calling regular Asian women ugly? Isn’t that the same crap people do to black women?
I see beautiful black women on tv all the time and I see beautiful Asian women in the street as well.
For goodness sake, I used to love the posts where you talked about what you found beautiful in black women because I’d never before heard anyone, black or white, say that about black women. Now I just feel like the beauty issue has become too much a focal point of this blog. I have never looked at an Asian woman and compared her to a black women, and I can’t understand why anyone would feel the need to.
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If I were Asian, I would be offended. What you need to learn is that you should not put down a group of people that aren’t your preference. You also do this with thin and overweight women. Just because they are not your preference, there is no reason to be insulting. That could be very hurtful to someone.
I think Asian women are extremely beautiful. And as someone stated, beauty comes in all forms.
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Sorry. I did not mean to offend Asian women. I took out the sentence where I said some are ugly. It is unnecessary for this post, I think.
This post is not meant to compare the beauty of black and Asian women – just the way that beauty is or is not shown on television.
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Court,
I couldn,t say it better!
I thought exactly the same thing!
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we are all racist …this is why we see beauty in one form and not in others…it is natural for the shapes and images we grew up with to be beautiful to us and only us no matter what ur race is…in early childhood development we as adults want to see things that make us feel good i.e. the image of a father or mother (from ur particular race). i find many but not all who date and out of their race see it as an exotic adventure, yearning to be different or just rebel. remember it doesnt take much to take a racism into bigotry…our racist views are developed early on as well…
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Although natural preferences exist for EVERY human being, NO ONE can HONESTLY DENY the MAJOR influence that HISTORICAL ANTI-BW RACISM/HATE has had on the way BW are portrayed/treated in American society.
It ISN’T NORMAL for MOST American men of EVERY RACE to AUTOMATICALLY view BW in a RACIST/ANTI-BW manner if it wasn’t for the ANTI-BW LIES, MYTHS, and STEREOTYPES that have CONSISTENTLY been promoted via the Hollwood/American media for MANY YEARS.
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Wayne says: Thatchicknik” “I have to disagree on this one. I cant speak on Asians because I dont really have an interest in that culture” Maybe you should take an interest as they have an interesting history!!!
Honey, I will take an interest when see fit to. That particular group of people are not of any interest to me at present time. As interesting as their history may be, I will look into it when something sparks MY interest. Until such time, I will not speak on that particular group of people, which is the wisest thing to do when you’re not educated on a particular topic. Take heed to that, dear.
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Your loss, sweetie!
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To Abagond:
Gina Torres, Salli Richardson and Kandyse McClure are all great looking in my book (despite how they may look in the Wikipedia).
Here are two photos of Rutina Wesley (one of the women I mentioned before who is on the HBO show “True Blood”) that show her in a better light than her Wikipedia photo:
Hat tip to your poster Mike who has http://www.blackfitnessblog.com as his website.
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Wow, that Wikipedia picture does not do her justice at all:
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Your comparison of Asian and black women can be interpreted a different way. Though I don’t necessarily agree, if your logic is true, perhaps it means that roles exist for black women of all shapes and sizes. Whereas an Asian woman has to be extra attractive in order to land a role.
Btw, your post comes off as fairly insulting to Asian women. I’m not saying you meant it, but I winced when I read your first couple of paragraphs.
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Thanks for the heads up. It needs work.
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Who is the first woman pictured with the car? She is F…..g HOT!!!!
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Esther Baxter:
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How did I miss this post?
All I can say is… Ugh. I don’t know if your writing skills approved much in the past year, but this one looks sloppy, to say the least. I understand what you wanted to say, but the way you said it… It’s just a) sexist, b) offensive to Asian women. (I believe b certainly wasn’t your intention, while you still need to work on a). But he overall article is just badly worded, I think.
You are right about several things, though. There don’t seem to be many positive, attractive, decent black characters (of any gender), though when it comes to attractiveness, I must say you can find attractive black men fore than attractive black women in mainstream movies. (Or maybe I pay more attention to men?)
Media is powerful. The “not so attractive people” thing is something my friends reported when they visited US, for example. Americans, on general, seemed less attractive than they expected (but not as unattractive as local propaganda want them to be seen). It’s all because of movies and TV. Most of the people are average looking (hence the term “average looking”), but if your only contact with a certain group is through media, the image you’ll have is the one media wants you to. So if a group is perceived as ugly, it’s how you imagine them, and vice versa.
Which brings us to another problem, though. Shouldn’t Americans know how other Americans look like, regardless of race?
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I actually preferred Marsha Warfield over Markie Post…tougher and straight-forward, even though Post was the main female character (she was cute, however).
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Mira:
I agree: this post did not turn out well.
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@ Abagond:
we live and learn!
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I have noticed this too – and if a character is “funny,” they will use a heavy person. In fact, it doesn’t seem they depict blacks in film well, either, being criminals, homeless, etc., not reflecting ones who are successful and educated. They will use beautiful women of color as lawyers, businesswomen, the independent single woman. But let me tell you, it is not limited to race, since many white females are not cast, unless young and attractive and has been a fact that women struggle to make it in Hollywood, past a certain age. The heavy woman is always used as the comic character, like the great actress, Conchata Ferrell on “Two and a Half Men”, who I am sure is happy to have had this work.
Many times too, sitcoms with African Americans will be depicted as having “silly” plots, instead of dealing with any real problems. Though, we could say that of all sitcoms, today. Though there was the “Cosby” show, which was mostly humorous, I recall the show “Good Times”, that would depict some serious story lines, which was more realistic. But why hasn’t there been a couple or family depicted in a positive light or depicting interracial couples, which I suppose many would not be accepting of.
I was seeking articles on the fact that it always seems the “husbands” on TV will be depicted as unappealing, yet will always be with young, good looking women, even in commercials. This just perpetuates the idea in men’s heads that this is the case and contributes to them feeling secure within themselves no matter how they look, while women are continually sent messages of perfection and youthfulness.
In reference to the poster who said ones from other countries were surprised at how Americans look — yes, we have the Media to blame for that. Anyone who lives in the states knows that, by observing others in public, that they ARE average looking and if one of those “beauties” shows up, it stops traffic. All of this creates unrealistic expectations in men, overlooking potentially wonderful female partners, for the continual fixation on what appeals to them, visually.
Altogether, the entire thing — race inequality, gender inequality is just WRONG and should not persist, yet there needs to be something generated for change. I would get behind any movement to do so.
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Reblogged this on Steph's Blog and commented:
Thank you Abagond for telling the truth. I appreciated your post on Black women in the media even though the post is 12 years old, it’s still relevant in these divisive times.
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