In my section of the project, I was to look into the physical aspect of what is considered to be attractive. My partner Erin and I were supposed to look at this from the perspective of all races, and both genders, but a haunting truth was knawing at us both within the black male race as we were going along with our interviews, so they ended up becoming the main focus of our project. We chose the black male because they are the ones MOST influenced by the media, music videos, magazines, and will pretty much fall for any propaganda thrown in their faces without asking any questions whatsoever about what is going on in their worlds. It becomes their lifestyle and if you try to correct or criticize their views on life, they will "bite your head off" in outrage because their level of brainwashing is too far-gone for them to try to see and understand the other side of things. Sadly, a lot of them (not all) have been reduced to stupid, mindless puppets in the society. They can be the most superficial and the most ignorant.

According to our research, interviews and our prior knowledge of black trends and culture, Girls with fuller bodies (from 129 – 155lbs+) are considered to be more attractive than thin framed women (popular in white America). This attitude dates back to ancient Africa and is still around in current day Africa as well. Erin and I were very pleased to hear this because the social effects for black girls in terms of body shape are positive. (Did you Know: according to a wikipedia article, Black women are more satisfied with their bodies than white women? A majority of black males in studies don't judge girls in terms of weight. In other studies, being thick, curvy, with large hips, rounded backside, and ample thighs was the most wanted body shape for black girls, although being so fat that you have no shape anymore was rated unattractive.) But with the good, also comes the irritating, which brings me back to the issue that irking Erin and myself. Ever since blacks came to America, black men have found girls that have light/ fair skin, with long, straight hair as the Epitome of beauty as opposed to darker skinned females. This is because Slaves on the plantations who were light skinned were given jobs and chores that were more respectable inside the house, such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. (According to wikipedia) A lot of lighter children were given the opportunity of a higher education, even being sent to study sciences, literature and the arts abroad. On the other hand, the darker-complexioned slaves were given laborious jobs, such as working the fields, picking cotton, and laboring manually (and the closest thing they got to traveling abroad was being promptly shipped to the next plantation). After slavery was abolished, the "color complex" issue strongly influenced the lives of African Americans when it came to status and achievement. Popular social clubs were even created exclusively for our light brethren in the early 1900's and they are still popular today down in the southern states with the Creole Black Americans (_). In my everyday life and in our interviews / word association experiment, many people associate the words "dark skin" with ugly, slave, "EWW!", horrible, or "little" words like nice and sweet (and those words were only used because I was in the room for the project and they were afraid of offending me and they didn't want backlash from others. They paused and chose their words carefully) "Light skin" was usually associated with words such as pretty, beautiful, gorgeous, sexy, etc (occasionally medium brown skin was okay as well.) when I asked the subjects about their perfect girl, they pretty much described what a white girl would look like. When I asked them about it they said that that is what they want their perfect black girl to look like (because they don't want to look like complete "sell outs" in their race) Dark skin is totally unacceptable. And guess what? This attitude is way beyond our town. On BET's new seasons of 106 and Park, the producers didn't even hire a black woman to host with VJ, Tigger. Instead, they hired a Hispanic girl by the name of Julissa, had her act "extra ghetto" so that she could replace a black woman (because, black women are so undesirable). Movie director John Singleton hardly ever casts black women as leading roles to black men because he felt that it was not realistic and not what the audience wants. WHAT AUDIENCE?!!!! According to a study in the University of Alabama, 70 – 80 % of Black males felt that light complexioned females were more attractive (there were more questions about what's attractive and the "good hair" issue, but this was straight to the point). The results of this study suggest that skin color (and hair texture as well) play a major role in the lives of many black men today. Let's briefly flip the script. Now, from what I've been told, being light skinned isn't all it's cracked up to be either. Light skinned females experience misunderstanding by darker blacks who fail to acknowledge the issues that being light presents. Also, light African American females may feel a hint of "unsureness " with black men who may not be able to see beyond their bias about skin tone and relate to them like regular people (okazawa-rey etal,1987). But dark skinned women have to deal with a even larger society telling them that they are not attractive, as well as individuals in their own community who may also express this negative message. (Look at Black Music videos, magazines, commercials, etc.) These women may suffer lower self- esteem as a result of these messages (Okazawa-Rey et al., 1987)

"I'm Black and Mexican" or "I'm Black and Italian" or " My great, great grandmother was white" or the ever so popular, " I've got Cherokee Indian in my family, that's why we have that good hair". If you're living within the black community, you hear that a lot from guys and girls. Being "mixed" with something is like a pathetic/ghetto badge of honor. The average Joe (AKA white people) would decipher those statements as just plain old ethnic pride, but it isn't. I can't speak for the entire black race, but with statements like the above, I've noticed that blacks hate themselves and are jealous of their mixed brethren (the actual half and halves). They always have to make themselves something else so they can appear to be "more exotic/ interesting" and they will rep that ridiculous pride to the fullest extent, even going as far as trying to fight you if you doubt them in any way. (As for the individuals who actually have those other ethnicity's in their blood, they only have a 4^th, 8^th, 16^th of that blood in their veins and because they want to be mixed so badly, they will CONSTANTLY claim being that ethnicity as if they were actually one half of it. They might even tell people that there not black at all) It used to be just light skinned black people (the ones who could actually get away with such statements), but now the darkest of the dark black people (the ones who you can clearly tell are in fact Negroid) are claiming to be mixed just so they can feel like their worth something and that's really sad. Here is an excerpt of an article written by Yolanda y. Adams about this issue: The obsession of the 80's and 90's skin color - disguised in ancestry .

Music Scene: An excellent example of different beauty is almost every woman in the Neo-Soul movement. Not only are these artists' songs consciencely (sp?) aware and truer to original ol school soul/ hip hop (black and afro-centric), but they are making a new beauty philosophy that was once unacceptable (Author Diane De Costa: In Sisters of the Yam, the renowned author bell hooks emphasizes the importance of artists like Lauryn Hill, who is often compared to Tracy Chapman, "not only because her music is deep and compelling, but because she has broken new ground in representing a black beauty aesthetic that is rarely depicted positively in this society." Continues hooks: "To see her pictures on album covers, billboards, posters, and in magazines affirms that one does not have to be light-skinned with straight hair and thin nose to be regarded as beautiful." ). A lot in Neo-soul you would see women with the classic Afro, sistah locs, traditional (popular) braids, double strand twists, African head wraps and baldy / caesars. Examples of female artists like this would be Erykah Badu, Floetry, Lauryn Hill , Kelis, Res., Jill Scott, Geopele, Lela James, Tweet, the list goes on. India Arie recently wrote a song entitled "I am not my hair". Talking about the superficiality of people (mostly Afro Americans) and going against the "Standard": " I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am the soul that lives within….. Good hair means curls and waves, bad hair means you look like a slave At the turn of the century Its time for us to redefine who we be You can shave it off Like a South African beauty Or get in on lock Like Bob Marley You can rock it straight Like Oprah Winfrey If its not what's on your head Its what's underneath". Male Neo soul artists such as Common, De'Angelo, Kanye West (on occasion), Roots, The Fugees, John Legend, Pharrell, Mos Def, etc. feature beautiful black models of all shades in their music videos.