Thursday, May 31, 2012

Hmm...something's wrong here

Not that I read or follow Maxim, but I just happened to hear that they came out with their “Hot 100”, so I decided to check it out. The list was the typical smattering of regularly attractive women, who we are told are ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, because they’re popular at the moment. One funny side note, Stephen Colbert was included in the Maxim Hot 100 (all women), so at least it lets us know that Maxim has a little bit of a sense of humor.
But what stood out to me most, above the fact that almost every single woman was a super-skinny model-type that has been included on these “hot” lists for the last 40 years, was the fact that of the 99 women on this list, only about 5 were black. I mean, certainly beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but isn’t it a little odd that the number of black women on this list don’t even come close to representing the proportion of black people in society as a whole? Maybe Maxim readers simply don’t find black women attractive, but it seems strange that the number would be so low, considering the fact that I’m sure the proportions of beautiful women per population are fairly consistent across racial lines.
I think there is a bigger issue at play here; the issues being that black men and women are underrepresented in media and entertainment, and black women specifically are not recognized as beautiful in our society in the same way as white women. The same black women appear over and over on these “hot” lists, while we continually see new, young white faces on the covers of magazines and on these “hot” lists. Maybe this isn’t the biggest issue facing our country today, but I for one think that it important to make all people feel valued (speaking of non-beautiful people, as well), even if they’re proportionally underrepresented in media, entertainment, and “hot” lists.

P.S. JWoww...seriously...JWoww?

4 comments:

Griffin said...

I'm not gonna lie, there is a SERIOUS disparity of concerns between your last two blog posts.

Unknown said...

No doubt. But I thought I'd lighten it up a little with Maxim instead of always focusing on politics.

Crystal Marie said...

I love you for this post. And I appreciate the variety. :)

Thanks.

Unknown said...

What is interesting is that in following the olympics, I've inevitably come across the "hot" olympians lists; and guess what, the same shit is going on with those lists as it was with Maxim, but to an even greater degree in light of the fact that this is a global competition, which means that the overwhelming majority of the participants are not white. Ugh...