"Who WOULDN'T want a blonde, blue-eyed Russian?"

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

On 48 Hours last night, they did an excellent story on human sex trafficking. Very sad and sobering.

BUT:

I wanted to get petty about something: one of the former prostitutes says to the journalist, "well, you know, Russian girls are all blonde and blue-eyed - who WOULDN'T want them?" :D

And I just thought to myself, um, honey, I'm sure beneath the visual disguise that you're beautiful and lovely and charming, especially if you're like most of the Russians I've ever met in my life, but, uh, this viewer prefers brown skin by far.

What do you think, are blonde, blue-eyed individuals the pinnacle of human beauty?

[MissMarple]

1. I can't answer that question.

Conflict of interest problems. :evilgrin:

[CanuckAmok]

2. My uneducated theory:

The more blonde, fair, and hairless one is, the less they resemble a primate.

Therefore, on an atavistic level, blonde, blue-eyed, tall, hairless = rare and exceptional, even in cultures where they are the majority.

and for the record, I totally :loveya: Russian and Eastern European women, but I like the dark-haired, green grey or blue-eyed variety.

Like this one who keeps bugging me to marry her:




"Character:
I am very kind, caring, lovinf, interesting...Well if peple are Real Half they are always interesting for each other because it was done like this by Destiny....I like children.Do not have my own but would like to have two children in a marriage with love person when we both will want that....


Interests:
I like to play badminton, skate, I like cooking, I collect blooming cactuses, I like to travel - World is soooooo Beautiful , to listen to music, visit theatres...


Looking For Type:
I think that he should be quiet, attentive, careful, with good sense of humor.Who know how to love woman, always be honest and speak,I like open realations when we do not have what to hide...and if something worry you inside share it with me and I will help you...support you my Special...you are so far and I want you to be so close so near...that I could feel your warmth....need you so much ..."

[Darth_Kitten]

26. Hey, those with hazel or brown eyes are pretty amazing too

:(

[tjdee]

3. Well, you can extrapolate that to fair skin--seeing that a LOT in Bollywoo

d films.

I think the standard explanation is that blue/blond is rarer than other hair/eye combos. Which is true, I guess.

But in general, there is a *very* ingrained view of beauty as being fair skinned, especially with women. You can see that all the way back in Egyptian art. I think the thinking there is that fair skinned women weren't out working the fields, so they were classier (and again, rarer).

What is really funny (meaning disgusting) in Bollywood is that India is a brown nation--but British colonialism among other factors have made it so that Indians are actively marketed "skin lightening creams" and most of the famous stars there have light skin.

Even here many of the famous non-white stars have fairer skin, straighter hair, etc.

[Nomad559]

4. I prefer brunettes

Vanessa Zotth

http://www.discretos.net/content/vanessa-zotth.php

:)

[RPM]

7. shes pretty hot - but it looks like she has a spear stuck in her tummy...

:P

[Schema Thing]

13. *weeps*

[name not needed]

14. I do too

:)

[johnnie]

5. I don't really look for a specific type

If a woman catches my eye, it can be a lot of things and it's not the color of skin, eyes, hair or any other specific physical features. So I am going to say no to the question.

[hallo]

6. there

are a lot of men who like the exotic mediterranean look (i.e. Eva Longoria). As a blond with blue eyes I feel unexotic and very girl next door boring, actually :)

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

10. That's me

Give me olive or brown skin and dark eyes any day.

[lildreamer316]

20. Me too;

especially being a "dancer " (exotic). Industry standard is boooooring. Think I'm gonna go red this fall.

[alarcojon]

33. Eva is Mexican-American. eom

[jmm]

8. I always thought men preferred

brunettes with brown skin and brown eyes. Atleast that's what they tell me ;-).

[necso]

9. There are many

different "looks" in "attractive" women -- just like there are many different "looks" in "good" art (as per my taste).

But it is the quality ("character", "depth", etc) that defines the most appealing in either.

[hallo]

11. very true

"But it is the quality ("character", "depth", etc) that defines the most appealing in either."

:)

[necso]

12. The context is

my taste (carried over implicitly from the first paragraph).

If I'd wanted to make a broader assertion, I would've had to use a word other than (an unmodified) "appealing". What "appeals" to the many seems all too apparent from the media -- perhaps because it stems from the media in no small part.

And from what I have seen of this "popular taste", I wouldn't make that (the same original) assertion more generally.

[undeterred]

15. I watched that story- it was really sad

and hard to believe that this is actually going on- people depraved enough to sell human beings and depraved enough to buy them.

I caught that remark- I think it was mean to suggest that anyone might be tempted by this... but came off as a little like an ethnic bias.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

16. Yeah, exactly.

It sounded very ethnocentric. Akin to something like, "well, of course we're great - how could we not be - we are us - therefore, we are great!"

But yeah, it was a disturbing, sad story. Really important to bring that issue home, and I think they did that very well.

[LisaL]

17. LOL.

Obviously, not all Russian girls are blond and blue eyed.
Blond is a pretty rare hair color.

[bertha katzenengel]

18. I don't think blonde, blue-eyed individuals are the pinnacle of beauty.

I am a blonde, blue-eyed (part) Russin, AAMOF, and I've always resented that blondes have been put out there by the media as The Ideal. :puke:

[LisaL]

19. Real blond is rare. If brown hair was rare, it would be all the rage.

[Momgonepostal]

28. Natural red has got to be more rare than blonde

Many people like red hair, myself included, but it certainly doesn't get the attention blonde seems to.

[mvd]

21. There are many pretty blonde, blue-eyed..

women out there - but the answer is clear to me - there is no pinnacle of beauty. There is beauty in all hair colors, races, body sizes, eye colors, etc. I tend to be MOST attracted to fair skinned women as I'm fair skinned, but I'd hate to be judging beauty for a magazine. I don't think it should be done. Ask men their faves, and you'll get a million different answers. :-)

[the_spectator]

22. Whoa.

"What do you think, are blonde, blue-eyed individuals the pinnacle of human beauty?"

Not the pinnacle of human beauty, but there might unfortunately be something there. There is a lot of evidence that over time, many people have felt that the generally north-western European type is more "beautiful."

It's true that generally, people find what is powerful attractive. So that explains part of it. For the past few centuries, Europeans have often been more powerful than non-whites. But people have at times "preferred" the north-western European ("blonde and blue-eyed") type even when power was NOT on the side of the blonde and blue-eyed: Even in the 1980s, when Japan was riding high economically, about to take over the world (economically) many people thought, Japanese businessmen - the "Masters of the Universe" at the time - liked their "good time" women blonde-and-blue-eyed whenever possible. During the early days of the then-powerful Ottoman Empire, when Europe was still coming out of the Middle Ages, the Turkish Sultans would often import "white" women from backwards Russia for their harems. And of course there is the report that back in the early Dark Ages, when the Popes in Rome were doing their best to hold European civilization together, one day Pope Gregory the Great saw some young slaves from far away in the slave market in Rome, and was struck by their appearance. When Gregory asked who they were, he was informed that they were "Angles" (as in Angles and Saxons) from Britain. The great Pope responded, "Non angli sed angeli" - "Not Angles, but Angels."

Because attraction is often about power, some tastes change a lot over time as status-symbols change: When only the rich could feed themselves adaquately, fat was attractive, because it took power and wealth to be able to become fat! When society was overwhelmingly agricultural, a tan was unattractive - it was a sign of being stuck out in the fields, the lot of the peasant. Once society became industrial, and the average man spent his life of toil indoors in the factory, the privilege that allowed rich people to get tans made tanning attractive. HOWEVER, when it comes to questions of facial structure, I DON'T see that kind of swing in opinion: Fashions in clothing certainly change. The fashions of the 90s, for example, were from a whole different world and sensibility than the fasions of the 20s. But if you put Kate Moss in a "bob" haricut, would she not fit in perfectly well as the star of some 20s silent movie?

Why is the "blonde-and-blue-eyed" seen as more attractive? Why does this seem to consistently happen? Well, I know what it's not about (I think) -- it's not about skin color or eye color. There are many attractive, very black women, for example. But those who are generally judged to be attractive, even if they are very black, are those whose FACIAL STRUCTURE most resembles the "white" structure -- thin but strong noses, etc. etc.

Again, but WHY is the "blonde-and-blue-eyed" type seen as more attractive? Why is this the case? To be honest, I have NO IDEA. But I think there is some truth to the fact that it happens, nonetheless.

(I'm sorry if this is problematic here, but the OP did have the temerity to ask a question that had the capacity to bring on the Popcorn Follies. I just wanted to try to give an attempt at an answer.)

[mvd]

23. The only thing I can think of is the rarity of blonde hair

And it's completely superficial, as blondes unfairly get the ditzy/dumb label. I don't think race is much of a factor, as there are many darker-skinned Caucasians/whites, for example.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

24. You would have to cite some data to support a lot of contentions in your

post. Even so, there is only "data" or information about this sort of thing over the last century or so, and to the extent that there has ever been worldwide media and mass communication, the dominant pop culture/movie images of glamour and beauty have come from the West because of political and economic power.

Even as we write, the whole landscape of movies and pop culture is changing dramatically each year right now.

If you have a century or so of India or China being the dominant world power, you might find a change in perceptions of "who's most beautiful" as well.

Even within 50 years in this country, the body image of a "beautiful" woman has changed from the more full figured Marilyn Monroe type to the current anorexic supermodel type (with breast implants of course).

[Darth_Kitten]

25. Anybody can be beautiful....

:)

[Momgonepostal]

27. This is something that has always bugged me

I'm a freckled, brown haired, brown eyed white person and have never understood this "blond/blue is the ultimate" stuff. I understand that everyone has their own tastes, but also think there are many, many ways to be beautiful. My own preference is darker, but honestly, there are bigger, more important issues than coloring

Stupid also to say Russians are all blonde and blue eyed. Umm, no they're not.

[BiggJawn]

29. She may have been speaking from a "John's" POV...

And thus what's she's saying is "Well, what scumball who'd cheat on his wife or is such a disappointing loser that he has to BUY pussy wouldn't want a blue-eyed blond?"

Frankly, green-eyed redheads get my wonderworm dancing more...

[existentialist]

30. Strange digression (and what does this mean?)

So here we are at the Democratic Underground Lounge discussing standards of female beauty in superficial terms. HMMM.

First, the article was about the trafficking of human slaves for sexual purposes--I think we have (as a group) digressed, but leaving the sadness of the original story behind let's proceed . . .

Second, it has been said that, "Beauty is skin deep. But ugly goes clean to the bone."
I have taken this to mean that physical beauty is common, but when one of those physically beautiful young people start talking, and saying nothing that doesn't reveal true shallowness . . . is not the beauty lost? And is not what has replaced far deeper?

Third, I heartily concur that beauty lies in no one physical type.

Four, OK, this is the lounge, it's a place to take a break, and maybe we all need a break, but doesn't the posting of cheesecake here kind of demean the whole site? OK, maybe some of us here do feel a bit desperate in ways, but I did think we were trying to change the world for the better here.

[alarcojon]

34. Well put

I agree

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

31. A point and an apology, not in that order

Two things:

1) An apology to anyone who was offended by my "cheesecake" OP. As I indicated, I recognized that it was a petty irritation, so that's why I prefaced my post with acknowledgment about the horribleness of human sex trafficking and that the awareness of it supersedes any comment that the prostitute said.

2) As to rareness = preciousness, someone has already pointed out that red hair is equally if not more rare, and doesn't attract the same level of attention as blond hair. So that argument doesn't wash with me. You could also say that, for example, dwarfism is rare, so why isn't that generally considered hot?

No, I think the reason why blond, blue-eyed men and women are considered more attractive has something to do with the media and how it gives us all a picture of reality which doesn't necessarily dovetail with reality as it exists. For example, many, if not most, of Hollywood's major celebrities are blond and blue-eyed. If one didn't think too much about it, one could reasonably say that "blond hair and blue eyes are the highest form of beauty; after all, look at how many of Hollywood's actors and actresses have blond hair and blue eyes."

[Lorien]

32. Hair/ eye color has nothing to do with beauty, IMHO.

harmony within one's own coloring, facial proportions and facial symmetry are what guide our perceptions of beauty. I'm a blue eyed blonde naturally, but I get far more complements when I dye my hair red because the color harmonizes with my skin and eye color better than my natural shade (putting to lie that what's natural is always most appealing), while dyeing my hair brown makes me look like a member of the Adam's family. We've all known women with dark locks and pale blue eyes that caught our attention, or men who shaved or added a beard and suddenly brought their facial features into harmony with one another. One of my good friends is from India, and her light amber eyes-lighter than her skin tone-are mesmerizing when combine with her long dark tresses. Beauty has a thousand variations.