Tall, Bright & Handsome

Unlike a most rappers, I can appreciate all a wide variety of looks. At First Friday at Felt Lounge there were beautiful hues of Black men everywhere. From the fine hi-yellah boys to the luscious dark-skinned cuties. I saw dark-brown chocolate and honey-colored redbones. I do have my preferences in shades and colorings, but I do know that there are cute men across the color spectrum. Can anyone tell me why a dark woman is not considered feminine? Or why a light colored man is not considered masculine? You can see it in all cultures. The expression “tall, dark and handsome” is used by all women regardless of race. On TV and movies you always see a dark hair and swarthy skin man as the romantic lead (Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp). The only prominent blonde leading man is Brad Pitt. The same goes for black actors as well. The darker the black man is the more attractive he gets seems to say convention, but many black women find Shemar Moore, John Legend, or some other curly-head “light-skinned” boy the epitome of sexiness. The media sets up a cultural ideal that permeates the society by causing trends to move in one direction or the other and what is so troubling is they are so, so narrow. Think about the leading ladies: all are blonde (no need to list, think of anyone of them). Since there aren’t too many black leading ladies it’s hard to even make any comment on them, but one thing is true 99% are not DARK in color. Don’t even get me started on the music industry. If you look similar to Mariah Carey or Carrie Underwood you will get a record deal no matter if you can sing or not (Paris Hilton, Hillary Duff, Lindsay Lohan). Of course, luckily, some women’s talent can be denied and they break the typical look barrier (Fantasia, Angie Stone, Fiona Apple). It’s funny ‘normal’ people find beauty all around, but the media insists on putting us all in a very restrictive box.

Maybe I’m a little obsessed.

(Why, oh, why does the music industry insist on this trick of re-releasing old CDs with two or three new songs on it? See Mariah Carey and Usher for example. I’m listening to two songs on the Mariah Carey “Ultra Platinum Edition” of Emancipation of Mimi and they are HOT, but why would I buy the CD AGAIN for just two more songs? It’s plain evil.)