Okay, let me start by saying fuck Psychology Today. Now that I have that off of my chest, I’ll tell you why the respected publication has quickly tumbled from the ranks of respected publication to bona fide shit rag with just one misguided, misinformed post. Maybe I shouldn’t condemn the entire publication for the article posted by an obviously disturbed individual, but I will.

Who left the gates open and allowed this codswallop to even hit the internet?!

Sorry, Lauryn Hill. Your beauty isn't appreciated around here.

The author is trying to prove “objectively” and scientifically that Black women are less attractive than other women…Objectively. To back his claim, he used data based on the opinions of a group of people who were asked to rate the subjects according to how attractive they were. In what alternate reality is this data objective? There is no way to ask a human who has been socialized by constant exposure to racism, sexism, and narrow standards of beauty to objectively rate the beauty of their fellow humans.

We can’t escape the incessant rhetoric of Black being inferior and we never will if we allow these types of articles to be published without taking its obvious flaws to task. First, what came first, the erroneous conclusion or the fucked up hypothesis? From the way the questions in the article were posed and answered, it seemed as if the author set out to prove that Black women are unattractive. He was already laboring under the opinion that Black women are unattractive and he sought a “scientific” explanation for his bias. That is problematic, subjective and not scientific in any way.

In the end, the author points to raised levels of testosterone, increased BMI and a higher number of genetic mutations as the reasons Black women are less attractive. Please sir, stop befouling your profession by using poor attempts at scientific inquiry to validate your thinly veiled racism. Thanks. At the end of the day, we all have our preferences but there is nothing objective about them. They are all subject to being altered and shaped by our cultures, world views and much, much more.