Sample Solution

This article seeks to analyze the relation and effect body size, race, and dress attire has on notions of attractiveness. The researches hypothesize that African American women may not internalize the Western conceptions and standards of beauty and attractiveness compared to Caucasian Americans. The study conducted included 160 participants (80 African American; 80 Caucasian American) which were recruited from newspaper advertisements, churches, and community-based organization in Washington DC. The Model Rating Task (MRT) was used in this study to measure the height and weight of the participants. Results show that 81.7% of the participants that were underweight and normal weight were Caucasian women, whereas 69.0% of the participants that were overweight and obese were African women. Both groups shared similar conceptions of attractiveness. Contrary to the hypothesis, African American women viewed thinner and slimmer girls as more attractive, thus, had embodied the Western ultra-thin body norm. Interestingly, both Caucasian and black women defined darker skin complexion as more attractive but only when the woman is skinny. The study concludes that African Americans definition of attractiveness, in the past defined as having curvy hips that expresses their femininity more, have started to migrate towards Western views of beauty and attractiveness held by Caucasian women who define attractiveness as having a thin and slim body.

This article is a relevant source to the research question of this paper as it demonstrates that Western conceptions of beauty, especially body size, are embodied by black women. Both black and white women possessed similar definitions of attractiveness and beauty. In additional, this article assesses that darker skin colour may be perceived as attractive but only when the woman has a slim body. These conceptions of beauty as formed by the Western mainstream society and internalized by the racialized society.