From the “What a Stupid Twat” file, case #: 1208230170123-A
Wherein a feminist bitches and complains about President Obama referring to his daughters as “beautiful” in his speech after being re-elected. Now, I am no fan of Obama at all nor did I vote for him this time or last time. However, I will always defend someone against an unfair charge, even if I dislike them on other occasions. The president referred to his daughters as, “Strong, smart, and beautiful” because, well, they are. He expressed pride in his daughters….oh the horror! He pointed out their beauty!
Stupid Twat of the above article decides to focus in on the beauty thing and how it stings women because she believes that somehow people will never notice another person physically first before noticing anything else because apparently we don’t have eyes. Okay, yes, it is a problem to think that a woman’s worth is solely dictated by her beauty but it is a passing stupidity to think that beauty has no worth. That was, is, and always will be a false notion and no amount of social engineering is going to change that.
The best part of that article is the comment thread. I know, right? In it, several black women pointed to Stupid Twat’s whinging about Obama publicly calling his daughters beautiful as the reason why they are not feminists. Oh no, not about Obama personally, but the fact that white-dominated feminism overlooks, ignores, or denies the issues black women face. One of them, as pointed out in the thread, is living in a society (which, from my experience and that of others, seems to be uniquely American) that implicitly and explicitly tells black women and all those watching that black women are ugly. I strongly suggest reading those comments as they lay it out in a manner that I cannot do justice to.
This was promptly ignored by one particular commentor, who is either a cheerleader for Stupid Twat or a sock (alias), who feels as though these women pointing out their issues with the article and feminists overall were just expressing butthurt.
This, ladies and gents, is why feminism continues to not “get it” and decline in overall popularity.
“But…Aspasia,” I hear you sputtering, “didn’t you just say that people will always be judged according to appearance? So why are you objecting here?” Ah, grasshopper, herein lies the rub. Black women, even beautiful ones, will have had the experience of being bluntly told that they are “ugly” simply because they are black and for no other reason and yes, in that exact wording. This is a reality that can’t be grasped unless it is your own. I have known so many black women who languished dateless in this country, only to be overwhelmed by dates and quickly finding mates to marry once they left this country (London, Paris, and Rome are especially popular and have been for a couple of centuries).
I’ve never had this said to me as I have European features and a skin tone that is not out of place in the Mediterranean regions of the world, even though it is a slightly darker shade of olive. What I have heard said in my presence, from a fellow of East Indian heritage (American born and raised) who was as dark as the average “unmixed” Black folks I know is, “I don’t date black women because they’re all ugly and ghetto,” which he uttered when I told him about a black girl who lived in our dorm who expressed an interest in him. What a stupid twat he was.
Was she ugly? Not in my opinion. She reminded me very strongly of Gabrielle Union, only she was 19 or 20. Ghetto? Oh please. She grew up in Apple Valley, Minnesota where I think it would be physically impossible to be any stereotype of ghetto without it seeming a minstrel act. Yet the blonde white girl he had the hots for could have been Eminem’s twin sister as far as behavior.
See how that works?
These are the instances that make people want to dismiss notions of beauty altogether. And I understand the sentiment behind it, I do. But I feel there is a huge difference between saying “some people are beautiful and some people are not” and saying “some people are ugly because of their racial heritage”. Yeah, the latter is a problem no matter how it’s couched. 
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