Abstract
Sexual racism, a form of prejudice enacted in sexual or romantic settings, is a complex phenomenon that can interact with racial stereotypes and media representations of beauty to affect interracial attraction. Research suggests that racialized beauty standards and racial stereotypes can perpetuate broader racist tendencies in social interactions. This study aims to develop a critical understanding of how undergraduate students conceptualize the intersection of race and sexuality, and how racial identity shapes their sexual and romantic experiences. Using a qualitative methodology of survey analysis and in-depth interviews, this study examines the attitudes and behaviors of students at a large public university in California, and focuses on the thematic analysis of qualitative data obtained during eighteen student interviews. This research identifies three significant themes: (1) the impact of racial stereotypes on interracial attraction, (2) the media’s tendency to perpetuate Whiteness as a standard of beauty, and (3) the harmful consequences of sexual racism on students’ self-esteem and self-worth. Findings suggest that racial stereotypes, beauty standards, and sexual racism are prevalent among this student community and have harmful consequences for students of color, including decreased self-esteem, sexual repercussions, and internalized racism.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bissell, K. L. (2002). “I want to be thin, like you”. Gender and race as predictors of cultural expectations for thinness and attractiveness in women. News Photographer,57, 4–12.
Blair, I. V. (2001). Implicit stereotypes and prejudice. In Cognitive social psychology: The Princeton symposium on the legacy and future of social cognition (pp. 359–374).
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology,3(2), 77–101.
Bryant, S. L. (2013). The beauty ideal: The effects of European Standards of beauty on black women. Columbia Social Work Review,IV, 80–91.
Callander, D., Newman, C. E., & Holt, M. (2015a). Is sexual racism Really racism? Distinguishing attitudes toward sexual racism and generic racism among gay and bisexual men. Archives of Sexual Behavior,44(7), 1991–2000.
Callander, D., Newman, C. E., & Holt, M. (2015b). “Not everyone’s gonna like me:” Accounting for race and racism in sex and dating web services for gay and bisexual men. Ethnicities,16(1), 3–21.
Caluya, G. (2006). The (gay) scene of racism: face, shame and gay Asian males. Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association e-Journal, 2(2). https://www.academia.edu/846082/THE_GAY_SCENE_OF_RACISM_FACE_SHAME_AND_GAY_ASIAN_MALES.
Cervulle, M., & Rees-Roberts, N. (2009). Queering the Orientalist porn package: Arab men in French gay pornography. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film,6(3), 197–208.
Charles, C. Z. (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual Review of Sociology,29, 167–207.
Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.
Dyer, R. (1997). The matter of whiteness. In White: Essays on race and culture (pp. 1–40). London: Routledge.
Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism: An interdisciplinary theory. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Feagin, J. (2006). Systemic racism: A theory of oppression. New York: Routledge.
Feagin, J., & Elias, S. (2013). Rethinking racial formation theory: A systemic racism critique. Ethnic and Racial Studies,36(6), 931–960.
Frankenberg, R. (1994). White women, race matters. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Frisby, C. M. (2006). “Shades of beauty”: Examining the relationship of skin color to perceptions of physical attractiveness. Facial Plastic Surgery,22(3), 175–179.
Goff, P. A., Thomas, M. A., & Jackson, M. C. (2008). “Ain’t I a woman?”: Towards an intersectional approach to person perception and groupbased harms. Sex Roles,59, 392–403.
Greene, B., White, J. D., & Whitten, L. (2000). Hair texture, length and style as a metaphor in the African-American mother–daughter relationship: Considerations in psychodynamic psychotherapy. In L. C. Jackson & B. Greene (Eds.), Psychotherapy with African-American women: Innovations in psychodynamic perspectives and practice (pp. 166–193). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Han, C. (2006). Geisha of a different kind: Gay asian men and the gendering of sexual identity. Sexuality and Culture,10(3), 3–28.
Holloway, I., & Todres, L. (2003). The status of method: Flexibility, consistency and coherence. Qualitative Research,3(3), 345–357.
Holmes, C. M. (2016). The colonial roots of the racial fetishization of black women. Black & Gold,2(2), 1–11.
Hunter, M. (2007). The persistent problem of colorism: Skin tone, status, and inequality. Sociology Compass,1(1), 237–254.
James, K. L. (1993). Sexual racism: A legacy of slavery. National Black Law Journal,13(1), 165–183.
Lara, A. (2010). “Cimarronas, Ciguapas, and Senoras”: Hair, beauty, race, and class in the Dominican Republic. In R. E. Spellers & K. Moffitt (Eds.), Blackberries and redbones: Critical articulations of black hair/body politics in africana communities (pp. 113–127). NJ: Hampton Press.
Lin, K., & Lundquist, J. (2013). Mate selection in cyberspace: The intersection of race, gender, and education. American Journal of Sociology,119, 183–215.
Livingston, G., & Brown, A. (2017). Intermarriage in the U.S. 50 years after loving v. Virginia. Pew Research Center: Social and Demographic Trends. Retrieved April 23, 2018, from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/05/18/1-trends-and-patterns-in-intermarriage/.
McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies. Wellesley College Working Paper (pp. 189–198).
Nagel, J. (2000). Ethnicity and sexuality. Annual Review of Sociology,26, 107–133.
Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1986). Racial formation theory in the United States. New York: Routledge.
Phoenix, A. (1996). “I’m white—So what?” The construction of whiteness for young londoners. In M. Fine, L. Weis, L. C. Powell, & L. M. Wong (Eds.), Off white: Readings on race, power and society (pp. 187–197). New York: Routledge.
Phua, V., & Kaufman, G. (2003). The crossroads of race and sexuality. Journal of Family Issues,24, 981–994.
Plummer, M. D. (2007). Sexual racism in gay communities: Negotiating the ethnosexual marketplace. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Philosophy, University of Washington. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database, 3275903.
Ramasubamanian, S. (2011). The impact of stereotypical versus counterstereotypical media exemplars on racial attitudes, causal attributions, and support for affirmative action. Communication Research,38(4), 497–516.
Raskin, P., Coard, S. I., & Breland, A. M. (2001). Perceptions of and preferences for skin Color, Black racial identity, and self-esteem among African Americans. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,31(11), 2256–2274.
Robinson, C. L. (2011). Hair as race: Why “good hair” may be bad for black females. Howard Journal of Communications,22(4), 358–376.
Robinson-Moore, C. L. (2008). Beauty standards reflect Eurocentric paradigms—So what? Skin color, identity, and black female beauty. The Journal of Race and Policy,4(1), 66–85.
Rosenthal, L., & Lobel, M. (2018). Gendered racism and the sexual and reproductive health of Black and Latina Women. Ethnicity and Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2018.1439896.
Sekayi, D. (2003). Commercialism in the lives of children and youth of color: Education and other socialization contexts. The Journal of Negro Education,72(4), 467–477.
Stember, C. H. (1978). Sexual racism: The emotional barrier to an integrated society. New York: Elsevier.
Tukachinsky, R., Mastro, D., & Yarchi, M. (2017). The effect of prime time television ethnic/racial stereotypes on Latino and Black Americans: A longitudinal national level study. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media,61(3), 538–556.
University of California Campus Profile. (2018). 2017–2018 Campus Profile. Retrieved June 2, 2018, from http://bap.ucsb.edu/institutional.research/campus.profiles/campus.profiles.2017.18.pdf.
Wilkins, C. L., Chan, J. F., & Kaiser, C. R. (2011). Racial stereotypes and interracial attraction: Phenotypic prototypicality and perceived attractiveness of Asians. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology,4, 427–431.
Funding
This study was funded by the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) Grant (Grant Number 3113), provided by the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Silvestrini, M. “It’s not something I can shake”: The Effect of Racial Stereotypes, Beauty Standards, and Sexual Racism on Interracial Attraction. Sexuality & Culture 24, 305–325 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09644-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-019-09644-0