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Greater Implications of East African Fetishization

Living in the West, I've noticed that when it comes to women of color, certain groups within races are always placed over others. For example: East Asians. They're heavily fetishized for their fox eyes, monolids, rounder faces, and pale skin. When Asians are depicted as a sexual fantasy, it is usually a woman from Japan or Korea, not India or Bangladesh or the dozens of other countries in Asia whose women are dark skinned with bigger features. Another example I've noticed is with Hispanic/Latina women. The ideal is usually Brazilians, Spanish, or light skinned Latin Americans that are racially white. They’re never talking about the darker, indigenous, and fatter nose Latinas. 

Women of color are only appreciated if they fit into a specific ideal. And even then, a white woman will generally be picked first before any of those groups. 

Can we not do the same with East Africans? I’ve been seeing a lot of praise for Somalis lately and even though some is genuine (they really are gorgeous), a lot of it is phrased as “Why do Somalis not look like regular black people?” Or “Somalis/East Africans are the most beautiful Africans.” Ew. Let’s not. First of all, these questions operate under the belief that all Africans look the same. North Americans are are brainwashed by racist colonizers and Jim Crow cartoons to think that we all have fat noses, round faces, big lips, etc etc. 

This is a Somali woman. These features are what people praise: the slender face and nose. 

The second is also a Somali woman. Same features but not quite as glamorized. People are starting to believe all Somali people look like the first which is ridiculous because having those features alone is not all that plays into beauty. Like, to make the point that Somalis are the most beautiful, they’ll show the most glamorous Somali ever that fits European beauty standards perfectly and because other Somalis have similar features, there begins a collective subconscious that Somalis are all beautiful because of these features. This mindset is harmful because it once again is an example of society only appreciating women of color when they fit into a specific ideal, and the ideal is usually as close to European beauty standards as possible. Like yes, we should appreciate Somali features, but an average Somali should not be considered more attractive than an average Ghanian from West Africans just because the Somali has Euro-centric features.

 Also, Africa is the most genetically diverse continent. There is so much genetic diversity even between tribes, much less entire regions. To think all West Africans have fat noses and faces and all East Africans have slim noses and faces is ridiculous. 

This is a woman from the Fulani tribe in Nigeria (West Africa). 

This is a woman from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria. She has a slimmer face, nose, and lighter skin and her features fit the European beauty standard just like the other examples.

Yes, most slaves were taken from West Africa and a lot of West African have those stereotypical features, but not all do. In fact, from my anecdotal experience with West Africans, I would say about half don’t. To paint entire regions with “one look” is ignorant.

In summary, East African women are not the only African women whose looks differ from that of the stereotypical African. There are many tribes all over Africa that commonly have those features. I didn’t show any pictures, but many East African tribes and countries don’t even have those features, keeping in mind that there is more to East Africa than Somalia and Ethiopia. And honestly, having those features does not make one any more attractive. We are only conditioned to think so because of colonization enforcing that the only standard of beauty is the European one.