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The Fetishization of Racial Ambiguity — Is Being White Not Attractive Anymore? | Blackfishing vs Eurocentric Beauty Standards

Laurie Lo
16 min readMar 8, 2022

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This is a written version of a video essay produced for Laurie’s Wandering Mind on Youtube.

“You know? It’s Ok to be white. Like, I don’t know where white people got this idea that it wasn’t because I mean y’all have the privilege […] but y’all still wanna be black.” — Madisyn Brown in “Its Okay to Be White”

Today I want to address a topic I find fascinating: the recent trend of fetishization of racially ambiguous women and more “exotic” features. According to Google, “Racial ambiguity is a term used to describe someone whose racial background is unclear at first glance. It’s often been forced onto mixed race and other racialized people who happen to have lighter skin.”

One of the major bases for race and ethnicity is appearance and while there is obviously a spectrum or typical features within a given race, there are dominant relative features that help define what an average person of this race would look like. White people have a light skin complexion and usually lighter hair color, black people have dark skin, and tight, dark, curly hair, east asian people have dark straight hair and often have monolids, etc.

Through history and still very much so today, in western countries, the most desirable traits have mostly been eurocentric in nature. By Eurocentric, we are talking about white pale skin, blond hair, blue eyes, slim figure, etc. This remains true for people of color that live in those western countries as well, and those beauty standards have also been exported across the globe through colonization and later on globalization. We’ve all heard of asian people getting double eyelid surgery, or darker skin people bleaching their skin.

What’s interesting is that despite that, there is an emerging trend of white people trying to emulate ethnic features now deemed desirable, through plastic surgery, or make up or semi-permanent alterations. You’ve probably heard of “blackfishing” where celebrities and other people have been accused of trying to appear black or borrowing black features, or alternatively perpetrating cultural appropriation. The Kardashians and Ariana Grande, notably, have both been heavily criticized for doing so.

In her video “Keeping Up with the Appropriation” Bri Nobles says: “many other people have noted have surrounded themselves with black people for as long as we can all remember […] the rest of them have really really surrounded themselves with black people as a means of gaining access into blackness in a way that they would not otherwise and i think the relationships […] i think that the kardashians conveniently situate themselves within that sort of gray area and that liminal space of race so that they can’t fully be called out one way or the other […] so they’re benefiting off of the ambiguity of their you know making themselves more brown literally and then there’s situatedness around black people for the most part.”

I think that before going further it’s important to note that beauty is highly valued in our society. There is a certain level of privilege that is afforded to people who are considered beautiful by our societal standards. According to myimprfectlife.com “Pretty privilege works on the principle that people who are deemed more attractive — based on societal beauty standards — have an upper hand in the world and are afforded many opportunities that us regular folks don’t have.” And since beauty is heavily commodified and an industry worth over $500 billion according to Forbes.com, it’s not surprising there is a market capitalizing on the growing popularity of specific ethnically desirable traits.

I also want to note that I have a personal vested interest in this topic since I am partially mixed myself and I have a son and am currently pregnant with a daughter that will be even more mixed since their dad is Asian.

Traditional Eurocentric Beauty Standards

First, let’s discuss traditional eurocentric beauty standards for a little bit of context. It’s easy to imagine that through history, European imperialism and colonialism were responsible for wide spreading western beauty ideals. By promoting whiteness and its defining features such as “Very fair skin, straight blond hair, blue eyes, Nordic facial features, thin bodies,” etc. colonizers were reinforcing the idea of European superiority and the oppression of the ones that couldn’t conform to these standards. 1

Khadija Mbowe says in “Beauty is in the eye of… the Colonizer?”: “when you have racial theorists like that believing to the cores of their white supremacist bones that the caucasians were the most beautiful race I don’t know it just makes sense that most white folks would internalize that and help spread that mentality to marginalized groups and that struggle to like decolonize your mind is something i think a lot of people of color struggle with.”

More recently, the global dominance of American media and entertainment, the rise of social media and the subsequent westernization of cultures in the rest of the world has also been contributing to the popularization of eurocentric beauty standards. Since most of these media feature predominantly white folks, it’s easy to understand why European features are considered the beauty ideal.

This has led to a rise cosmetic procedures aimed at emulating western beauty standards, particularly in Asia. Korea has often been referred to as the capital of cosmetic surgery of the world, with Japan not far behind. In Korea, nearly fifty percent of women in their twenties undergo double eyelid surgery. A research paper from the International Socioeconomics Laboratory explores in detail the specific beauty standards influencing different parts of Asia. For instance, in Central Asia and parts of the Middle East, young women are influenced to consider skin whitening, double eyelid surgery and blepharoplasty, a surgery aimed at droopy eyelid. In South Asia, lighter skin has been associated with ”symbolic cultural capital [such as] upper class image, luxury, prestige, and success.” In East Asia, double eyelid surgery is very popular and lighter skin tones are preferred. Of course this is a bit reductionist and isn’t 100% due to the spread of eurocentric beauty standards, a lot of other historic influences are at play but for the sake of this conversation, I believe these still remain relevant.

The desirability of lighter skin stretches through lots of cultures. Historically, in many cultures such as ancient chinese, japenese, egyptian, greek and roman societies, lighter skin was associated with aristocracy and higher class whereas darker skin usually meant one was often a peasant and worked outside all day. Similarly, during slavery in the United States, darker skin usually meant one worked in the fields and lighted skin usually meant they worked in the homes, a more favourable environment. For Latinxs, European genes and looks seem to be more valued in American household although I couldn’t find much information on the actually beauty standards of respective cultures. In her article for medium.com, Charlotte F. recounts her own experience as a light-skinned Latina saying that “whiteness” was highly valued in her family and how she didn’t experience as much “racism, insecurities, and consequent low self esteem [her] own mother felt as a brown-skinned Latina in America.” She also mentions that a recent Pew Research Center survey found that the darker a Latin person’s skin is, the more likely they were to experience discrimination. In fact, nearly two thirds of Latinxs with darker skin reported experiencing discrimination or being treated unfairly from time to time compared to half of those with lighter skin tone.

Rise of Mixed Race Aethethics in Pop Culture

The recent rise in “mixed-race-ness” is most likely due to the evolving demographics in the United States. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data, “One-in-seven [or 14% of] U.S. infants were multiracial or multiethnic in 2015, [which is] nearly triple the share in 1980.”

There has also been an exponential rise in popularity of black culture in the last few decades, and especially even more since the renewed momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. There has also been growing trends of racial inclusivity in films and television in the recent years, although I couldn’t find concrete statistic data to support this claim. BIPOC artists and influencers are also gaining popularity across all social media platforms.

In my research, I came across an article from Duke University talking about the perception of multiracial-ness. “Just the suggestion that an African-American person is of mixed-race heritage makes that person more attractive to others, research from Duke University concludes. This holds true even if the people in question aren’t actually of multiracial heritage, according to the peer-reviewed study, published in the June 2016 issue of Review of Black Political Economy.” The simple perception of exoticism sways people to see multiracial blacks as better-looking, says study author Robert L. Reece, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Duke. “Being exotic is a compelling idea,” Reece says. “So people are attracted to a certain type of difference.”

The Kardashian Era & Blackfishing

So that brings us to this new trend of people trying to imitate typically black features. According to Urban Dictionary, the term blackfishing is defined as “Commonly perpetrated by females of European descent (white) which involves artificial tanning and using makeup to manipulate facial features in order to appear to have some type of Black African ancestry. The general point of blackfishing is […] to appear of African, Arab, or Hispanic ancestry.” The term seems to have been popularized in 2018 by Journalist Wanna Thompson on a viral Twitter thread discussing how white celebrities and influencers “cosplay’ as black women on social media.

The appropriation of black culture has existed long before that through the copying of traditionally black hairstyles such as braids, cornrows, perms, dreadlocks, etc. and fashion among other ways. There are obviously extreme examples of this like Martina Big and Rachel Dolezal, but celebrities often called out for milder forms of blackfishing include Kim Kardashian, Ariana Grande, Rita Ora and Jesy Nelson. Many influencers have also been accused of this distasteful behaviour, notably Emma Hallberg and Mika Francis.

Sholayy says in her video “You’re only pretty because you look white” “Do you believe the reason why Kim K and her family were able to penetrate the way they did was because they started to associate themselves with black people? They started to look biracial. […]”

In “Keeping Up with the Appropriation”, Bri Nobles adds: “they’re [the Kardashians] picking and choosing parts of black women and parts of blackness to put on and to try on us costumes and then they will discard them whenever it suits them […] so lips are one of the things, their skin color, a lot of the time their hair styles, people they associate with and then the shapes of their bodies right.”

Speaking of Ariana Grande, Madisyn Brown says the following in “Its Okay to Be White”: “As her music has evolved so has her persona and she’s definitely changed a lot and she’s moved toward a more urban style or urban music style. It’s not like she just changed up her music style, she changed everything. She changed her skin tone, she changed her lyrics […] she even changed her speaking voice […]. I mean the fact that her skin tone was the same complexion as Nicki Minaj is a little disconcerting not gonna lie.”

What is important to denote is that a big criticism echoed by many black people is that their is a certain unfair convenience white people have to be able to take what they want from another race or ethnicity’s culture and adopt it without facing the real life consequences and harsh disadvantages people of color actually face on a daily basis.

On BBC Radio’s 4 Woman’s hour, journalist Wanna Thompson even suggested that people will adopt typical black beauty traits “just enough to hang on to racial ambiguity without fully dealing with the consequences of Blackness.” She also said that “Black women are constantly bombarded with the promotion of European beauty standards in the media, so when [their] likeness is then embraced on women who have the privilege to fit traditional standards yet freely co-opt Blackness to their liking, it reaffirms the belief that people desire Blackness, just not on Black women.” in an article for Paper Mag.

For Harriet says in “ Ariana Grande really, really wants to be mixed”: “I know that these white women aren’t trying to be black like me. They want to be either exotic white, a la the Kardashians, or they want to be mixed race, like the Kardashian offsprings.”

Semi-Permanent Alterations for Ethnically Desirable Traits

So we’ve seen some of different ways white people have been altering their image to adopt some racially ambiguous traits before like excessive tanning, texturizing and coloring of hair, and some more drastic measures such as cosmetic surgery including the recently rise in popularity of BBLs or Brazilian Butt Lifts and fox eyes surgeries. For the sake of clarity, I define semi-permanent alterations as temporary specific treatments and cosmetic applications that last longer than a day’s wear and often cannot be removed easily. Examples include self-tanning, but also eyelash extensions, artificial nails, microblading or laminating of the eyebrows, permanent makeup (eyeliner, lip shading), hair coloration and texturization, hair extensions, and even body hair removal. Side note, can we take a moment to look at the extremely disturbing amount of procedures even impermanent ones we are being marketed to as women? Also, how crazy is it that we are commodifying so much of our looks? I should probably make a video on that someday. Now, obviously any surgery even minor ones come with their own risk, but those semi-permanent alterations are typically mostly harmless. Some of them do expose you to certain chemicals so they should still be used with caution. I should also mention that some image editing apps and filters allow you to edit your pictures to look more tanned or change the shape of your eyes amongst other things. That is also another way to temporarily imitate certain ethnic features.

I wanted to expand on tanning for a moment because as I watching a Salem Tovar video, she actually made me realize something I had never really considered before.

She said: “Tanning is just as problematic as bleaching your skin. I said it and I don’t regret it. […]. both are toxic to then and both are changing who you are and the skin you are born with.”

She is not wrong! Especially if we are talking about tanning beds. We all know by now that they are linked with higher risk of developing skin cancer. What I recently learned is that spray tans may also be particularly bad for your health.

In a video about self-tanning, Dr. Shereene Idriss says: “Spray tans are a whole other beast. Because we were talking about DHA applied onto one’s organ the skin. Now what happens when you inhale DHA and it affects another organ like your lungs. And this is where it can get dangerous and the FDA has warned against the use of spray tanning booths especially in people who work in theses salons because they’re doing like 10–15–20–30 treatments a day and who know how much they’re inhaling so copious amounts of DHA […] and it can lead to lung toxicity over time and we don’t know what other sort of side effects.”

I encourage you to watch the rest of her video if you would like to learn more about self-tanning. It will be linked down below.

Colorism and Mixed-ness of POC in Media

Lastly, I thought it was important to touch on colorism within communities of colors and in media.

The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) defines colorism as “A practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. This practice is a product of racism in the United States, in that it upholds the white standards of beauty and benefits white people in the institutions of oppression (media, medical world, etc.).”

In a Teen Vogue article, Tiffany Onyejiaka, the author blames Hollywood producers and casting agents for not including more dark skin black women in roles made for them: “They choose to endorse an incredibly narrow selection of black women, yet at the same time, want to get accolades for achieving diversity and representation on-screen.” This lack of representation is the reason why some of the most popular black actresses that book so many roles are light-skinned like Zendaya, Halle Berry, Zoe Saldana, and Amanda Stenberg to name a few. She adds that “indicates that Hollywood still overwhelmingly believes that a black woman must possess non-black ancestry or features to be considered beautiful or valuable.”

Interestingly, there is also this trend I have noticed for Hollywood to often cast half-asians to play asian roles. There’s definitely a lot of famous half-asian actresses and celebrities like Vanessa Hudgens, Chrissy Teigen, Shay Mitchell, Kristen Kreuk, Janel Parrish, and Maggie Q, and a growing list of half-asian heartthrobs like Charles Melton, Darren Barnet, and Ross Butler to name a few.

Final Thoughts

Time for some final thoughts. I think the rise in popularity of racial ambiguity as an aesthetic is definitely a fascinating phenomenon and I’m interested to see where it goes. I don’t think it is going to replace the age-old eurocentric beauty standards which are still very much alive and well, but with the shifts in demographics in Western countries and more and more actual mixed people being born, it will be interesting to see what societal beauty standards will evolve into. Maybe as the rest of the world continues to westernize and beauty standards in other countries continue to be influenced by the dominant American culture, we will see white people trying to look more ethnic and ethnic people trying to look more white until we all kind of look different from our “birth race or ethnicity”? Who knows? I’m interested to see what you think.

In regard to blackfishing and the different alterations people make to adopt popularized ethic beauty traits, I think it’s important to note that most people aren’t malintentioned. In her video “Its Okay to be White” which I have mentioned a couple times today, Madisyn Brown says that she believes that this type of behaviour shows a person’s insecurities more so than their insensitivity and I would have to agree. Yes people should be more self-aware of the sources of their influences and how it affects other people, but most girls who excessively tan or wear braids are not intentionally trying to rip off black culture and I don’t even think most of them are intentionally trying to look black or exotic. I think most of them are just following trends like any other trend. Speaking mostly of Western countries, in the 2000 being skinny and blond was cool, now the hourglass shape is in and being tanned is deemed cooler. I think it might have something to do with the idea that maybe if you are tanned it means you are wealthy enough to go on vacation and spend leisure time outside. Oh, how the times have changed! Remember how historically the people who spent time outside used to be of lower social casts? Interesting!

To end on a personal note, I wanted to examine my own experiences and involvement with this trend. Living in Canada and getting so little sunlight for over half the year, my skin naturally fluctuates a lot between seasons. It’s kind of interesting actually because in the winter I usually pass for white pretty easily, but in the summer, I look more mixed and my latina side pops a bit more. I also want to take a second to acknowledge that I am guilty of going to tanning salons in my teens, and even editing a bit of tan into some of my pictures because of self-consciousness. So I am definitely not without fault and I have to accept my responsibility in sometimes chasing that look.

I think that wraps up this video/article. My first scripted well-researched video essay. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think.

Resources & Further Readings/Watching

Sources

Blackfishing
Racial Ambiguity
Beauty Standards
Beauty
Social Media

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Laurie Lo
Laurie Lo

Written by Laurie Lo

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Essays and commentary related to sociocultural experiences and phenomenons in digital medias.

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