Preferences and Projections: The Black Female Experience Surrounding Phenotypic Prejudices

Abstract

Racially exclusionary beauty standards involving weight, skin color, and hair types reveal the unfavorable attitudes surrounding Black features. The socio-historical context of physical attractiveness affects Black women’s self-acceptance in particular because they face a numerical disadvantage in the dating and marriage market. Black women’s hairstyle is pivotal because it is controllable and central to romantic attraction. This study investigated the relationship between Black women’s hairstyle preferences and their perception of Black men’s preferences toward a variety of smooth and textured hairstyles. Participants took explicit and implicit questionnaires to measure their own attitudes alongside projecting men’s attitudes. Participants rated the hairstyles across four contexts: overall attractiveness, professionalism, social appropriateness, and everyday suitability. Participants showed equal preference for smooth and textured hairstyles across all dependent variables, except for professionalism, where smooth hair dominates. Women incorrectly estimated men to prefer smooth over textured hairstyles. Dating preferences regarding status, power, and attraction illuminate the potential reasons behind these inaccurate estimations. Conclusions endorse increased autonomy among Black women, looking specifically at the increase of racial and gender equality.