That picture of Zac Efron with dog poo dreads is sending me LOL! But it also reminds me of a very cringe™ era in my life when I flocked to White boys like him based on, you guessed it, preference!
My babes @queersocialism and @_hoemo joke about it all the time, but that era really did teach me to triple-check why I find somebody attractive. Do I think they're "fine" because they're actually fine? Or is it because they're White (or White-Adjacent)? 🤔
I think we underestimate how much we're programmed to find #FFFFFF folx (or anyone adjacent) attractive even when they look like toes lmfao. It's part of why I take media criticism very seriously.
Some argue "preference" starts at home (which is also true), but I feel like it's a chicken and egg thing. Mainstream media pushes Whiteness. Mainstream media is consumed in our homes. So, it goes without saying that that messaging is gonna be internalized---knowingly or not.
And the same people who consume that messaging...go out and create more of the same. So do you see the problem lol?
TL;DR: Is that guy/girl cute or are they just White? More at 11 😂
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