I found that on Digg.com today and it reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend recently about Americans, "democracy," and the accesibility of politics done behind closed doors in a language the average person living in America would be hard pressed to understand.
It’s a slow day here at work…my colleagues have become gripped in World Cup mania (that’s cricket, son) and intersperse the general quiet with yelps and spurts of “sixer!” every now and then from the streaming coverage they’re watching. That’s what I get for working with Desis—and being a Desi myself whose interest in cricket begins and ends with Lagaan and the luscious Aamir Khan, it’s indeed a slow day. So why not write a completely frivolous blog entry?
The headline on MSN entertainment news says, “Hollywood is alive with cultural diversity, and these mega-talented stars have us in a trance”—and the accompanying slide show features 23 of the most beautiful and famous women of color in the entertainment industry today. Calling them “World Class Beauties” (and with a nice little accompanying corporate sponsorship), the featured women are indeed beautiful and sexy, and many are talented, ambitious and intelligent as well. You’ve got the usual suspects—Beyonce, Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek. You’ve got the women who are superstars in their respective parts of the world but have yet to (or haven’t chosen to) truly break into the heady heights of celebrity in the U.S.—Aishwarya Rai, Yunjin Kim, Gong Li. And there are also the so-called “unconventional” beauties—Parminder Nagra, Norah Jones, Maya Rudolph.
Yes, these women are almost all predictably quite thin. Yes, these women are engaging in the capitalistic construct of contemporary celebrity and extreme wealth. Yes, for several of these women, society’s interest lies solely in their physical attractiveness. And you could even say that for some of the women, their “cross-over appeal”(read: lighter skin, hair, or eyes) has enabled them to be embraced by Hollywood.
But keeping all of these things in mind—and critiquing it—sometimes it is just nice to see women of color featured as sexy and beautiful. I guess this is just one of those days.
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