I've read the odd racist tract on Project Gutenberg that delves into phrenology and physiognomy - like this one, which uses dubious sampling methods to ascertain cubic brain capacity, and paragraphs like:
Let us suppose him now to examine another individual: a negro, from the western coast of Africa. This specimen is of large size, and vigorous appearance. The color is a jetty black, the hair crisp, generally called woolly; the eyes are prominent, and the orbits large; the nose thick, flat, and confounded with the prominent cheeks; the lips very thick and everted; the jaws projecting, and the chin receding; the skull assuming the form called prognathous. The low forehead and muzzle-like elongation of the jaws, give to the whole being an almost animal appearance, which is heightened by the large and powerful lower-jaw, the ample provision for muscular insertions, the greater size of cavities destined for the reception of the organs of smell and sight, the length of the forearm compared with the arm, the narrow and tapering fingers, etc.
Pretty sickening. :(
Some pictures of Haile Gebrselassie strike me as having features I'd describe as 'angular', a slim athletic runner's build, and your picture of Michelle Yeoh and her gorgeous cheekbones. (Viola Davis' round cheeks are gorgeous too.) That particular oval-shape high-cheekbones protruding-nose deepset-eyes look that gets described by Twilight as 'perfect' is a Caucasian beauty standard. And racist.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 11:01 pm (UTC)Let us suppose him now to examine another individual: a negro, from the western coast of Africa. This specimen is of large size, and vigorous appearance. The color is a jetty black, the hair crisp, generally called woolly; the eyes are prominent, and the orbits large; the nose thick, flat, and confounded with the prominent cheeks; the lips very thick and everted; the jaws projecting, and the chin receding; the skull assuming the form called prognathous. The low forehead and muzzle-like elongation of the jaws, give to the whole being an almost animal appearance, which is heightened by the large and powerful lower-jaw, the ample provision for muscular insertions, the greater size of cavities destined for the reception of the organs of smell and sight, the length of the forearm compared with the arm, the narrow and tapering fingers, etc.
Pretty sickening. :(
Some pictures of Haile Gebrselassie strike me as having features I'd describe as 'angular', a slim athletic runner's build, and your picture of Michelle Yeoh and her gorgeous cheekbones. (Viola Davis' round cheeks are gorgeous too.) That particular oval-shape high-cheekbones protruding-nose deepset-eyes look that gets described by Twilight as 'perfect' is a Caucasian beauty standard. And racist.