I recently discovered a new window into America's soul: hotornot.com. </hyperbole>
For those few who don't know, it's a website which allows you to vote on how hot other random strangers are, from 1-10, and also allows you to post your own photos to be voted on.
I read about it in the NYT and thought it would be worth checking out. After a little exploration, and lots of voting on the hotness of strangers, I've come away with some observations:
- Not surprisingly, people would much rather look at and vote on women's pictures than men's. The ratio is about 10-1.
- Being black lowers your score by between 1 and 3 points, other things being equal (like clothing, lighting, posing, physique).
- Being asian lowers your score by about 1 to 2 points.
- If you're a guy, lots of people (presumably other guys) will rate you a 1 or a 2 no matter what you look like.
- The single best way for a guy to improve his score is to be an enlisted serviceman posing in his uniform, preferably shooting a gun. (Dude, that's hot!)
I probably shouldn't have been, but I was really surprised and disappointed by the lower scores for blacks and asians. It doesn't matter whether there is conscious racism involved or just a failure of erotic imagination. I suspect more of the latter, but it still makes vivid that even on this basic level of human attraction Americans are anything but race-blind.
I don't have a political point beyond reminding ourselves of the obvious. It just caught me off guard because living in the poly-racial mix of New York I've come to appreciate much more attractiveness in all races. Not because I want to be PC, but because, damn, that chick is hot!
PS-Yes, I did post my own photo, and no, I won't give you the link for it. I will tell you that my hotness quotient is 8.8--But then, I'm white.