“That baby is so ugly”, it always shocks me when such words come out of people’s mouths. Like how can you say that, it’s a child for Pete’s sake, do you have no heart?!
It’s also sad that in my community, babies with distinguishable South Asian features like rich brown skin, or big noses, or excessive hairiness aren’t deemed to be as “cute” as babies born with typically Western features like light eyes, light skin and turned up button noses.
The same goes for babies in the black community. Ones born with coarse hair, wide noses and ripe skin tones aren’t considered to be as visually appealing as their lighter-skinned counter parts. Just look at all the flack Beyonce’s daughter Blue Ivy has got for inheriting her black father’s features!
It all goes back to the whole “white is right” ideology and the centuries-deep self-hate that’s present in all ethnic communities. Whenever people even hear of the possibility of mixed races kids being created by a couple, the automatic reaction is always one of “Omg your kids will be sooo cute!” because there’s a widely held belief in society that the watered down version of an ethnic race is gorgeous. Again, white somehow makes it right because apparently “racial ambiguity ” is #goals, while full Asian or full black are much less desirable and meh.
The other day, one of my friends informed me of a hugely popular Instagram account that showcases mixed race babies, nothing else, just mixed race babies. And upon further research, unfortunately there’s not actually just one, there are dozens of such accounts and they have so many followers! It’s just so ignorant and feeds into the whole racial exoticism fetish. Come on people, wise up!
All babies are blessings, end of story. If you don’t have anything nice to say, keep it zipped! Why does beauty have to be synonymous with ethical makeup? Oh yeah, it doesn’t.
Just A Small Town Girl... 
all life
a miracle
and hopefully
well wanted too!
This is really interesting. I do sometimes think some babies are ugly. I thought my own cousin was ugly when he was newborn, even though I loved him tremendously! I never associated that with the ethnicity though, it was more of a ‘ew it looks so squishy and weird!’. My own baby photos make me laugh because LAWD I was an ugly baby – my parents get so offended when I say that lol, I understand. I am mixed Pakistani and Moroccan and Spanish and English, and my siblings and I are rather brown, but my cousins are rather western looking, and I never saw that as a factor in how attractive the baby looked, because my other siblings were adorable babies and my cousins were pretty freakish looking! But I do understand your point. I see it more in the Moroccan and Pakistani communities, where they say if a kid is darker, then it’s a bad thing. My aunt from my dad’s side has a grandchild who is honestly the most beautiful child I have ever seen, she has very dark skin and huge beautiful eyes and thick black curly hair. And I couldn’t stop staring at her, and I said to my aunt, ‘wow she is stunning!’, and my aunt said, to my shock, ‘yes but she is too brown.’ I couldn’t hold myself back I just told her off – she got a bit embarrassed after I was done – but she acknowledged that there was no reason to think that the darker colour was a bad thing. Because there is a lot of mix in my families, we have all kinds of shapes and colours, so we’re accustomed to it – but in some communities there is a huge stigma about colour and features, and you’re right, there is a trend towards favouring the western features. This is definitely something left over from imperialism, and these attitudes are seen even today.
You are right. And even if someone feels a baby is not the cutest looking, it’s rude to say so
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve hardly ever seen a baby I’d call ugly and it definitely isn’t anything to do with ethnicity. Also, even on the off chance I would find a baby slightly less pretty, I’d never say so.
I certainly agree with your idea that the skin tones or hair/eye color have nothing to do with the beauty of a baby. As others here have posted, I have seen a few babies I would consider not as cute as others, though I would never say that to their parents. Beauty comes from within and all children have infinite worth. I am not a subscriber to the idea that ethnic makeup or gender or the specific shade of our skin has anything to do with our value. All humans have worth at birth. They all have worth even when they use their lives to cause others pain or suffering. God values all life and up to the point of death, each life can be redeemed regardless of skin tone.
All babies are blessings. Wisely said.
Hmm I agree with much of the thrust of this post but I’m not entirely sure the “white is right” is actually the root of this even though it manifests itself this. Instead, I would say that all races have an element of self-loathing. The speaking as a member of the white community I see we do exactly the same as Asian and Black communities – no one but no one thinks the whiter the better! We spend millions giving ourselves cancer to give us as tanned skins as possible – even the ridiculous orange, the telltale colour of a spray can is deemed better than deathly white. And we too are envious of mixed races relationships for the ‘gorgeous’ kids we imagine they will have. I write this on a bus home after many long flights to return back from the Philippines – full of people known worldwide to be stunningly beautiful – and spent a great deal of time learning from the people. Most of them see themselves as fat and too short. And yes. Too dark-skinned. Self-loathing once again.