“No One Sees Me Romantically”: Gendered Colorism in Black Women’s Dating and Intimate Experiences

• In Event: Desiring Intimacy

Abstract

Research on Black women’s romantic lives routinely cites their unique exclusion within dating and marriage markets. However, fewer studies examine how colorism, or skin color stratification, exacerbates these structural inequalities for Black women. In this article, I merge the literatures on dating stratification and colorism to clarify how Black women, across the color spectrum, negotiate their disadvantaged status as they search for romantic partners. I analyze in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 27 heterosexual Black women between the ages of 18 to 35 years with diverse skin tones to highlight how they experienced fetishization, sexual exploitation, and romantic marginalization. Overall, I find that women’s romantic experiences are largely patterned by their skin color and body size, creating unique challenges in their search for romantic partners. I conclude by implicating these results in the broader scholarship of race and gender inequalities, and by suggesting directions for future research to disentangle how colorism contours the romantic lives of Black women and how securing romantic relationships is a form of “intimate justice.”

Author

• Elizabeth Hughes, Pennsylvania State University-Abington