Questions

As a matter of fact, it doesn't even have to be a dark-skinned girl, but maybe a girl who just isn't conventionally attractive or the type that your peers would want from you.

I understand that dark-skinned women aren't everyone's type. (I understand that there are studies that explicitly state that men have a natural biological attraction to lighter women predominantly.) But I also can't help but wonder sometimes if those preferences are not just natural but also nurtured or shaped socially by male peer groups.

Growing up as a dark skin girl, I remember having a lot of experiences with different men of different races being very attracted to me but almost seemingly embarrassed to be attracted to me at the same time or scared to be attracted to me in front of their family/friends. I'm wondering if one of those reasons was because they were afraid that their friends/family would have bullied or ostracized them for that.

It seems like there's this almost unwritten social mandate, largely manufactured by certain men, for men to participate in celebrating not being attracted to dark-skinned women and those men in particular also like to push this idea onto their peers as the standard/ way of thinking for success and status.

For example this attitude of: "If you date dark-skinned women, you're not successful or a loser in my eyes, get a white girl and then we can talk" type of situation.

There are also negative stereotypes about dark-skinned women being masculine, obese, unfeminine, mean, that certain men like to perpetuate further in order to pressure their friends and family into not being with a dark-skinned woman, even if dark-skinned women aren't all like these negative caricatures that they paint of them in real life.

So, as a question for the men of GAG: Have you ever been peer-pressured by your male friends into not pursuing or liking a dark-skinned girl or a girl that your friends didn't approve of?