Hottest Indian of the Year
In its February 2013 issue, GQ magazine published a list called “100 Hottest Women of the 21st Century.” Considering it’s an American magazine, we shouldn’t be surprised that most of the “hot” women on the list are Americans. But one Indian does make the list: Freida Pinto. Above an alluring photo of the actress is this caption: “This year’s hot Indian chick.”
In similar fashion, Monica Belluci is “This year’s hot Italian chick,” Zhang Ziyi is “This year’s hot Chinese chick,” and M.I.A. is “This year’s hot pregnant Sri Lankan chick.” Most everyone else appeared on the list on the merit of their beauty, no ethnic label needed.
Perhaps intended to be humorous, the ethnic categories nevertheless ruffled some feathers. “If the magazine were saying, ‘These are all the beautiful women from every country in the world,’ that would be a bit different; that’s what the Miss Universe pageant is all about,” Ruth C. White, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Social Work at Seattle University told Yahoo’s Shine. “But by calling out certain women’s ethnicity and not others, what they’re implying is that these women are not beautiful simply because they’re beautiful; they’re only attractive within the context of their own ethnicity. This is qualifying their beauty and dismisses the idea that beauty comes in many different forms.”
Perhaps next year, GQ will promote Freida Pinto to the main list. But if they do that, they might have to spend a few seconds Googling a replacement in the “hot Indian chick” category. There’s no shortage of worthy candidates, as we all know.
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