es' or Asians' hair, that's not a problem forblack women in all-black societies. After integration, though, hair oftenbecomes an intense concern for black women competing with longer-hairedwomen of other races. While intellectuals in black-studies departments'ebony towers denounce "Eurocentric standards of beauty," most black womenrespond more pragmatically. They one-up white women by buying straight fromthe source of the longest hair: the Wall Street Journal recently reported onthe booming business in furnishing African-American women with "weaves" and"extensions" harvested from the fol- licularly gifted women of China.3. Muscularity may most sharply differentiate the races in terms of sexualattractiveness. Women like men who are stronger than they; men like womenwho are rounder and softer. The ending of segregation in sports has maderacial differences in muscularity harder to ignore. Although the men's100-meter dash is among the world's most widely contested events, in thelast four Olympics all 32 finalists have been blacks of West Africandescent. Is muscularity quantifiable? PBS fitness expert Covert Bailey findsthat he needs to recom- mend different goals -- in terms of percentage ofbody fat -- to his clients of different races. The standard goal for adultblack men is 12 per cent body fat, versus 18 per cent for Asian men. Thegoals for women are 7 points higher than for men of the same race. Forinterracial couples, their "gender gaps" in body-fat goals correlateuncannily with their husband-wife proportions in the 1990 Census. The goalfor black men (12 per cent) is 10 points lower than the goal for white women(22 per cent), while the goal for white men (15 per cent) is only 4 pointslower than the goal for black women (19 per cent). This 10:4 ratio is almostidentical to the 72:28 ratio seen in the Census. This corre- lates just aswell for white-Asian couples, too. Apparently, men want women who make themfeel more like men, and vice ve...
