Attraction To A Specific Ethnicty/race

[alina92]

Salam everyone

 

I have a bit of an odd question. I've sometimes heard people comment that they're attracted to (blank) ethnicity or want to marry someone of (blank) ethnicity, even when they're not terribly familiar with said ethnicities. That makes me curious. What makes people develop a particular attraction to people of a specific ethnicity (that is not their own) which they have no significant connection to? 

 

I understand having an affinity for a community that one has interacted with and has had a positive experience with, such as a person who grew up near a particular community having an affinity for people of that culture on account of familiarity and common interests. Having a scholarly interest in a culture and therefore, its people is also quite pretty reasonable. 

 

What I don't understand is what makes people idealize a particular ethnicity if they have no connection to it and/or don't regularly interact with people of said ethnicity. For instance, I've heard some of my brother's friends, who have never been to Turkey and frankly, probably couldn't even find it on a map, say that they have a thing for Turkish girls and intend on marrying one. Also, at uni, I had Pakistani friend who seems to have a particular attraction to Iranian guys yet has never been to Iran, doesn't speak Farsi, and doesn't really seem all that interested in Iranian culture. Frankly, I don't get it (in either case).

 

I'll be quite honest, I've always thought that when people have such a specific preference, it's probably based on appearance and likely superficial. I'd like to think that people aren't really THAT superficial, especially when looking for a spouse though. What do you guys think?

 

[coldcow]

We have a natural tendency, as humans, to be attracted to people that are different than us for 2 main reasons that I'm aware of.  The first one is that there may be something in the back of our minds telling us that the more different you are genetically compared with someone you might be interested in having kids with, the more genetically variable the offspring will be, ideally reducing the risk of detrimental recessive genes from being expressed, and ideally getting dominant genes that would be good for survival and success from both parents.  Additionally, we have a natural curiosity for the unknown and things we don't think we can have.  

[Bakir]

I think that is mostly useless talking to kill the time. I highly doubt most people have a weird paraphilia for a specific race. There are certain cases, but it is not normal. Most people just say this stuff to feel some sort of individuality or originality in their likes.

Overall, most people are superficial to certain extent, but race shouldn't become an important issue in most cases, if we are only talking about physical appearance.

[alina92]

I think that is mostly useless talking to kill the time. I highly doubt most people have a weird paraphilia for a specific race. There are certain cases, but it is not normal. Most people just say this stuff to feel some sort of individuality or originality in their likes.

Overall, most people are superficial to certain extent, but race shouldn't become an important issue in most cases, if we are only talking about physical appearance.

 

I'm not referring to anything extreme like a paraphilia. I simply mean finding a particular race/ethnicity more attractive than others for whatever reason, be it appearance or something else (although I'll admit I don't know what that could be).

[struggling_On]

I would say, That person should work on his/her nafs so much to the point where that person look at things and people the way Allah wants him/her to....:)

[abu-khadijah]

Hmmmm interesting, I've found beauty in every group.

[King]

Sometimes people are attracted to something that is different or foreign (fair skinned people finding darker people exotic etc). Sometimes too much familiarity can be a turn off, sometimes people are just sick of their own culture, sometimes people can be attracted to certain physical traits dominant in other races and on and on and on. There's usually no rational basis and typically these things aren't well thought out, it is what it is.

[dawudansari2]

 

 

Human being like beauty by nature regardless of the fact where he/ she was born and what culture he / she belongs to ,this is something which imbedded in human nature . Inborn characteristic is something beyond culture and ethnic.