Black Women: Being Curvy Doesn't Mean Live Unhealthy

"Is my body too bootylicious for ya?" - Destiny's Child

A new study by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Foundation, which is being called the most extensive and nuanced look at the lives of black women in decades, found that although black women weigh more than white women, they are 66% more likely to have higher levels of self-esteem then their white counterparts.

It also suggests that 28% of black women say that being physically attractive is “very important,” compared with 11% of white women. White women, however, were more likely than black women to say being attractive was “somewhat important."

In December, there was a similar study on black women and body image conducted by the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life that yielded the same results: Black women are, in fact, happy being “thick.”

Researchers seem surprised - and somewhat fascinated - to find that black women love their bodies despite not meeting societal expectations to be thin. The Washington Post ran a 4-page story on the subject as if it is a new cultural trend.

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For so long, women have been bombarded with images and advertisements suggesting they must conform to Western standards of what beauty is. As if images aren’t enough, researchers present statistics to back up claims that the thinner you are the more attractive people find you: