Threat of immigration

Beauty matters. Maybe it shouldn't matter as much as it does, but there's no doubt it overwhelms the brains of many men. We evolved this way. We want symmetrical women with fertility markers - fatty tissues in all of the right places and none of the wrong ones.

Women want to think that beauty doesn't also overwhelm their brains, but it does, although in less direct ways. Feminine beauty can overwhelm the brains even of heterosexual women. If you don't believe me, look around the check-out aisle at the supermarket.

Nativist conservatives especially despise one aspect of the current ethnic mix that is America: the browning of beauty. The racists are nostalgic for a white bread age they'd be more comfortable in. It won't come again, except maybe in Idaho. (By the way, anytime you hear "white bread," what it really means is white-bred.)

One top contender for the western standard of a beautiful woman is a Latin American mestiza (catching up, by the way, with the tall dark and handsome Latin lover - women are always ahead of men on social change). And the olive-skinned (euphemism alert!) women don't have to pass any more. Nativists want to know how in the ever-loving, blue-eyed world this happened!

Fox "News" knows about this change. They act on their knowledge. How many bottle-blonds do they put on screen? And I'm not talking honey blonds. Platinum, baby!

In fact, even Sarah Palin is a concession to the demographic tide - brunette and brown eyes - minority outreach! Though of course she does have creamy Caucasian skin.

Image from Boston Proper used at reduced resolution under Fair Use - link provided does not constitute an endorsement. The bonus joke here is that "Boston proper" once represented all things white and stuffy and conservative.