Rebecca Kamm: GQ's hottest women, divided by ethnicity

10:55 AM Friday Jan 18, 2013

Men's magazine GQ has just released a "100 Sexiest Women of the Millennium" issue, and I've got to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

For a publication that's been in hot water many times for various insensitive blunders, it's quite a tasteful and positive list, underpinned by a healthy respect for ladies and all they embody.

I'm sorry, that is untrue. The list is actually really creepy, and making people mad.

Trail through, and you'll see the usual names bobbing about: Kim Kardashian, Jessica Alba, Eva Mendes, Mila Kunis, Blah, Blah, Blah and Blah. No surprises there. BUT THEN:

"Hottest Pregnant Sri Lankan"

"Hottest Indian Chick"

"Hottest Italian Chick"

"Hottest Chinese Chick"

Ugh. WHYYY.

Obviously there's no harm in referring to someone as a "Hot ___ woman", and using their ethnicity as a descriptor. It's the fact these shout-outs are so carefully categorised - and so arbitrary - that gives me the squirms.

It's like the token 'ethnic' women are all exciting new flavours of ice-cream or something. They're not just women, they're types of women. Breeds, even.

Also, why do some of the desirable ladies get labels and not others? Why isn't Beyonce referred to as African-American, for instance, or Kim K as Armenian? How come Mila Kunis doesn't get her own Ukrainian pigeon-hole to coo from?

At least then it might be more along the lines of Beautiful Women From All The Places, and (slightly) less insulting.

It's no secret there are guys out there who fetishise women of certain ethnicities, reducing those women's worth to the sexiness of their skin colour/eye shape/unmentionables. If you really want to suck all the joy out of your day you can do a Google search and fall headfirst into the forums those guys lurk in, comparing notes behind the safety of their screens.

It sucks. But at least it's curtained by the dark recesses of the internet, and not on the shelf of your local newsagent in a popular mainstream title. That's not any type of hot.

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