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BUT I LOVE THIS THREAD! Everybody please remember to give the OP rep points!
Back to the phrase.... Since this is from a time when 'Dark' could only have meant hair and eyes (and maybe, but probably not) Olive skin, I would imagine it referred to Coastal Scandinavians.... the ones who could survive without being non-blonds, because they had Fish in their diets, which supplied enough Vitamin D. You know, like the tall, rangy, 'Dark' Norwegians.
In any event, the phrase describes the coloring and build of the overlords....those not of pure indigenous European stock. They possessed critical genetic alleles for certain kinds of intelligence, and were less crippled by the hard-wiring for kindness and altruism that makes blonds so easy to dominate and subjugate.
I catch whiffs of miscegenation in the phrase, and a stronger scent of greed...or 'starry-eyed-gaga-hood'.... or whatever you call it when females latch onto the males who can confer higher status upon them.
And maybe the phrase is the equivalent of the phrase from the fairy tales, describing the ideal of feminine beauty: "Skin white as Snow; hair black as Coal; lips red as Blood." I've wondered whether that phrase was intended to imprint blonds on darker people, or if it was intended to train the children of raven-haired aristocrats to find their own kind attractive, rather than go for the beautiful blond 'peasants' around them.
But until you invited us to dissect the phrase, I had, in the back of my mind, an image of silly Heartland American women conditioned by the swarthy men who controlled Hollywood, to view 'dark' men as more desirable (how better to get an endless supply of gorgeous blondes, than to train them to spurn the strapping cornfed blond hunks around them....Amerika Goniff!). Now, I'm thinking the phrase (or its precursors) is older.
'Handsome', to me, is a purely 'Chick' word. I see some over-groomed little 'gentleman'; a means-to-an-end for a grabby, needy little thing, who wants someone to latch onto and suck the life out of. Someone who will 'take care of her'. Someone she can control and manipulate. The little plastic greaseball groom with the Shoney's Big Boy updo hairstyle, on top of a cheap wedding cake. That's what the word says to me on its own. That's the kind of woman I've heard use the word, and the kind of man she was referring to. But in combination with the other two.... And remember, the words have a synergy going....
The phrase is about Women telling themselves what they are feeling, in order to cover up what they are actually feeling (or intending).
I remember being a young and invisible little Indian Girl, listening to a former 'Medical Records Clerk' tell her husband's (he was the big man in Pediatrics) secretary about the moment "I first realized I was in love with him." That's the kind of cover up I mean. The man was twenty years her senior, and was a member of the religion her religion had instituted the Inquisition to eradicate. A more honest statement from her would have been, "...the moment I realized that this old troll was my best chance at marrying a Doctor, and having the same kind of money as all my cousins who are doctors...".
So, I'm thinking that "tall, dark and handsome" may mean something like "Not blond and muscular, like the men who make me all tingly when I look at them, and not as stable or as responsible as I'd like....possibly even a loose cannon....but probably the best I am likely to be able to do. So I'm going to romanticize this guy, and make him, in my own mind, into something he probably is not." This statement could exist within the framework of the girl told not to marry 'that dangerous boy', or 'that no-good, shiftless suggin', who responds with 'but Momma, I luuuuuve him' . (translates to "But Momma, he's probably the best a sad sack like me can do."). Or it could exist within the story of the girl told not to marry outside her ethnic group or social class, and who is searching for a justification for her choice.
I, btw, am waaaaaaay not-blonde. In business attire I'm "That Chinese Lady". In sportswear, I'm "That rich Mexican woman" (I'm Native American). You may have guessed that I am a serious fan of MEN, and have a beef with other females who fail to appreciate what thrilling creatures men are.
It's never had anything to do with them. It's just that wishful thinking runs amok on this forum at all times. There was an identical thread some time ago on which some Black people attempted to introduce the same idea.
Well, it may not have been meant to describe black men.......but we have since taken over the description.
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Lol.
