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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2240 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 5, 2025

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There was discussion here in the culture war thread on the position of black women in the US mating market. There was also a different discussion yesterday on interracial marriages.

One aspect of all of this that seems rather important or at least non-trivial to me is that there seems to be a marked difference between the obesity rates of black men and women, which seems to be something peculiar to blacks. Can anyone offer an explanation?

There have been some attempts to investigate this further academically. This study found that the difference is minimal among those with high parental education, but extreme among those with the lowest parental education (16% of men, 45% of women). Initially I thought it might be due to family formation differences, but the divergence exists beyond the US. In South Africa, the richest major African country, 2/3 of women but only 1/3 of men are obese. Strongly indicative of a genetic explanation, especially since we know some populations like Pacific Islanders are already genetically more prone to obesity.

In South Africa, the richest major African country, 2/3 of women but only 1/3 of men are obese. Strongly indicative of a genetic explanation

The entire thing can also just be explained by culture. Obese women in SA are considered attractive, while obese men are not. Both act accordingly, which is easier in SA because they don't yet eat as much highly processed food as people in the West do (and so they have a little more control over their weight, i.e. just deciding not to get fat is easier there).

This is in large part true re: South African sexual preferences. However, poor urban South Africans eat an extremely unhealthy and fattening diet, consisting mostly of the cheapest carbs available fried in the cheapest oil. Township food will fatten you up fast if you can afford it, and it's so nutritionally unsatisfying I'd guess even those with a little cash eat a lot of it. I suspect the men are significantly likely to do high-calorie-burning manual labour or be alcoholics/drug addicts, which probably explains a lot of the obesity gap in the urban poor.

The black women considered most attractive in SA are probably overweight by white standards, but not to the extent of being extremely obese the way the fattest Americans are. You can see this in SA media that has a primarily black audience and among the black elite, where obesity rates are lower.

Thanks. It makes sense. 16% of men, 45% of women is indeed rather extreme.

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