The Portrayal of Black British Male Beauty Part 1

Are black British men not sexually desirable?

Are there no hot black British male actors?

Since watching Bridgerton these questions intrigue me. Since watching the show I realise how little Black and mixed race British male beauty is portrayed on screen (up until now).

I, like the rest of the world watched Bridgerton. I had seen Regé Jean Page in For The People, thought he was cute and a good actor so I was interested. Plus a racially integrated period drama and actress Adjoa Andoh, it looked like fun.

I was totally mesmerised by Regé Jean Page’s performance in Bridgerton. I thought he was extraordinary as the Duke of Hastings. It did get me thinking though — in Bridgerton, Regé Jean Page’s character is held up to be dashing, handsome and eligible, with white women flocking around him. I don’t think I’d ever seen that in a show set in Britain. To have a show full of British actors where a black man, or bi-racial man in this case, is displayed so prominently as a sex object, as a pin-up, I’m struggling to think of one.

I was thinking Adrian Lester in Hustle was pretty suave and smooth talking but that was about the closest I got.

Then there’s the fact that Bridgerton is actually an American show, American produced, based on an American writer’s work. If it were a British show and novel would someone have written a character like the Duke of Hastings?

There are numerous black male British actors, lots of really talented actors — David Harewood, Adrian Lester, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Noel Clarke, but are any of them sex symbols?

I next headed to Google, the fount of all knowledge and wisdom and searched for hottest black British actors.

Nothing came up. Just lots of articles about black British actors in general.

I tried hot, sexy, sexiest and still nothing.

In Google Images there were some pictures of black British male actors but not in any lists of attractive black British men.

Quite frankly I was really surprised, the amount of random salacious gossip on the internet, the amount of objectifying lists and blogs from women’s magazines like Glamour, Cosmo and the endless vicious tabloid jungle. Why weren’t there any?

There are numerous lists of attractive British actors but mostly white. There are occasionally men of colour listed but rarely and never majority or exclusively.

Conversely if you search for hot black actors there are long lists however they’re almost all American. An Imdb list of Top 20 sexiest black actors in Hollywood has almost all American men, with the exception of Idris Elba, Djimon Hounsou and Boris Kodjoe.

America does have a different relationship with race than we do. That being said People’s Sexiest Man Alive has only gone to four black men since its inception. That’s 4 out of 32 — Denzel Washington, Dwayne Johnson, Idris Elba, John Legend and now Michael B Jordan.

There are lots of American actors seen as sexy though — Will Smith, Michael Ealy, Morris Chestnut, Blair Underwood and more. However their appeal in film and the characters they portray more often than not are attractive to other women of colour. It’s still somewhat rare to see black men portrayed as so attractive to white women, particularly when sharing the screen with a white man.

Shows like Lucifer and Arrow for example. Both have a white male lead and a black man as a main character. Lucifer has Tom Ellis alongside DB Woodside. Arrow has Stephen Amell alongside David Ramsey. In Arrow particularly I think Stephen Amell is shirtless in every single episode of the first four seasons whereas David Ramsey is only shirtless once or twice, if that. It’s very clear that Stephen Amell is being held up as a sex symbol whereas David Ramsey is not.

What’s even rarer than black male beauty is black male sex.. Bridgerton had a lot of graphic sex scenes between a bi-racial black man and a white woman. This is almost unheard of — to see sex with pretty much all the dirty bits, between a mixed race couple, is very rare on screen.

My experience as a heterosexual woman was always one of perplexion. I’ve seen white men painted as sex symbols my whole life but a lot of the time I feel repulsed. Men like Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, Ed Quinn, Dennis Quaid, Richard Gere in particular, make me physically repulsed.

I was really disturbed by the fact that all of these apparent pin-ups were not appealing to me .I was always really worried by this until I realised I have a type. I have a type, and white men (mostly) are not it.

Being an obsessively detailed, enquiring and pattern seeking person I started making a note of any actor I found physically attractive. When I saw a film/TV show/play and I thought an actor was sexy I would make a note.

A pattern emerged and it became clear. My type is mainly bi-racial black/white men.

Thing is why did my consternation come about?

The idea of male beauty is just as oppressive as the idea of female beauty. Men are held to the same ridiculous white ideals and objective standards that women are.

In my questioning I also wonder how class factors in.

The British class system is still thriving.

Glamour magazine did a list in September last year of Hot Young British actors. The men on the list are mostly white and mostly posh, private school educated.

Actors who speak with received pronunciation are still disproportionately valued in the UK. David Harewood apparently said his natural Birmingham accent was trained out of him at drama school. Many of the black British actors on our screens come from working class backgrounds and do not speak with RP. Actors like Ashley Walters and John Boyega with beautiful South London accents.

Britain remains classist — it’s somewhat different in America. Over here so many of the English pin-ups are all these posh Eton types/private school boys — Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne and the like, ugh.

Me personally, posh boys do absolutely nothing for me.

But how often are people with working class or regional accents seen as sex symbols? As opposed to those with very posh, private school/general privileged/RP accents?

Idris Elba may be a sex symbol in America, there is little notion of the complex class system we have, the huge variety of accents and their connotations.

Back to Bridgerton and Regé Jean Page, I realise one of the reasons why his performance resonated so much with me. It’s not just seeing other bi-racial people, black people, people of colour represented on screen. It’s seeing our needs, desires, experiences reflected as well in an authentic, genuine way. To me it was radical, seeing someone I find physically attractive portrayed as such on screen. I felt seen.

My experiences, my reality, my desires (and those of other women of colour) are just as valid as those of white women and just as necessary to portray in the media.

So this is Part 1 — Part 2 coming up is my list of Hot, black/mixed race British actors.

Elizabeth de Brito