Once upon a time, the fair-skinned straight-haired thin-lipped blonde woman was held up as the ideal of beauty. People who didn’t fit this standard, especially woman of color, were made to feel bad about themselves. They would spend hours and much money trying to lighten their skin, straighten their hair etc. but they would still be so far away from that standard that men would ignore them, and “prettier” women would ridicule them. It was especially painful when members of their own marginalized group would ignore them, and chase after white blondes when they could.

Then one day a miracle happened. The white women who had been decreed the standard beauty decided to renounce their privilege, and deliberately remake themselves so they resembled the marginalized women. They began to fix their hair in the styles of the marginalized women, darken their skin, and thicken their lips. Because men everywhere had been conditioned to be attracted to the privileged women, they now found these characteristics to be attractive in other women. As a result, marginalized women everywhere found themselves with more admirers, and felt better about themselves, realizing that even beauty contest winners acknowledged that their appearance had its own special beauty.

And everyone lived happily after, except for a few people who kvetched about so-called “cultural appropriation”.