In higher education, there is a virtual cottage industry of academics declaring everything from math to meritocracy to be forms of white supremacy and racism. Now, it appears romance will be added to the list. University of California Santa Barbara Black Studies Professor Sabrina Strings has written how romance promotes white supremacy and “global pigmentocracy.” In The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance, Strings recounts having “endured” her own bad relationships and maintains that “Romance is an old white cultural institution that began in the Middle Ages.” In an interview with The Current, Strings explains that “I am only one of the millions of Gen X-to-Gen Z women who have endured a seemingly endless array of miserable relationships with men.”
In viewing romance through her own lens, Strings comes up with distinctly different views of literature and famous relationships. For example, many people have read the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, a story of forbidden love that introduced disharmony and disaster to King Arthur’s Round Table. It is a story of love and eventual betrayal. It is both irresistible and irrational. Many accounts show Lancelot rescuing Guinevere and, torn by their mutual loyalty to King Arthur, the couple finally succumbs to the inexorable pull of love to each other. It is a tragedy of love and loyalty that leaves everyone in ruin. Arthur would die of wounds in the later battles, Guinevere would die in a convent, and Lancelot would, according to some accounts, die as a hermit. It is a powerful tale of how love can overwhelm all other considerations and shatter every other bond.
That is not exactly how Professor Strings sees it. She says that the tale is really about how a man of lower status is trying to secure greater power and prestige by seducing a higher class European Christian woman: “Love is very much about generosity but romance is very much about what you can get from somebody, especially if you’re a man who is social climbing.”
Professor Strings zeros in on the beauty and whiteness of Guinevere. She notes that the queen was viewed as irresistibly attractive and pale in complexion:
“We can easily recognize these features today as those representing the apex of whiteness, even though race did not exist at the time of Troyes’s writing. Nevertheless, to the extent that some of these representations occurred before the seventeenth century dawn of race science, they have what historians have called a ‘proto-racist’ bent. Indeed, scholars have shown that the preference for light skin, hair, and eyes existed prior to the advent of racism, and that these characteristics were co-opted by it and enlisted for the purpose of installing a global pigmentocracy.”
The “whitenesss” could also simply reflect the racial makeup of the historical characters as opposed to any “global pigmentocracy.” Yet, according to Professor Strings, romance is about “women who are not peak white or are ‘insufficiently white’ are subject deservedly to deceit, manipulation, assault and rape.”
Professor Strings previously wrote a 2019 book about how “fatphobia” is rooted in racism.
In today’s academic environment, there often seems a rush to racialize common practices, customs, or terminology. Publications clamor for such articles and discovering another hidden racist element in society can bring academic accolades. However, others have already staked out many areas such as mathematics, astrophysics, statistics, meritocracy, climate change, dieting, tipping, skiing, chess, and organized pantries. Most recently, the American Psychological Association declared that merit-based hiring may be racist. Even robots are now declared to be part of the supremacist menace because they are often made of white plastic.
Low quality of scholarship has been a trend since the 60’s. The inferior “scholar” uses a shock effect which is usually accusing white males of some phobia or racism. In Boston in the 80’s a student wrote a dissertation showing Madonna’s genius lyrics and condemning the old white male. She was acclaimed. The irony is the PhD student used the old white male traditional rules of scansion and analysis to make her point. These old tactics are still being used and they still allow the pseudo scholars to get by with rubbish. Too bad those types were given any semblance of credulity. It is no longer a joke if they are taken seriously, but it seems serious if they are allowed to take over.
String should not be in any teaching institution nor in contact with young people. Unfortunate her thoughts were reduced to print or media of any kind. Psych diagnosis indicated and medical exam for damaged brain matter.
“A woman possessed by the animus is always in danger of losing her femininity.”
C. G. Jung
Critical reasoning has languished in much of academia, sadly. It is unfortunate how much traction hatred of Western Civilization has gained in the public education system, from kindergarten to grad school.
Romance is mystery. Romance is a journey. At the end of the journey people look back and remember Romance. They remember what was good, honest, lovely and not what was not of these qualities. Life is a journey and people choose to see good. Perhaps a mother or father or friend has cherished memories to remember. If it were marriage then the two look back together at the end of the journey and find good memories. Marriage is a journey for two begun when young and if fate wills it ends when old. This is Romance.
Perhaps you’d be happier in a place without whiteness. India has the Taj mahal. Apparently some husband built it for his cherished wife. Try that, Ms String, and stop wasting the journey on what is so bitter. Some enchanted evening…
“Pigmentocracy.” Oh, the depths they go to, to support their hate.
Postmodern word salad.
Someone should have taken this dolt aside and pointed to the Indian story of the love between Shiva and Parvati. In one version, it begins: “Even as a young girl Parvati was in love with Lord Shiva. As she grew older, Parvati blossomed into a stunning woman filled with grace and beauty. While she captured the hearts of many kings and princes, she only had eyes for Shiva. There is a story which mentions that in an effort to win his love and affection she decided to visit the cave where he was meditating and started cleaning and decorating it.” Not a lot of “whiteness” in that love story—especially as Shiva is typically depicted as being blue!
This book will sell .? How many copies -25?
Who wants to read this claptrap – who is the intended audience for this book.?
Or is it just written to pad her professional resume as a published work?
No Strings attached.
So, the author has had multiple failed relationships and it just has to be white supremacy at fault? Maybe in this instance it is true that “It’s not me, it’s you” since SHE seems to be the common denominator in the equation.
Pick any successful habit or trait and type it in google along with “white supremacy” and you will find that a DEI professor or leftist news writer has published an article equating that habit or trait with white supremacy. It is a good excuse as any for their failures in life.
I’m confused with the statement ‘before race’ what the heck does that even mean? Once upon a time there were only white people?