Are Black Women Not Considered Elegant?

In preparation for this blog, and in order to gather information and ideas, I peruse the internet looking for anything I can find on elegance, elegant women, sophisticated women, etc. I've done several searches on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc, looking for lists or descriptions of elegant women. These are some of my findings:



Hello Magazine's Most Elegant List (2008)

http://www.popcrunch.com/hello-magazine-most-elegant-women-list-2008-madonna-hello-magazine-most-elegant-woman/

1. Madonna
2. Christina Aguilera
3. Sarah Michelle Gellar
4. Princess Mary
5. Nicole Kidman
6. Queen Rania
7. Liv Tyler
8. Princess Mathilde
9. Natalie Imbruglia
10. Marie Chantal of Greece
11. Lady Gabriella Windsor
12. Countess of Wessex (ANI)



Top Ten Elegant Women in Movies

http://listverse.com/people/top-10-elegant-women-in-movies/

10. Eva Gabor 1919 - 1995
9. Lauren Bacall 1924
8. Lucy Liu 1968
7. Elizabeth Taylor 1932
6. Ava Gardner 1922 - 1990
5. Ingrid Bergman 1915 - 1982
4. Cate Blanchett 1969
3. Grace Kelly 1929 - 1982
2. Catherine Deneuve 1943
1. Audrey Hepburn 1929 - 1993

Most Elegant Women Ever (2008)
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20080808/906/ten-princess-di-named-the-most-elegant-w.html
1. Princess Diana
2. Sophia Loren
3. Grace Kelly
4. Audrey Hepburn
5. Marilyn Monroe
6. Catherine Zeta Jones
7. Ava Gardner
8. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
9. Greta Garbo
10. Carla Bruni (ANI)

Vogue's List (2007)
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article2806755.ece
Dame Helen Mirren; Claudia Schiffer; Jemima Khan; Sophie Dahl; Natalie Massenet; Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe; Sadie Coles; Vanessa Redgrave; Rosamund Pike; Poppy and Chloe Delevingne; Zadie Smith; Zaha Hadid; Lady Isabella Cawdor; Daisy Lowe; Susanna Chancellor; Coco Rocha; Rebekah Wade; Tamara Mellon; Stella Tennant; the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire; Daphne Guinness; Natalia Vodianova; Sam Taylor-Wood; Mary Charteris; Luella Bartley; Charlotte Rampling; Plum Sykes; Lady Antonia Fraser; Naomi Campbell; Stella McCartney; Polly Samson; Ruth Rogers; Princess Rosario Saxe-Coburg; Dame Vivien Duffield; Gael Boglione; Phoebe Philo; Olivia Wilde; Lily Donaldson; Susanne Kapoor; Charlotte Stockdale; Sabrina Guinness; Lady Helen Taylor; Jasmine Guinness; Sheherazade Goldsmith; Honor Fraser; Charlotte Casiraghi; Andrea and Alice Dellal; Marina Palma; Kate Moss; Sally Albemarle; Lady Amanda Harlech; the Queen; Alice Temperley; Caroline Michel; Sophia Hesketh

This is the tip of the iceberg. And while the purpose of this blog is not to denigrate anything that any of these women have accomplished nor to argue their elegance, one has to wonder why these lists are so devoid of color? Could this be just an oversight on the part of the list makers? Or is it that African American women are not generally perceived to be as sophisticated, elegant or polished as some of our Caucasian counterparts?

More on this as I continue my research...