and I doubt it has much to do with Hollywood.

There are significant biological and behavioral differences among African and European evolutionary lines, one of the most important related to family, life cycle, and social groups. Among African lines, “family” may mean structures beyond the American conception of nuclear patriarchal family, including matriarchal groups and extended groups which include non-kin, with resources and support coming in from a variety of sources. Females coming into reproductive maturity may receive overt or covert messages: “there are males out there, and there is also your group for continued support and security”. Perhaps not coincidentally, rates for marriage are much lower for females in this line.

The archetypal pattern and message for European females is quite different and stereotyped in Jane Austen’s world of highly ritualized mating behaviors and displays. The message for the pre-reproductive female is: “you are about to lose the support of your family of origin, and your continued well-being depends on your being selected by a male with property and resources” and the corresponding understanding for the female of “To be secure and provided for, I must be selected, and to be selected, I must be more [something] than the others”.

What makes sense from an evolutionary perspective is that the [something] which gets the female selected and gains security may be thinness, because thinness signals youth and virginity, and those signal to the male that the reproductive resource is not yet fertilized and has years of prime reproductive value ahead. Behaviors aimed unconsciously or consciously at being selected, like other biological drives, may become pathological. It is also not likely coincidental that social/family correlates or antecedents of anorexia involve a young woman’s perception of not being valued and provided security.

That is, women of African lineage may be less driven to thinness because they carry the idea that security and support do not depend so much on being selected by a male.

BTW, I think Beyoncé and Christina Ricci look great. Also? I think Kate Bosworth and Jennifer Hudson look great. They all look great! Christina and Kate not only look great, all things being equal they’re gonna live longer than the average female too. That’s because fat kills.

for wisely avoiding jumps to conclusions, respecting the ambiguity in this result, and noting that the study raises more questions than it answers. Like: How many IQ points? and, Is the (possible) effect due to intake of fish, or to reduced intake of other foods avoided by mothers who eat more fish?

Significant in the WP report is the additional finding related to “more behavioral and social problems” in the youngsters whose mothers ate less fish. We know that intellectual development, behavior, and social functioning are all related to quality of early attachment. Do mothers who tend to eat more fish (and maybe less fast food or highly processed food) also tend to be more responsive and nurturing caretakers?

Eat healthy, but don’t allow the debate to distract from what is most important in child development – quality of early attachment.

"No sentient adult in 21st century America can not know the baggage that the word "uppity" carries especially when used to describe a black man." (p. 3)

Words do not voluntarily or otherwise carry meaning or baggage. Sentient adults do.