Anderson Plays For His Own Team

What Is It About Anderson Cooper?

April 12th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian


Anderson Cooper is like the Hugh Hefner of journalism. When I think about the admiration that follows this man, it’s probably a good thing he reportedly plays for his own team because women love them some Anderson Cooper—and that includes a whole lot of black women.

Some of you might be thinking, speak for yourself, but I know I’m speaking for a lot of folks when I say, ladies love AC. I don’t even know when I became a fan I just remember a conversation at my previous job one day when someone mentioned something they saw on CNN and said Anderson Cooper reported blaze blah, and I blurted out, “I love Anderson Cooper” with almost as much emotion as I would if I was talking about Idris Elba. (Insert “Awkward” in Issa Rae voice.) I don’t even know where it came from because I don’t recall ever swooning while watching him on TV or anything but something in that moment made me way more excited than I should have been. It might have been around election time because I remember I was tuning into CNN religiously for my fix of Anderson, James Carville, Paul Begala, and Donna Brazile back then. Luckily in my moment of candidness, I wasn’t alone because my other black female co-worker chimed in with a quickness and said “yes, me too!” And so Anderson mania began.

On any article I read where Anderson is involved there is sure to be a string of comments about how cute, fooooiiine, gorgeous, and even hot Anderson is and it cracks me up every time because it’s almost like a universally accepted fact. And though I’m part of #TeamAnderson I don’t even really know why.

One thing I do know is it’s not because he’s Bradley Cooper’s older, finer brother as my mother mistakenly tried to convince me a while ago—although that would be a nice gene pool. It’s not a case of misdirected gaydar either because no one is checking for Don Lemon like that. I’m pretty sure Anderson probably could have even pulled more black women than T.J. Holmes when he was on CNN. Knowing that I tend to gravitate toward laid back men, I like the fact that Anderson is so cool in his reporting, he pretty much sticks to the facts, doesn’t get all irate and hot tempered like some reporters do when debates arise, and I can’t recall him ever saying anything in a report that offended me.

Aside from a case of the giggles every now and then, he’s a pretty serious, straight shooter and I love it. I also think the fact that he’s had a full head of white hair since like the age of 30 has something to do with his mystique—on top of those blue eyes. For some reason he gives me an image of Raiden from Mortal Kombat, and in the interest of not sounding like a complete nerd I’m going to stop there and say, basically he strikes me as a man who’s confident in who he is and you can’t really object to that. Would I date him in real life if he was into women? Probably not, but I will keep tuning into his CNN segments to get my fix—of news that is.

Are you a big Anderson Cooper fan?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.