Is The Color of Beauty White?

A friend hipped me to this video and it is truly heartbreaking.  Apparently the color of beauty is still white (and will always be if we are to believe those people interviewed in the video. 

Before I am accused of being too Afrocentric, I am not advocating that the fashion industry is "blackened" just for the same of having black people on the runways and in the pages of mainstream fashion magazines. Rather, I am advocating at least an openness to representing blackness rather than having designers request "no black girls."  Particularly when they are willing to allow white models to don blackface or act as props to showcase white beauty.  Which recalls one of the quotes in the film that says people in the industry essentially want white girls dipped in chocolate. 

Modern Day "Brownface"

When I was on vacation in Amsterdam late last year (shortly before the American Christmas holiday), I began to notice blackface dolls in storefront windows. Later in the trip, I asked a tour guide what it was all about and she retold the story of "Black Pete" who is a servant of Saint Nicholas. There are several stories about Black Pete. One is that his face is black because the Dutch expect the face of the devil to be black. Another story has Black Pete punishing bad children. Still another story purports that Black Pete is the one who actually places gifts for Saint Nicholas (and subsequently that his face is black because from sliding down the chimney, which covers his face in black soot). In current times (as when I was in Amsterdam) Black Pete's face isn't so much black as it is brown, presumably to get away from the idea of blackface. Aside from this representation of Black Pete, I (idiotically, apparently) thought blackface was largely a thing of the past since people like Ted Danson found out that most people (especially black people) don't see the "LOL" potential of blackface these days.


So, imagine my surprise when I saw this photo spread from L’Officiel Hommes, a men's French fashion magazine from 2010.


Are there really not enough black male models? I think not. And perhaps it's just for the sake of creating controversy because certain segments of the internet are abuzz about this photo spread. If that is/was the aim, then mission accomplished. But what it says is that in the high fashion modeling industry, black still isn't good enough. Despite Tyra Banks' best efforts with America's Next Top Model, there are just not a lot of black people who grace the pages of fashion magazines. The cover of Vanity Fair's most recent cover featured thin, white actresses as the future of Hollywood. What this recent attack means is that not only are blacks not good enough to be featured in fashion (along with women who are heavier than a size 6) but even when (on the rare occasion) an editorial calls for people of color they aren't even good enough to fill those few slots.

Some could make the argument that we are living in a post-racial world now that American has elected an African American president -- to which I say BULLSHIT! Try telling a black man (who is not the biracial Barack Obama) that race no longer matters. Even as a reasonably well-educated black man, no one can convince me that race no longer matters. Tell me we are post-racial when the woman on the "El" in Chicago gets up and moves to a different car when I sit down within 20 feet of her. Try telling me we are post-racial when the woman clutches her purse when I get onto the elevator with her.

Although we rarely do this is any way that has real impact, it's time for us to get outraged about our failure to have a real, honest conversation about race and ethnicity. We will always be plagued by these problems unless we get it all out in the open. Once we have had an honest conversation about race, we'll understand why brownface is as offensive as blackface and instead of giving people a forum to use it to titillate and intrigue us, we'll just yawn and look the other way and dismiss it for the publicity stunt that it is.

Weight a Minute

Full Disclosure: I am not a woman or a teenage girl. But I do pay attention to media messages and while I have been known to abstractly discuss issues regarding body issues among friends, I can rarely point to specific instances because they all tend to blur. On my Facebook page, I railed against Giuliana Rancic for comments she made to Kathy Griffin who essentially said she looked good because she was starving herself to which Giuliana replied that it didn't matter as long as she looked good. I vented about it and then I got over it. Well my dander was raised again last night upon watching Project Runway. On one hand, we know that runway models are tinier than most women and that when fashion designers choose to use what they call "normal" sized models (whatever the hell that is) a controversy ensues. But it somehow rubbed me the wrong way to have designers on a reality TV show bitching about having to work with "real women." The first slap down is, "Hello! You're on a reality show known for challenges designed to stress you out!" and then secondly, do you plan to make ANY money as a designer? If the answer is yes, then you're going to have to make things in a larger size than a 2.

What it boils down to is that it says that if you are a woman and can't fit into a sample size (usually a 2 or 4) that somehow fashion is not for you. To watch many of the designers struggle to make a dress that flattered a woman who isn't shaped like a prepubescent boy was truly infuriating. And when Tyra Banks allows "plus sized" models on America's Next Top Model (although no winner has ever really reached the "top") it reinforces the problem. Tyra Banks will often say she is trying to change the industry, but what she ends up doing when these women like Whitney (the eventual winner of Cycle 10) or Tocarra (from Cycle 3) are in the competition is reinforce the idea that they shouldn't be in high fashion because the designers with whom they are working often don't have any clothes (or unflattering ones) that will fit them.