Another sign of the times
According to the U.K. Times, Black models are less acceptable in fashion than they used to be.
In the 1960s and 1970s, ethnic women were much more visible in fashion. That was a time of exuberance and change; the time of the Black Power movement, the mantra “black is beautiful”, Roberta Flack singing Be Real Black for Me. This mood continued into the 1980s, with models such as Iman, Pat Cleveland and the young Campbell splashed everywhere.
Fashionistas will admit that it is now extremely rare to see a black girl on a magazine cover, and that there were almost no ethnic girls at the catwalk shows in Paris, Milan and New York in February. One or two Chinese models made it, but otherwise, the Aryan look dominated.
The question is: why? The standard answer is that it all comes down to money. Beauty is what sells — the magazine, the label, the skincare and the bag. Editors and managers say that, however much they want to use ethnic girls, putting one on the cover of a glossy magazine will depress sales. If ethnic women brought in big profits, nobody in the industry would be in the slightest bit interested in their skin tones or their racial type. Rightly or wrongly, though women from ethnic minorities are considered a bad commercial bet.
As one insider said to me regretfully: “Fashion is aspirational, magazines are aspirational and, to aspire, you need to be able to identify with someone – at least a little. And readers don’t identify with ethnic women.
Sound familiar, romance readers?
It doesn’t surprise many that in the past few decades of mean, greedy, racist coservative values being lauded in this country that things have slipped backward for blacks, Shades of fat, rich white men bellowing hatred, we got lots of them from Rush, O’Reilly and more.
These are the top casting agents and designers who decide whom to send on photoshoots and the catwalks, and many of them are gay white men. I’m told they really don’t like black women.
Really? I know gay white men can be as rabidly racist against blacks as anybody else. I’ve seen it myself on the romance blogs and comments. But dang, shouldn’t the discriminated against stick together? Aw well, they’re white men too, after all, the ruling majority. Look at those white, conservative Repugs playing footsie in the men’s rooms. They probably figure they got it like that.
I consider it the fault of black women too. If we’d show a little pride in our ethnic beauty and dump the skin lighteners, the fried hair, the weaves and stop trying to reach some unobtainable standard of white or Asian beauty (pleeeze sistas, give that Asian peasant back her hair off your head!), and own our own brand of unique African beauty, it would make a big difference how other races viewed us. How one views oneself means a lot in the world. That little ripple of black pride in the sixties and seventies was a big thing. We were black, proud and beautiful for a short while!
Posted in Race and/or Politics |
May 15th, 2008 at 10:00 am
My amateur observation is that ethnic standards of beauty are being replaced by bi-racial standards of beauty. In England where the black population is less than 10%, the bi-racial community is booming.
But as far as my own style, I’ve worn my hair natural, straightened, with a weave, cut to an inch of my head. And I do all these things because I can. My daughter has vitilgo and black and white and all the hues in between don’t raise her condition as a standard of beauty. So it’s my job to do so. And it’s going to have to be moms’ and dads’ (and everyone in that type of role) jobs to instill that pride in their kids.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I wholly agree that it’s our job to instill a feeling of acceptance and satisfaction into our kids for how the good Lord created them.
Asian and white folk could kink, nap and dread their hair. I wonder why so few do so and so many blacks straighten ours? It’s just as hard either way.
I sorta still see Aryan beauty standards reigning supreme. Black folks might call bi-racial hair good, but it still isn’t straight.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I wore my hair in twists for three-four years after I got tired of straightening. I must say that I received more requests to touch my hair then, than when it is straightened. And when I came into work with it straigthened, I got the “Ah, now that looks really nice.”
But I did my twists myself and when it started taking me 2-3 hours to wash, blow dry and then re-twist, I almost lost my mind. I thought it would be quicker, but it wasn’t. And when my hair was healthy and thick, I looked like Snoop with the big ‘fro. I started dreading Sundays because of the wash and twist routine.
My mom, when she was in her 60’s, cut hers to the length of a man’s and wears it natural. But I’m not ready for that.
As a kid in school when I came to the U.S. the length of my hair allowed me to hide. I was teased about how I dressed, how I talked, my hair, where I was from - so the hair acted as a barrier. And now, for instance, if I’m in an uncomfortable place, I wear my hair down; otherwise it’s in a ponytail. Okay, I’ll stop because I’m sounding nutty.
May 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
You don’t sound funny. Our hair is such an issue! I wear mine in sisterlocks now. I recently got them cut and colored (for the first time in my life something other than black) and hated it. I changed the color back, but there’s nothing to do but let the chin length cut grow back out.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:51 am
I think the bi-racial look is only acceptable when based on ‘white’ standards.
An african-polynesian mix might not get as many ‘wows’ as the african-chinese, african-indian mixes which in turn will get less ‘wow, hots’ than the caucasian-african, caucasian-chinese mixes etc.
This is Dalia here but it won’t let me comment unless I change my name - can’t remember my password!!
And, from the article about the Morehouse valedictorian, am I being too touchy thinking this comment is really sad and disappointing?:
“Wendell Marsh, a junior English and French major who is black, said talking to Packwood as a high school senior helped make up his mind to come to Morehouse.
“Right now we live in a time where people say the black institution is obsolete, that you can get a better education at a majority institution,” Marsh said. “To see a white guy who had declined Harvard for Morehouse, I figured it was good enough for me.”
So…the white guy choosing it, hey, it must be good?????????????????? Whaaaaaaaaat???????
May 16th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Sigh, we got plenty of black self hatred. It always blows my mind when I hear black romance readers who can only RELATE to white characters in their romances–and thus avoid black romance–talk about self-hatred. Sheesh!
Dalia, I’ll delete your account so you can start all over.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I’ve always admired women of colour from around the world and the way their strong facial features allow them to wear their hair as short as the model in the picture. It accentuates the wonderful planes of the face that while many might not call ‘pretty’, are wonderfully striking and memorable. Oddly enough (or maybe not) I find traditional long haired ‘pretty’ is forgettable where as the handsome or striking sticks around in my memory.
Unlike me when I had to have a 1 inch all over cut after a botched home dye incident - I just looked like a chemotherapy patient
*sigh * no striking planes for me, just a blotchy mess.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
You know what I find funny about this skin tone thing? White women spend hundreds of dollars tanning the crap out of their skin in tanning beds, and then Thousands of dollars trying to fix the sun damage and yet darker is not supposed to be better… It seems to me that women always want to be what they aren’t… I have stick straight thin hair… I have spent way too much money and time perming the crap out of it, while curly haired girls flat iron theirs to death… Its too bad that we can’t celebrate differences in skin tone, body shape, hair texture….
The world would be a much more interesting place.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Asian and white folk could kink, nap and dread their hair. I wonder why so few do so and so many blacks straighten ours? It’s just as hard either way..
actually until about 5 years ago, I did kink the crap out of my hair, trying desperately to get some volume. Right now the style is straighter, but it will swing back again… 2 of my lily white nephews (in rock bands in their 20s) have deads… so its out there… As I get older I have less patience with trying to follow any fashion trend… Nowadays I just stick it up in a pony tale and go to work…