blackface strikes again

As I mentioned two posts ago, there was a huge controversy over a French Vogue spread that featured a model in blackface. I mentioned a past cycle of America's Next Top Model where they "changed" each model's race through makeup. It's interesting that only a few weeks later, ANTM did it again with the current cycle. The models had just arrived at their "abroad" destination, Hawaii, and were told about hapa, which is the Hawaiian word for "half," meaning half one race and half another. Each of the six girls left were assigned two races that they would be transformed into for their photo shoot.

Brittany - Native American and East Indian

Erin - Tibetan and Egyptian

Jennifer - Botswanan and Polynesian

Laura - Mexican and Greek

Nicole - Malagasy (from Madagascar) and Japanese

Sundai - Moroccan and Russian

I have to say, I am extremely angry about this. The media needs to learn that people doing blackface to imitate and make fun of Michael Jackson on a gameshow in Australia is one thing, and models taking the beauty of one race (or two!) and turning it into high-quality fashion is something else entirely. I wish my blog had more readers so I could know that I had a shot at publicly disagreeing with this article. And I desperately hope that Tyra Banks does NOT apologize for doing this photo shoot. There is nothing to apologize for. One of the models was technically put in "traditional" blackface -- Jennifer, because she was Botswanan -- all of the others were completely different ethnicities, ones that have not historically been imitated through anything similar to "blackface" at all. God, this really pisses me off. The pictures are beautiful and none of the models objected whatsoever to the photo shoot; in fact, they found it interesting and challenging, as it was! The only issue any of the girls had was simply understanding what being of that race meant -- for example, Erin claimed to know nothing about Tibet other than it needed to be freed (sidenote: um, Erin, read the news or something). True fashion is edgy, true fashion is not comfortable, it is vitally important that Tyra did this photo shoot (in fact, she was the photographer herself). Hopefully one day people will realize that this is not offensive.

sans maquillage

I wrote this a long time ago, but I figured I'd post it here.

I was so excited when I saw that French Elle had a model without makeup on their cover this month (April 2009). Like the article says, American mags need to step it up! C'mon, Vogue, you've bent and broken a ton of fashion "rules" - let's see some American girls without their makeup, looking beautiful on the pages of high fashion magazines. Not only are they without makeup, but they are without any retouching or Photoshopping, too! And they still look amazing. France is ahead of us in a lot of ways, and now they can triumphantly add this to their list...when celebrities are featured sans maquillage (without makeup) in American rags, it's always to say, "Hey, look how crappy this star looks without her pounds of eye makeup/foundation/lipstick!" But Elle is showing that fresh-faced can be beautiful too. Props!

Blackface in French Vogue

I haven't posted in a long while because it appears that no one has, or ever will, read this blog. But I'm going to plug it mercilessly on Twitter (@darkheadlights). Hopefully that will help, and if I get any readers, even if it's just one person, I will post more often.

Onto the issue at hand. I have just heard that French Vogue put Lara Stone in blackface for a fourteen-page spread in the lastest issue, which is supposedly dedicated to supermodels. Interestingly, according to this Yahoo article, no actual black models appear in the magazine. No Iman. No Tyra Banks. No Naomi Campbell. Just Lara Stone, looking like this.

The author of the Yahoo article, Joanna Douglas, is (understandably) very upset about this, as many other people, both white and black, both French and of other nationalities, must be too. Especially taking into consideration the recent incident in Australia involving Harry Connick, Jr., and some actors in blackface portraying the Jackson 5.

The first thought I had when I saw the pictures from the spread was about a particular cycle of America's Next Top Model, cycle 4. One of the photo shoots the girls had was one in which each one's ethnicity was changed through the use of makeup. A white girl became African American, a black girl became Korean, a Mexican/African American girl became Icelandic, etc. As far as I know, no one got angry about this. Personally, when I saw the episode, I wasn't upset. I was intrigued. I thought it was amazing that makeup could go to those levels. Looking at the pictures of Lara Stone, it doesn't seem like Vogue is really trying to offend anyone. I don't think it was deliberate, and I don't think they need to apologize for it. I think they were simply exploring the limits of makeup. Now, normally Lara Stone looks like this.

She is a Dutch model, obviously white (or Caucasian, if you prefer). The transformation she went through to appear African must have been extensive. When people did blackface performances back in the nineteenth century or so, they simply smeared some greasepaint or shoe polish on their faces and perhaps did something to emphasize the size of their lips, all in a cruel imitation. It looked messy and it was just for some cheap laughs. The Vogue spread is neither of these, nor is it trying to accomplish either of these. I know these days we are generally quick to discredit anything and everything that might be offensive to African Americans, for fear of being labeled a racist. But there is a balance.