FRENCH VOGUE MAKES THIS INTERESTING COUNTPOINT TO ITALIAN VOGUE'S "ALL BLACK WOMEN" ISSUE LAST YEAR!
5:18 pm - 10/14/2009
Less than a week after Hey Hey It's Saturday's now infamous "blackface" skit, fashion bible French Vogue has sparked controversy by painting a white model black for a photo shoot.
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Bloggers and readers appear to be evenly split about the effect and meaning of the images.
In the US, blog site Jezebel led the condemnation, accusing the magazine of cultural insensitivity.
"What Klein and Roitfeld should know … is that painting white people black for the entertainment of other white people is offensive in ways that stand entirely apart from cultural context," Jezebel reported.
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But not all readers and bloggers were convinced. On The Guardian's website, 'seanthorpe' wrote: “The American cultural imperialists of the Anglosphere are out in force again. The same dickheads tried to get a Nigerian production stopped in the west end because the actors were whiting up. Not everybody who attempts to portray somebody whose skin is a different colour than their own is Al f---ing Jolson.”
London's newspapers quickly picked up the story and referred to Hey Hey's Red Faces Jackson Five sketch, which left singer Harry Connick Jr "visibly shocked".
what i love about this story is that everyone cries racism as if theres a board of people sitting around going "lets do a shoot with cool contrast but lets not use a BLACK model because i am racist lets do BLACK face it will be so edgy because we cant wait to bring down black people BWAHAHAHHA" lets take a look at the rest of the shoot. OH NO ITS CRACKLY WHITE FACE ALL OLD WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD BE OFFENDED OH NO SHE HAS A BIRD MASK ON ALL BIRDS SHOULD BE OFFENDED OH NO SHES PAINTED PART BLACK PART WHITE PEOPLE WITH VITILIGO SHOULD BE OFFENDED
Keep getting your panties in a knot about nothing ontd_p
I made a thread about this in ONTD, but I think it got skewed because the main issue with that article was whether or not this was blackface.
After thinking this over, I don't think it was an issue of blackface (although I'm amazed at some of the comments who said it couldn't possibly even be related to the ill-intentioned ways of blackface because she's entirely colored brown).
My bone to pick with this is the fact that models of color are always shunned or viewed as lesser beauties, but suddenly it's beautiful once it's just paint on a light skinned model. The situation is even crappier because there were NO models of color in this issue.
Ugh, being black is so exhausting sometimes. The amount of fail we have to deal with on a daily basis should qualify all of us for medicinal marijuana cards.
they won't. this is french vogue, carine roitfeld is known for not giving a fuck, lol.
it definitely makes her more exciting than anna wintour (who at least tries to pretend to be be pc) but sometimes it comes off as questionable judgment.
Oh and as a sidenote to this, I saw an editorial a while ago in which the models were painted black - like, actual shiny graphite black. It was interesting and definitely cool looking but I did get a creeping feeling of "okay, this is bordering on blackface".
This? IS NOT BORDERING ON BLACKFACE, IT IS STRAIGHT-UP ~ARTISTIC~ BLACKFACE. This is the kind of thing Tropic Thunder was mocking, people.
I've been a Vogue subscriber for years now, but this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. I know this is French Vogue's doing, but ... nah. I just want nothing to do with the brand now. :\
stoichiometricThis might be of interest to you? — 14th-Oct-2009 11:13 pm (UTC)
As an African-born, American-raised, black woman, I guess my knee jerk reaction is to be upset about white model Lara Stone being painted in blackface for French Vogue.
But alas, I am unbothered.
The fourteen-page spread, which was shot by legendary fashion photographer Steven Meisel and styled by French Vogue's equally legendary fashion editor, Carine Roitfeld shows Stone, arms akimbo, legs apart, in African-inspired garb. She is also painted black from head-to-toe. Sure, it's chic, but the hurtful, demeaning, insulting history of blackface could not have escaped the creative team behind this shoot, and so the ensuing outrage is predictable - and understandable.
lets take a look at the rest of the shoot.
OH NO ITS CRACKLY WHITE FACE ALL OLD WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD BE OFFENDED
OH NO SHE HAS A BIRD MASK ON ALL BIRDS SHOULD BE OFFENDED
OH NO SHES PAINTED PART BLACK PART WHITE PEOPLE WITH VITILIGO SHOULD BE OFFENDED
Keep getting your panties in a knot about nothing ontd_p
But then, maybe in France people are less sensitive about this. All I know is, if this was in the US Vogue, Anna Wintour would be in HUGE trouble.
After thinking this over, I don't think it was an issue of blackface (although I'm amazed at some of the comments who said it couldn't possibly even be related to the ill-intentioned ways of blackface because she's entirely colored brown).
My bone to pick with this is the fact that models of color are always shunned or viewed as lesser beauties, but suddenly it's beautiful once it's just paint on a light skinned model. The situation is even crappier because there were NO models of color in this issue.
j/k. But apparently the Black Issue was done by Vogue Italy, not Vogue France.
Vogue shoots are pretty interesting already, but this is just...wow.
it definitely makes her more exciting than anna wintour (who at least tries to pretend to be be pc) but sometimes it comes off as questionable judgment.
This? IS NOT BORDERING ON BLACKFACE, IT IS STRAIGHT-UP ~ARTISTIC~ BLACKFACE. This is the kind of thing Tropic Thunder was mocking, people.
How artistic skin-darkening can be, like artistic, aka doin' it right:
But alas, I am unbothered.
The fourteen-page spread, which was shot by legendary fashion photographer Steven Meisel and styled by French Vogue's equally legendary fashion editor, Carine Roitfeld shows Stone, arms akimbo, legs apart, in African-inspired garb. She is also painted black from head-to-toe. Sure, it's chic, but the hurtful, demeaning, insulting history of blackface could not have escaped the creative team behind this shoot, and so the ensuing outrage is predictable - and understandable.
THE REST.
As for anything else...