MAN1: I like girls with that light complexion look
MAN2: Your a moron
MAN1:I can't help it
MAN2:What being a moron?
MAN1:...I'm a victim
MAN3:Nigger you'r so brainwashed
MAN1:I'm a victim brother!
MAN2:Your a victim? Shut up!
MAN1: I'm a victim of 400 years of conditioning.
The man has programmed my conditioning.
Even my conditioning has been conditioned
- Brown-Skinned Lady by Black Star
Yesterday I recieved an email from an extremely good friend, drawing my attention to the controversy surrounding the cover of the first ever Indian Vogue.
Spot the odd one out?
In between the voluptuous beauty Bipasha Basu and the absolutely gorgeous former pageant queen Priyanka Chopra stands the waif-like Australian Gemma Ward.
Apparently there is has been controversy on whether a white, thin, blue eyed model should have been placed on the first ever issue of a magazine that will no doubt be bought by millions of Indian women. Placing a white girl in the middle, front and centre was obviously going to conjure up some serious talkback.
My favourite analysis of it came from a fashion forum and by a member named NYfashionista:
This is quite an interesting issue to debate. I am of Indian origin. Needless to say I know the types of beauty standards Indian women are constantly putting themselves up to (and being put up to): fair skin, small noses, light (sometimes BLONDE) hair, blue eyes...There have been countless times I've seen Indians (both male and female) both in America and India who have dyed their hair blonde and have sported blue/grey contacts.
As much as I would love to believe and think that putting Gemma on the cover is not a "racial" issue, that mindset is naive. You won't understand unless you understand India's culture and beauty standards. This cover is another way to perpetuate these stereotypes/"rules" that 15 and 16 year olds will be abiding by. I only hope one day more of us will be able to embrace our black hair brown eyes and brown skin!!
Something to take into consideration- Naomi Campbell was just very recently quoted saying: "I've never been on the cover of British Vogue and I've asked a million times and they've always refused me. They'll put the same white model for half the year - I swear like six times, but wouldn't put me on once in my own country. But I still want my British Vogue cover!" - not a fan of her personality at all but she IS a top model after all...
It has been well-documented that some cultures have glorified lighter skin as ideal. I used to have a Hong Kong friend who had the most beautiful skin I have ever seen but would be adamant about using an umbrella in the sun so she wouldn't get too dark.
In Western countries, the same attitudes abound. Check out A Girl Like Me, a documentry by an African American teenager who conducted the infamous "doll test" and found that young black children still would rather play with white dolls because they "look nicer".
In Australia, I think the subconscious belief that white girls, or girls with white features, are more beautiful is emedded deep in society.
We see it through pop culture and through the women society glorifies.
Our long-running TV shows like Home and Away and Neighbours showcase few ethnicities other than white, despite being set in multicultural places.
Our magazines barely have any black or asian actresses on the covers. Our music industry is overrun by caucasians. Ads on television occasionally show other races, but they are almost always in the "other" category.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what happens when the beholder controls the industries that perpetrate the beauty myth?
It's obvious that we are being conditioned to believe certain things.
3 Stars Have Something To Say!:
How crazy is it to think that young Indian women might look at this photo and think that the white woman is the most beautiful? Sometimes I think we just all want to be what we are not-I'd give my right arm to look like one of those Indian models, forget the Australian. I think you're right, though, there is a global viewpoint pushed by people in power to glorify white beauty as the ultimate, when it is only one of many types of beauty. It's a shame.
I'm so glad you posted this image!!
Did you see the China cover? They did the exact same thing for the first China cover (so not only does this cover suck for the reasons you point out, but it wasn't even original - the China one came out a few months before hand).
Humans are the only animals capable of blushing and the only animals that have need to - Mark Twain
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