“I think the issue becomes, if you were to land here from Mars and opened
up a magazine — a fashion magazine or a beauty magazine — there would not be
representation of women of color.”This month, at least in Italy, that’s not the case.
I like that this article briefly mentions how we're conditioned to see a specific type of beauty, through the infinite ways that we culturally have such a strict definition of beauty drilled into our heads. So, it's great to see at least one magazine making an effort to show a different side. The next step though would seem to be consistency, so that there's balance in every issue instead of one trying to make up for the rest
On the other hand, we have Vogue here in the US, which a while back put out
its first magazine cover featuring a black man, LeBron James: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-24-vogue-controversy_N.htm, stirring all kinds of controversy.
Magazine analyst Samir Husni believes the photo was deliberately provocative,
adding that it "screams King Kong." Considering Vogue's influential history, he
said, covers are not something that the magazine does in a rush...In a column at ESPN.com, Jemele Hill called the cover "memorable for all the
wrong reasons." But she said in an interview that the image is not unusual —
white athletes are generally portrayed smiling or laughing, while black sports
figures are given a "beastly sort of vibe."
Whether or not you think this was intentional on the part of the editors, it's a stark contrast to the other example in this post. Unfortunately, images like this, whether they be malicious or innocent portrayals, far outnumber positive ones that contrast negative stereotypes. The question, I guess, is how we encourage more of the good images and teach ourselves and others to see through the bad?
The “Me Too” Campaign seeks to call attention to, and begin to dispel, the myth
of effortless perfection at Duke – that is, the perception that all other
students are free from struggle – by presenting student strengths and weaknesses
as natural and acceptable. Most students, individually, admit that they do
sometimes struggle but thinking that others don’t makes it hard to let others
know they may be having a difficult time. The foundation of the “Me Too”
Campaign is to assert that, whatever issues a particular student may be dealing
with, he/she is not alone.
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