In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

You can be my black Kate Moss tonight

Jill

kate_1.jpg
If you can’t find a real live woman of color to model for you, there’s always blackface!

According to one informal perusal of this month’s fashion magazines, there are exactly zero models of color in the fashion spreads. As Dodai at Jezebel says:

So, what have we learned? Black, Asian and models of color are still not “fashionable.” But advertisers use black and Asian models, because they know not to fuck with buying power — Bethann Hardison talked about this at the NYPL conference. Still – -can you think of another billion dollar industry in which blatant racism is tolerated?

Well, yeah, actually, but that’s another post. It is important to distinguish between the ads and the fashion spreads, because they do serve different (if overlapping) purposes. And Dodai points out, advertisers are well-aware of the fact that women of color have buying power, and they don’t want to fuck with that. But when it comes to selling an image — beauty, a look, a lifestyle, and all the other things that fashion designers are trying to do beyond simply getting you to purchase a single product — they want a white face attached it it.

Of course, it is better than taking white models and painting them black. (That’s me, always looking on the bright side).

13 thoughts on You can be my black Kate Moss tonight

  1. I agree with your larger point, but looking at the blowup of the whole cover, it looks like it’s an entire issue about AIDS in Africa (with half the proceeds going towards that cause), not a fashion spread. In other words, it’s supposed to be a “black like me”/AIDS affects us all statement, not a fashion statement. It’s blackface, but for a purpose.

  3. Just to clarify, the Kate Moss magazine cover came out a year or so ago, so the Black Looks post is old — that’s probably why you can’t comment. I was just using it as an illustration of how screwed up it is that high-profile white models can be “African” on magazine covers, but fashion spreads can’t be bothered to feature women of color. The post was about the Jezebel magazine perusal, not the Kate Moss cover.

  4. Ah, okay. That wasn’t clear. And it’s true that, say, Glamour magazine wouldn’t use a white-face Naomi Campbell to illustrate how the scourge of crystal meth addiction affects us all the way the Guardian used Kate Moss for AIDS.

    It’s odd (well, not really) how all of these supposedly profit-making entities shoot themselves in the foot over and over again. Advertisers figured out years ago that they could put people of color in ads as ordinary people and still keep their white customers, but entertainment entities like movies and TV and modeling still run away like it’s freakin’ radioactive.

  5. Oh, and I will defend the cover only of Marie Claire: they always use whichever actress they’re interviewing inside as their cover model. They get no pass for the fashion spreads, though.

    Yes, Marie Claire does good stuff about women’s issues around the world, but if you only have women of color in your magazine as victims and not as models, that’s a problem.

  6. The Independent’s choice to put portray Kate Moss in this way may have something to do with the fact that magazines with Blacks on the cover generally don’t sell well. This is certainly the case in North America and I would bet it is also the case in Britain (anecdotal evidence here).

  7. The Independent’s choice to put portray Kate Moss in this way may have something to do with the fact that magazines with Blacks on the cover generally don’t sell well.

    I keep hearing that, but I can’t help wondering if it’s along the same lines as the urban legend that magazine covers that are mostly green don’t sell as well.

    As with a lot of entertainment products, there are many superstitions that have hardened into “facts.” Is a magazine cover with Jennifer Aniston going to sell better than one with Jennifer Hudson? Of course, but it’s because Aniston is a huge star, not because she’s white or because Hudson is black. Compare an Aniston cover with a Halle Berry cover (or Gretchen Mol with Jennifer Hudson) to get a better picture of what’s really going on.

  8. The Independent’s choice to put portray Kate Moss in this way may have something to do with the fact that magazines with Blacks on the cover generally don’t sell well.

    Like Mnemosyne, I really doubt that’s a “fact” so much as an excuse. When Beverly Johnson appeared on the cover of Vogue in 1974, people were afraid no one would buy it; but it was a best-seller; it set *records*, and she was the first African-American woman ever to have been on the cover.

    Besides– even if the “excuse” was true, “But it sells” is never acceptable as an excuse for racist or sexist policies… Think of the threads we’ve had here & at Pandagon, Feministing, etc., about blatantly misogynist t-shirts, products, ad campaigns, etc. Yes, you could say of any of them, “This may have something to do with the fact that these products sell well.” Of course it does. That’s why they do it…. It’s still wrong.

  9. I actually had no idea it was supposed to be “blackface” at first glance. I do recall America’s Next Top Model doing a “challenge” in which all the models portrayed someone of a different ethnic background then themselves, and with some clever makeup application and lighting, the majority of them came out looking fairly inconspicuous. At first glance, the Kate Moss picture looks more like some weird artistic effect than actually trying to make her look African-American….until you see the “Africa Issue” copy.

    On that note: WTF?

  10. Pingback: King James Turned Into King Kong « Ali Eteraz

  11. I’m all for radical critiques of the racism of the modeling industry but isn’t THIS particular image pretty much inspired by the Kanye West line. I mean, it’s not like took some random model and put her in blackface. That IS Kate Moss.

  12. Unfortunately whiteness sells over color even among the women of color, particularly in Asian countries such as India..that is one of the major problems.

  13. Confirming the statement whiteness sells over color even among the women of color..read this statement from India…

    “The faces of white women and men, mostly from Eastern Europe, stare out from billboards, from the facades of glitzy, glass-fronted malls and from fashion magazines in India. At an international automobile show this month in New Delhi, most of the models were white.

    The presence of Caucasian models in Indian advertisements has grown in the past three years, industry analysts say. The trend reflects deep cultural preferences for fair skin in this predominantly brown-skinned nation of more than 1 billion people.”

    http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=579753

    With Indian and Asian women such as these, who needs racist whites..we can do their job.

Comments are currently closed.