When French Vogue's latest editorial in their October issue hit the media, there was some uproar. The fashion magazine did a spread of model Lara Stone, who is white, done up in blackface. Apart from the question of why Vogue didn't use the handful of famous black models - Naomi, Chanel, Liya, Alek et al, there's the bigger question of "who thought this was a good idea?"
The magazine's photos hit the media not long after the incident in Australia. Five men did a skit called, "Jackson Jive" and they did it in blackface saying it was a tribute. American celebrity Harry Connick Jr. was a guest judge and while Australians cheered, he refused to score the group saying that their performance was in fact, an insult. He said, "I just wanted to say on behalf of my country, I know it was done in humor...but we have spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that we take it really to heart." There's also the fact that Connick is from Louisiana where the rescue efforts of Hurricane Katrina were cast in terms of race; and the fact that the Australians haven't been too friendly about the native Aboriginal people. No real excuses there.
Having that happen and then the Vogue pictures is wrong. Blackface is associated with buffoonery and racism (because black performers could not perform in the same places as white performers). The Vogue pictures take it further and associate blackface with sexuality. There's nothing redeeming about performing in blackface.
But could it be because it did not occur in the United States and because France doesn't share the same history Vogue gets a pass? Maybe, but we all live in a small word - we watch similar shows, we're on the Internet and we communicate in so many different ways that no, French Vogue shouldn't get a pass. Its editor Carine Roitfeld mingles internationally. Perhaps her peers only talk about the latest clothes and compare heel heights, but honestly, she should know better. She's known for her edgy editorials ('pregnant' models smoking in the April issue) but this doesn't scream edgy (for the record, neither does pregnant smoking models) It just says out of touch.
Are we too politically correct or should we just shrug and let it go?
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