16 years old, I went to prom. And like most other 16 and 17 year old girls, the big topic before the big day was what to wear. The months leading up to the night of adulthood was an ever so meticulous and thorough stalk of all dress shops, celebrity photos, and magazines for the most lovely, unique gown created. This was when I discovered Vanity Fair. I consumed its pages, imagining myself with Eddie Ramirez (indie school stud, of course) in this whimsical world created by this magazine (which I knew could NOT have been imaginary). I remember seeing the girls in this land of “perfect.” I was not them. I was me, a converse wearin, goof-ball, theater lovin, “college cool” wanna-be, that didn’t even meet a whisper of Vanity Fair’s standards.

As I think back to these Vanity Fair loving days I remember not finding too many similarities between these models and myself. I was always way too tall, too fat, too loud, and too not perfect… but the one thing that I did have in common with these tiny beauties was not on my mind.

I didn’t give it much thought then, but the glaring whiteness of the models makes a strong statement. In the new March 2010 Hollywood cover shows nine lovely, yet all ghostly white, women. Harry Allen, writer of Media Assassin, and hip-hop activist, explains that with all the talent that is accessible to only capture all white individuals, a “racial power statement” is being made.

The article by Allen can be found on his blog at: http://harryallen.info/?p=6737

Allen ever-so-poetically states:
“I wonder: While discussing Haiti over lunch, did any of these actors say, “Wow: This sure is one Caucazoid photo shoot”? Better yet, did anyone refuse to be part of something which so genteely hangs out the NO COLOREDS sign?”

He challenges the reader and the models to consider, “if you’re not part of a solution, you’re part of the problem.” Especially if your project “sends relations back sixty years.”

This ideology of white is beautiful (and only white) is not the point of view of the masses. Vanity Fair has most defiantly gone back 60 years, at least has not made any contribution to move forward as far as white supremacy in the media. A range of representation for the uniqueness of people is literally non existent this bubble of Vanity Fair. White supremacy has made its way through most television series, movies, political representations, news stories, etc. etc. etc. and at this point I would like to think we have changed or at least made progress from the depictions of perfect white families and assimilated black families. Progress that gives us a beautiful representation of the talent and ethnicities of our country, not a white washed horror as found in Vanity Fair.

After years and years of attempts to change the order with the civil rights movement and fight for all people of color, to have come to this... is a challenge to everyone. What can be different in our media? How can our conversations challenge this continue ideology that white is supreme?

1 Comment

1. Anonymous on February 5, 2010 at 3:22 PM

   Wonderful. Downright though provoking!