Okay this is absurd
OMG the issue is a month old JFC…See the whole editorial here.
Lara Stone (the girl who calls herself fat) has been painted in blackface, whiteface and finally regresses to natural tanface (?) for a Vogue Paris October editorial.
While I agree that superficially this editorial may hit a nerve for many, the subtle message of the shoot has been overlooked by sensationalists. Lara, a Caucasian model, does get painted to appear darker skinned; but there isn’t any talk of thephoto of her painted porcelain white, except for the thigh which would be usually covered by a bottom.
I look past the first few photos and take in this one - it seems much more rife with a political statement than the oh-so-obvious first few that have caused such a stir. The photo has the model in the recently popular sans pants pose, with all of her but the thigh painted crackling white; identifying that the public body parts on display are altered to fit societal expectations, but the area that is expected to be covered up is not.
This portrays two things; historically those in society’s upper crust (from Queen Elizabeth to a Geisha), and the visual acknowledgment that even Caucasians ‘paint’ themselves to appear to an ideal even they can’t uphold.
The crackling of the white paint states an inherent imperfection of this ideal; Vogue France is not stating that the model is superior for being white, but a crumbling effigy of a society that can’t sustain its own standards. The skin cracks because it’s failing to sustain itself, and the true hue begins to appear from under the mirage of one group’s image of perfection.
After the transition from the black looks to the imperfect white, Lara is eventually a natural tan - a skin shade that is neither dark nor bleached, but between both. As a progression is illustrated, Vogue France is portraying that one should be comfortable in their own skin no matter what that happens to be. The paint is not a mark of ; more like a more sophisticated lesson of societal acceptance of all.
Cheers to Carine Roitfeld and Steven Klein for taking an unorthodox artistic method with this shoot, and for challenging close minded North American audiences once more.(Source)
Ugh I hate the fact that they are making a bigger deal out of this than it actually is. There have been worse injustices than this editorial going on, and you know, Vogue Paris is a classy publication who hires artists like Steven Klein.
Does anyone here actually find this editorial in question racist?
7 comments :
You could almost say that the people who are calling this "racist" are racis themselves... the editorial in no way says that they are showing/ representing people of different race. Yes, you can easily infer that when you look at the ed, I audomadiclly infer that when I see it!
That post/article you quoted is beautiful and describes it perfectly...
Ohh and I want that issue :D
I didn't find the Editorial racist at all in fact I found it quite the opposite I mean just because your skin is a certain colour doesn't mean we are not all of the same species, we are all human beings are we not ??, and Lara Stone is still herself even though she is painted a different colour, we are all equal and different gosh no one in the world has the exact same skin tone.
arrrrrr its like people want to be offended and can twist anything so it seems wrong.
I thought this editorial was fabulous and showed an equality in a very artistic way.
I agree with Clare too. God,that whole thing makes me so upset, people literally WANT racism so they will have something to cry about, and when no one is racist they go and attack French Vogue because they are bored.
Last comment..
my thoughts exactly.
very well put ladies
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