A few weeks back I was flipping through the channels and came across "The Daily 10" on E!. Now normally I do not watch anything on E! (except maybe "The Soup" or a good movie) but the story they were talking about caught my eye. Gabourey Sidibie, the star of
Precious: Based on the novel Push
by Sapphire, recently was on the cover of the magazine
Elle. In her photo (Shown above), her skin was obviously lightened (full story is
HERE). We talked at length this week about racism and discrimination, and I found the lightening on her skin to be completely wrong. It is sad to think that even today, in 2010, people still think that its ok to "fix" a person's skin color.
I feel like by changing Gabourey's skin color, this magazine sent another message too. When I looked at this, I felt like they were trying to change things about Gabourey because they just didn't like her. That every magazine and person is only looking for perfection and if they want to fix things, they don't care about how they make other people feel. I began to think that if I were in her position, I would feel so self-concious that someone tried to change something about me that is so apart of who I am. She is a beautiful woman and it is not fair for the media to send the message that people who are different aren't beautiful and that changing them is ok.
Chloe I would also be self-conscious if someone would change something about me. It sends the message that you weren't good enough. I was also interested in the story about Gabourey on the cover. Many cultures believe that the paler you are, the more beautiful you and and more wealthy. For example, in Thailand women believe that if you are pale it shows that you have more money. You are lighter because you are not working out in the fields and can afford to stay in. One product bleaches your skin and can possibly deform you, yet they continue the treatment. It amazes me to how far people will go to have lighter skin.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Chloe that it was wrong and inappropriate for Elle Magazine to lighten Gabourey's skin. She has lovely natural dark skin, and I think this action could make women of similar skin color feel-self-conscious. What is also interesting to me is how the magazine cover changes her name from Senegalese "Gabourey" to more American, so to speak, "Gabby." Gabourey/Gabby may actually prefer to be called Gabby, but she did bill herself as Gabourey for the movie Precious. I would be proud to have a beautiful ethnic name like Gabourey, and I hope Gabourey/Gabby was the primary force behind the decision as to how her name would appear in the magazine.
ReplyDeleteMy god that is awful! I knew that magazines woud cover zits and stuff but I never even thought about skin color! She has beautiful skin the way she is and i do not know why they would do that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing this up, Chloe. I am surprised that ELLE would edit GS's skin, but at the same time not so much. It is more than just skin color. Like Ellie said, so truely, people go to dangerous lengths to alter how they look. The definition of beautiful in our society is a dangerous one: tall, skinny, long hair, very white teeth, tan, the list continues. We all know about tanning and the link to skin color. Extreme diets are all too prevelent. What I want to know is this: how come we keep accepting it? I'm sure that "Gabby" was shown the picture before its publishing, and people are not forced to tan or lose weight, etc. in typical society. Yet, we continue to do all those things. "Beautiful" will stay as it is until we as a society decider to change it. Again, thanks for bringing this to attention.
ReplyDeleteI recently read an article just like this, but that L'Oreal was lightening Beyonce's skin in all of their adds and it caused outrage in the media. Beyonce's hair and skin was obviously lightened, just like GS's in your article. The fact that they were changing Beyonce's skin (which is already pretty light, compared to GS's)is terrible, and really speaks about "post-racial America". Elle magazine could probably blame the lightening of the skin on lighting or type of photography, but with the many instances of skin-lightening on darker skined people, it shows that many Americans are still racist, they just aren't as open about it as before.
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