"African Queen"

While the gendered implications of the objectification of women in fashion and modeling are no doubt a topic on which we can discuss forever, for the sake of this post I'm going to take the pessimistic stand on fashion as a whole and accept the fact that the way it is now is most likely the way it's going to stay: as an industry that benefits from and strives off of the objectification of woman. That being said, the fashion world is constantly scrutinized for its lack of racial diversity among models. Fashion spreads and photographs in magazines sometimes employ non-white models for specific themes, but the majority of models on the runway are Caucasian. This article by Jezebel states how in the most recent 2013 fashion week 82% of the models were white. Even the handful of designers who employed non-white models are still undeserving of any praise for their variance because the actual number of non-white models employed for a show compared with the number of white models is still offensive. Scroll down to the bottom of the Jezebel article to see the numbers, the most “diverse” shows still employed an average of 8 or 9 non-white models in a show of about 25 or 30 models.

It's difficult for me to even ponder a logical reason behind this blatant refusal to employ non-white models. There must be thousands, perhaps millions of girls around the world trying to make it as models in the fashion industry so I find it hard to believe that the majority of them are white. The scarce employment for non-white models in fashion also “forces models of color to compete against each other for the one or two runway spots that might go to a non-white girl...” perhaps making the world of modeling even more malicious and vindictive than it already seems, injecting the spirit of venomous competition in what seems to already be (a la America's Next Top model) an aggressively antagonistic and judgmental world.

Another article on Jezebel sheds light on a fashion spread titled “African Queen” in which every look is modeled by a sixteen year-old white model. The juxtaposition of the title with a harshly tanned and photoshopped white girl jumping around in clothing with “ethnic” patterns is alarming and offensive. The first thought in my head and (hopefully) most who take a look at this spread is “really? you couldn't find a single black model to portray the “African Queen”? Nevermind the fact that assuming that somebody has to be black if their from Africa is in itself an exceedingly incorrect assumption, in this case it's more important that this spread represents the commonly-shared attitude within the fashion world towards racial diversity which is perfectly summed up in the sub-heading of the article (which quotes the blog Foudre) :“because why hire a black model when you can just paint a white one!”. To apply that quote to the general predominate whiteness of every runway show, “why hire a black model when you can just hire a white one?”

Well, why should a designer care about the skin color of the emaciated woman on which he/she clothing drapes from on the runway? What difference does it make in terms of their popularity, their recognition, the artistry of the clothing itself? Evidently nothing, considering how few designers have employed any non-white models at all (and those that have employing so little compared with how many white models). The truth is, it matters very little merely within the world of high fashion. High fashion remains to be exclusively perpetuated and dictated by the upper class and exceedingly wealthy citizens of America and Europe who are unfortunately predominately white. A Chanel quilted bag is going to cost $12,000 (more or less) regardless of whether a black or white model is holding it in a photo in Vogue and women all over the world are going to buy that bag regardless as well. However, it's the implications that the high fashion world impresses upon popular media and accessible fashion outlets that needs to be addressed. It's not only the customers of these high-end brands that see these ads in Vogue or in catalogues, these images are superimposed and mimicked on billboards, television, media. The audience for high fashion imagery extends way further then those who can afford to partake in it, any woman who subjected to popular media (either voluntarily and/or forcibly) sees theses images also and it only perpetuates the idea that propagates about beauty is right. When the African Queen has to be a 16 year old white girl, its telling impressionable girls that even the African Queen has to be young, skinny and white because that's the only way to be beautiful.