Racist? Tacky? Or just plain old ugly?

[Peikko 1,575]

Steven Klein's shoot of Lara Stone for French Vogue. Photograph: Public Domain

French Vogue has never been one to tiptoe around controversy. Recently it has published photos of supposedly pregnant models puffing cigarettes and leather-clad glamazons kissing with blood pouring from their mouths.

Now, though, the magazine may have gone too far for even the most dedicated followers of fashion. Its October edition features pictures of Dutch model Lara Stone in which the naturally pale-skinned blonde's face and body are painted black. The photo shoot, styled by the magazine's long-time editor, Carine Roitfeld, provoked outrage today as its subject spread through internet forums and fashion websites. The US blog Jezebel criticised the decision of Roitfeld and photographer Steven Klein to alter the model's skin colour, accusing them of cultural insensitivity.

"What Klein and Roitfeld should know … is that painting white people black for the entertainment of other white people is offensive in ways that stand entirely apart from cultural context," it said. "France and Australia may not have the United States' particular history of minstrel shows … but something about the act of portraying a white woman as black ought to sound an alarm, somewhere."

Dominique Sopo, president of the French organisation SOS Racisme, said that even if the shoot was not racist in intention it was certainly "tactless".

"If the aim was artistic, and not to pass off the model as a black girl, the fact that it produces such reactions shows that the world of images – advertising, fashion, whatever – is now paying for its long tradition of not allowing black people to show their bodies in public."

French Vogue said the magazine was unaware of any controversy. Neither Roitfeld nor Stone's agents at the IMG model agency in New York or Paris were available for comment.

Last week an Australian variety show host was forced to apologise for a skit in which singers parodying the Jackson Five painted their faces black. American singer and actor Harry Connick Jr, who was a guest judge on Hey Hey It's Saturday, was visibly shocked by the skit.

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I'm going with uglified - I don't think this does the model any favours at all.

[Peikko 1,575]

I would get this if it made the model look stunningly beautiful or something but she looks plain creepy like that so, I don't get it at all.

[EasternDE 35]

This is confusing me.

Soon fake mustache or blond wig will be not "politically correct"...?

History of minstrel show....?

Could someone please explain?

[Sandrila 1]

why do we always need to go to extremes?

[Peikko 1,575]

Fashion industry needs extremes, that I don't really dispute. What I question is how anyone decided that this enhanced the model in any way. I don't get it.

[alienlovechild 75]

This is confusing me.

Soon fake mustache or blond wig will be not "politically correct"...?

History of minstrel show....?

Could someone please explain?

Minstrel shows were put on by white guys in blackface pretending to be black for entertainment. Black Americans find that offensive as it stereotypes blacks.

"The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface.

Minstrel shows lampooned black people in mostly disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade. By the turn of the century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, fraternities, and local theaters. As blacks began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity.

The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated. Spirituals (known as jubilees) entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy.

Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of significant aspects of black-American culture"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show

[TracyHamza 1]

no words needed...lol

[_Simpson_ 250]

Racist no, stupid yes. I often think much of what goes on at these cat walks and fashion shows are stupid. I think they just have so much money that normal becomes a distant cousin that only visits when there is talk about helping children.

Edited October 13, 2009 by _Simpson_

[Peikko 1,575]

But, stupid doesn't tell me what you actually think of the picture. Care to share?

[_Simpson_ 250]

But, stupid doesn't tell me what you actually think of the picture. Care to share?

Sure, I dont think there was no racist intent behind it, I think it was just a poor attempt at fashion on there half. I dont know the people that orchestrated this so yes racism could be a factor but I doubt it.

What are your thoughts? Do you consider it racist?

[Peikko 1,575]

I already said but you didn't answer my question. I already know you don't think it's racist but that's not what interests me, what do you think of the picture itself?

[The_Dude 1,142]

I think they either did it for the shock value and the associated publicity that would follow, or this is just poor taste. Could be both, who knows.

[scandal 951]

I already said but you didn't answer my question. I already know you don't think it's racist but that's not what interests me, what do you think of the picture itself?

She looks like she's wearing a white showercap. Contrasts nicely with the fine natural ebony skintone.

[Peikko 1,575]

It's an artistic/model question. Does anything about the picture strike anyone as bringing the best out of the model, enhancing her features/form? I think it makes her look insanely freakish.

Yeah, I wondered about the shower cap too

[_Simpson_ 250]

I already said but you didn't answer my question. I already know you don't think it's racist but that's not what interests me, what do you think of the picture itself?

You did already answer? When?, am I to assume that because you made the comment that fashion needs its extremes that you dont consider it racist?

What do I think of the picture, I see a white woman painted black in the name of fashion and I think this woman doesnt look good or have a clue to what fashion is and I look at the picture and wonder if this is a no name model doing what it takes to get noticed or a big name model thinking she stretching the limits of fashion. Overall what I think about the picture is that its not appealing to me in anyway whatsoever.

Edited October 13, 2009 by _Simpson_