Race in fashion has always been up to a lot of controversy . This article from CNN talks about how black people were seen in the modeling agencies different now compared to in the late 1960's. The article states that "Modeling is probably the one industry where you [they] have the freedom to refer to people by their color and reject them in their work." Although Race in the fashion industry has come a long way from the 1960's to today. However, there are still racial discrimination among the modeling industry black models are seen as a trend rather than a black canvas. They are treated differently like that article stated "when we [the black models] do shoots, some of the makeup artist don't know what colors to use on our face or how to style our hair" Although the now in the modern society black and other minorities such as Asians models are appreciated more. However according to the article there are still some tendencies for designers to choose a white model over a colored one.
The obvious way of knowing that is brought up in this article is the idea of sense perception. What is it that is most pleasing and most pleasurable to our eyes? Do we has a human race attract more to "white" people? Does the idea of a colored model make the product less appealing? Perhaps this is all a matter of each and everyone of our sense perception. Personally I feel that models of any color or ethnicity can be appealing in a different way. But someone that has grown up seeing, living and only interacting with a certain race or ethic group may see that that race or ethic group is more appealing because they are used to that group of people thus finding them more appealing.
The world around us today is rapidly growing, the different societies and among the people in this world is coming together. People are intermixing and becoming a global citizens. This is causing the modeling industry to use more colored models and models from different ethic background. This is due to reasoning and logic, people simply because people generally looking for a good diversity in the fashion industry. People what to know what they can wear or use to look attractive like the models and throw reasoning people tend to look at models for their own ethic race to find what fits themselves best. Personally I feel that my friends and I find different items to fit different races like more vibrant colors fit darker skin tone and, pastel colors and tinted colors fit more yellowish skin tone, dark and cold tones on the other hand fit more white tone skin. Thus I believe that diversity among the fashion industry is important because this can help portray different products in different ways that are most pleasing to the human race.
This issue of race among fashion industries is like society today different people are good at or good for different things there is no good or bad jobs there are just different jobs for different people. Likewise there is not better or worst model there are just different models for different items and clothes that are being sold.
I definitely agree with you that the knowledge issue of perception plays a large role within the context of this article. Advertising companies and modeling companies want to incorporate the use of "attractive" models in order to successfully lure consumers into purchasing their products. However, attractiveness is surely subjective to one's own perceptions and is likely to differ among many individuals. To a fairly similar extent, I think the knowledge issue of emotions can also be put into question here as it relates to the previous idea of perception. Though I personally think it's degrading how models are kind of weighed with the idea of embodying sales products (and are carefully selected based upon their appearances), this primarily serves as the basis as to why some products may sell better than others. The reason being that customers are surely more attracted to what they perceive as "beauty", though air-brushed it may be. Without the attachment and emotion that they feel through whatever product they are looking at, they won't be interested in buying it to use it accordingly to their own needs. Reason also works its way in here. The primary goal of customers is to have that specific product that is being advertised in order reach the self-fulfillment idea of "beauty". This is why advertising companies are able to manipulate so easily through advertisements, which may distort one's perception of reality (in this case the actual condition and functionality of the product).
ReplyDeleteRelating this back to the idea of sense perception, humans view their own kind in many different perspectives. Basically, how does one like another person at first impression? Aside from visuals, biologically speaking, odor can send out interesting attraction signals. A study showed that odor molecules are received by our sinuses and then processed to our brain; during this time, our brain translates this odor into a certain type of attractiveness. For instance, women tend to find guy with high-testosterone level more attractive when they are in the menstrual cycles. Just to point out, there are no bad smells, they are just smells; it is only how we perceive them through our system. Relating this back to the article on race and the modeling industry, in nowadays, I do not believe that race can affect any model in their fashion industry. In the 21 century, the world has become a multicultural city, even though appearances can be a external factor of attractiveness, however, the different shades of the skin is definitely not that influential; Perhaps, it’s the tidiness, hygiene, similarity, reciprocal liking or proximity that plays a more important factor in the liking of another person.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue related to the fashion industry is the size of models. Beauty is subjective (as previously stated), and our perception of "beauty" changes over time. In the 1950's, when Marilyn Monroe was popular, big was beautiful. Now however, people perceive stickly thin figures to be beautiful as the fashion industry has warped everyone's perceptions of beauty. Size 0 models have recently been banned from live fashion shows in Milan if their BMIs were below 18.0. What many people don't realize is that genetics is a big factor in determining one's body shape and size, and that some people, no matter how much self-control they have, will never get down to a size 0. The industry hopes that by banning underweight models, the public will become accustomed to models of a healthier size and start to perceive that as beautiful, striving to be at a healthy weight like they are instead of striving to be underweight. In this case, I think the banning of underweight models is a good start to advocating acceptance of one's body. Like the race issue, the size issue also boils down to sensory perception of what is beautiful. How does the world know what is beautiful? The answer is that no one actually knows, but everyone knows what is aesthetically pleasing to their own eyes, and that most of the time, what we are used to seeing is what is beautiful. Then in both cases, the more frequently colored models/different sized models are used, the more accepting the public will be towards them. Eventually, people will see the beauty in not being the generic white, stick-thin model and gravitate towards buying products marketed by other types of models.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that sense perception is really important in this issue. However, i believe that the media tries to dictate our perceptions of beauty by giving us one perfect definition of beauty- a fair skinned, slim and tall white model. Personally, I believe that diversity is the key to pleasing the mass. Like the TED talk on spaghetti sauce we watched a while back, there is no perfect "sauce", but perfect "sauces". By incorporating diversity, in my opinion, more people will be pleased. I feel like this is what other commercial/fashion companies are trying to do these days. Traditionally, a woman can only be considered to be beautiful by looking "skinny" and "pale" (look at influential models like Kate Moss and Twiggy). However, I think influential fashion magazines and other industries begin to realize the importance of diversity. For example, recently Vogue had a spread of a plus-size model. http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/fashion/plus-size-model-robyn-lawley-the-first-plus-size-model-to-feature-in-vogue-australia/story-e6frfn7i-1226107470974. Also,Abercrombie and Fitch, the popular teen clothing company, began to hire more African and Asian models. This shows that more companies begin to realize there is no platonic definition of "beauty". Instead, there are "beauties"- different people of different races and sizes.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are two issues at work in this case. Firstly, if the managers of modeling industries are a certain race it is possible for them to have racist preferences. This is something that I hope would be on the decline as our society and industries such as modeling become more cosmopolitan. Secondly, however, there is a possibility that certain 'types' of models are more successful in selling products. This could also be caused by a huge variety of factors. It depends on the audience AND it depends on the individual skill of the models. I think that in today's world a modeling organization that is racist is not going to be more successful than a modeling agency that can appeal to a larger and more cosmopolitan audience. Therefore I think issues such as racism in the modeling industry are inevitably on a decline, for the sake of profit as much as anything else. I think that the idea of body shape and size is a very good point. Traditional models are very skinny, but that doesn't mean that people of a larger size cannot also be beautiful. I think that in the future the challenge of 'diversification' in modeling industries will have more to do with size and shape than race.
ReplyDeleteI am not seeing a clear issue being addressed here. I think the issue at hand is whether or not there is racial discrimination behind closed doors in the fashion industry. The issue is whether or not colored models are given less opportunities based solely on their race instead of what apparel looks best on people of different ethnic groups. A good example of a specific instance in which ethnicity in fashion was an issue was in 2008 the famous “Black Issue” by Italian Vogue was posted. This was seen by some as a major turning point in racial variety. With some others however, it was seen by others as a poor apology for the lack of racial diversity in the fashion industry. Another example is when Lo’real in France felt that they would not be represented by colored models. Here is a link to a documentary http://blog.nfb.ca/2010/05/12/the-colour-of-beauty-exploring-racism-in-the-fashion-industry/.
ReplyDeleteYour conclusion that black models aren't discriminated because of their ethnicity but just because that their skin color doesn't apply to the product is quite interesting. I'm not sure if this is really the case for those who prefer white models over black ones. The Caucasian population in the US is currently 62%, hence only approximately 62% of the audience would be white people and the other 48% would comprise of other races with other racial skin colors. It wouldn't be wise for designers to have a preference for a certain race of model if they want to do good business. However, I agree that this is a sense and perception issue, and there are more conditions than skin color that define if a model can be successful for not. Lately the trend has been quite unhealthy, but it works in the industry, I think it would be an interesting to see you argue how the society can deal with the industry's preference towards nearly anorexic women.
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