Another “among the natives” Vogue editorial
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Remember how we discussed fashion magazines’ propensity for editorials in which they “contrast” a white model against the “natives” of a country?
Well Vogue just did it again, in their Russian edition. Only instead of Masai warriors, the model is surrounded by anonymous gawking Asians. (Thanks to Marge for the tip!)
You can check out more pics at Bryanboy, who had this to say:
You know how like twice or thrice a year, British/American Vogue or what have you, go on a wild expedition somewhere in Africa and take pictures of a white person in haute couture and million-dollar jewels whilst being surrounded by tribe people in their beads, spears and primitiveness? Well, take out the beads and replace them with fake fur, take out the spears and replace them with digital cameras and shove typical Asian consumerism in the picture and what do you get???
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
dnA wrote:
What’s up with the whole “Asian people as props” thing?
Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 10:15 am ¶
pearl wrote:
If you want some more excitement (a.k.a. things to be angry about), you should really take a look at Marie Claire’s fashion spreads. Ridiculous, colonialist photo shoots (sometimes the natives don’t even get to have faces!) combined with fluff pieces about the horrible atrocities in the “developing” world (written as if nothing but bad shit ever happened outside of the developed, “western” world). And this isn’t a once-in-a-while thing.
My favorite photo shoot (I don’t read Marie Claire; a grad student in an anthro class called “Fashion, Beauty, Power” did a presentation on it)? One where the white female model wore cargo capris and other clothing that looked reminiscent of “safari” clothes, with one foot resting on the step-thing of a Jeep. The “natives” (Africans) wore cloth wrapped around their waists, Timberland-like workboots on their feet, holding spears, and standing on the lookout.
It’s also worse that the white individual in these shoots are females, who are held in opposition to minority individuals (many of whom were male in the MC shoots).
Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 10:56 am ¶
Fiqah wrote:
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Apparently those skeevemeisters at Vogue can add “creative amnesia” to their list of character flaws. Blecchhh.
Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 2:10 pm ¶
merq wrote:
Just fuckin’ shoot me now. So sick of this shit.
Oh, I’m sorry. Were you expecting me to contribute something constructive to this discussion?
Posted 10 Dec 2007 at 9:23 pm ¶
Lisa wrote:
Although one sometimes wonders”who’s the prop?” in these situations. I guess who’s taking the picture and for what veiwership determines this. By and for Vogue Russia, the Asians are the props; by and for Vogue China, I’d argue that the outlandishly-attired white woman is the prop.
Either way is disturbing. I have seen too many caucasians in China (self included) be subjected to the “Look, a foreigner! Let’s take a photo with/of it!” But then a lot of Western tourists will comply and in turn want to also take a picture “with the Chinese people!” Mutually consensual propifying, but still rather ew.
Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 4:46 am ¶
justin wrote:
I bet that isn’t really a white girl! She has got to be at least part wapanese, at most she is a robot and one of those cell phones is a remote control. If you flip her over I bet she has Manchurian candidate stamped on her butt, those blue eyes were put there by Matel and her clothing was designed by Gwen Stefani.
This is not like Julie Andrews, or who ever it was, in The King and I or Brad Pitt, on opium, in Legends of the Fall but it is still just as bad.
Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 8:48 am ¶
bdsista wrote:
What adds insult to injury is the dearth of Black, Asian and other models of color in Vogue and other fashion magazines. I stopped reading Harpers Bazaar for years because I never saw a Black face on the cover or inside the magazine. Same for More which was for mature women, but More had almost NO Black or Asian or Hispanic women on its covers and I stopped subscribing mid year of its launch.
Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 11:17 am ¶