links for 2010-01-05
-
In which Special Correspondent Jessica Yee continues to rock.
"We try to incorporate everything, from environmental justice to violence prevention, that you wouldn't typically see within a sexual reproductive health mandate," says Yee.
-
Western models, it seems, are everywhere these days in the People's Republic of China: on department store display ads, in catalogues for clothing brands, on billboards, in commercials and on the runways at fashion shows. They are blue-eyed American and Canadian blondes like Vos, sultry Eastern European brunettes and hunky male bodybuilders with Los Angeles tans and six-pack abs selling products from jeans to underwear.
-
Having seen Jesse Lu’s recent call-out of AT on Everyday Object and considering its regrettable campaign of championing Knitta, Please in 2006, 2008 and 2009, I wanted to take a comprehensive look at how this important site has treated race and class, pointing out a history problematic posts.
-
"I’m not sure jazz and hip hop are perfectly analogous, but I wrote all of this to ask a question: I wonder where hip hop is on its trajectory to becoming America’s second great musical art form?"
-
"So I think that Judith Butler at least circa 2004 is making room for race, but she also brings in a layer that I haven’t mentioned before—legibility. You have to be recognized as belonging to a certain group before you are understood fully or as fully human. Like in the movie “Precious” when the main character gets angry at the social worker, asking her “what type of black are you?” because her skin was so light. This concept of legibility presumes a sort of lexicon, a set of signifiers for a given race, sex, or gender. "
-
In the 1970s, amidst rapid social changes along racial and gender lines, the comic book industry began to incorporate black superheroes into their comics. Readers of the era had mixed reactions. Some objected to this darker-skinned presence in their all-white superhero fantasies, while others bemoaned depictions that were stereotypes at best and racist at worst. But how could the depictions be otherwise? These characters were borne out of the imaginations of men whose understanding of black life lacked form, insight or nuance. And if that character happened to be both black and female, the results were doubly insulting because the writers' understanding of women's issues also left much to be desired. Nowhere were those combined deficiencies more apparent than in the figure of Nubia, "the black Wonder Woman."
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
I’m reading this article about a Swiss man’s protest against the Swiss ban’s on minarets. I’m glad to know that many non-Muslim Swiss people were against the ban.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126264916012115609.html
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 11:38 am ¶
GENQ10 wrote:
The “Western” (i.e. White) models in China story is utterly depressing. I can only hope that, as China begins to grow as a global economic player, they come to overthrow Euro-American White cultural hegemony within their borders. I believe they will; people eventually grow tired of seeing media that doesn’t represent them. It’s funny how that woman in the article attributed the demand for White (not Black) “Westerners” as an “Chinese aesthetic”. It’s a popular aesthetic because foreign interests made it popular! Disgusting.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 12:19 pm ¶
Shanghai Lisa wrote:
The WaPo article on models is one that seems to get written ever second year. I’m less annoyed by the repetition than by the use of “Western” to mean white – and then in the next sentence they reference Eastern Europeans who, but the majority of cultural standards, are NOT Westerners.
Western is a cultural orientation. People of any race can be Western. Not all Westerners are white, and not all whites are Westerners. In Asia, and apparently elsewhere now, “Westeren” gets used as a euphemism for white, because for some reason it’s considered taboo to call white people by their race rather than assumed culture: no one just says white, Caucasian, or ethnic-European.
Why is that?
The reason for Chinese brands to use whites in ads is the same reason they use bad English – for the exotic mystique they convey.
The article is about Chinese brands’ model hiring, through often dubious channels. Two years ago one of these models, a white-Canadian, was murdered in Shanghai, and it blew the lid off the seediness of such operations. Amazed that WaPo didn’t mention that. For the high-end catwalks, the mix is usually 32% each Chinese, Hapa and white, with the remaining 4% a mix of South Asian, Southeast Asian and black, mostly brought in from Hongkong. However, some brands pride themselves on flying in dozens of foreign, usually white models to market “European Luxury” glamor.
And it ends with being in China entails “at symbols all day”. Gag me like a dieting model.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 12:20 pm ¶
sweeterjuice wrote:
Thanks for the CBR article. I’ve been a fan of Wonder Woman since childhood–my childhood occuring mostly in the era that the publishers were trying to bring in black characters–and knew nothing about Nubia. Probably for the best, really.
I notice that Marvel Comics has declared 2010 its Year of the Woman and is launching its Marvel Women branding. They’ve also got a 3-issue series called Girl Comics that’s scheduled to launch in March:
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2009/12/15/exclusive-marvel-announces-girl-comics/
It will be interesting to see how that plays out. The Girl Comics are supposed to be by women for everyone, but it strikes me that calling the series “Girl Comics” really misses that point.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 1:12 pm ¶
DMoon wrote:
Wow. The WaPo article pretty much summed up the Chinese aesthetic can’t even conceive of anything Black:
He added that he never hires black models. “Our clients don’t ask for black models,” he said. “It’s an issue of Chinese people’s aesthetic view.”
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 1:44 pm ¶
9jah wrote:
Non-Asian Models:
Shangai Lisa thanks. You posted everything i wanted to say re white people occupying the entire spectrum of “Westerner” to the point of including Eastern Euros in that description.
I think the answer to your question is the white mainstream loves “othering” and labeling but is not inclined to do the same to that community. So its fine to point out what are trends in the “black” community etc. but then generalize issues that tend to be specific to the white community.
The mainstream’s obsession with black folk is quite amusing. How did black folk come up and not say Arabs or Latino’s or whomever else?
Where is Hip-Hop:
Wow. I can’t believe “ownership” of the genre and whether such is credited to the buyers versus the creators is even being posited as a legitimate question. Let’s kill the noise, please.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 3:06 pm ¶
9jah wrote:
@ DMoon –
I wouldn’t put much stock into stuff like this. It is not a specific slight to black people as much as it is a white grab. To our knowledge, the clients never ask for Arab models or Latin models or whomever else. The interviewer just threw in black people because…just because.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 3:12 pm ¶
CVT wrote:
Aaah!!! I was working on a post on the white models in China (I’m living in Shanghai right now), but I’m about to run off for some a couple internet-free days . . .
Anyway, Shanghai Lisa – right on. I wrote a post on exactly that concept just a couple weeks ago back on my blog. Feel free to check it out if you can (unfortunately, right now I don’t have time to elaborate here).
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 5:48 pm ¶
little mixed girl wrote:
I’ve only clicked on the China article.
But, it’s nothing that I haven’t read before, just replacing “China” with “Korea” or “Japan” as places that want foreign (white) models.
I don’t think that the issue is just “we lurve white pplz”.
Unfortunately, most (much?) of the power and wealth in the world is held by “white” countries like the US, Canada, the UK, etc.
People in Asia know this, and while it would be great if they were all about “f–k Western ideals”/etc, the truth is that locals get to live a fantasy through those white ppl adverts.
No one wants to imagine themselves as the poor and oppressed, they want to see themselves at the top.
Using white ppl also shows they have the money to buy white people to use in adverts.
It says to local people, “Hey, this product is so hot and in demand that even some guy in Canada is using it and liking it!”
I don’t see this trend shifting to black/brown people anytime soon (unless those countries become very rich and powerful).
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 10:41 pm ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
About that WaPo article:
This unfortunate phenomenon has been happening in India for quite some time now. White models have become so ubiquitous in ads there, it’s caused some resentment to arise from local models. And let’s not forget how alot of (white) Hollywood celebrities travel to Asia very often to do commercials (which they normally don’t do in the US because it cheapens your appeal). I remember a former Malaysian prime minister decrying this practice when he said he doesn’t see why local models and actors instead of Brad Pitt should be used in ads in Malaysia.
Posted 06 Jan 2010 at 5:43 am ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
correction: when he said he doesn’t see why local models and actors couldn’t be used in ads instead of Brad Pitt.
Posted 06 Jan 2010 at 5:44 am ¶
Danny wrote:
The article on the non-Asian models in China was published on Dec. 26, the information isn’t that new but possibly tad bit non-aboslute. I read an article about 1-2 months ago by I think an analyst at the China Market Research Group (I think), where it mentions the consumers (the ones in his study, he researched about at least) in China were already indicating they didn’t want to use products if it only look good in people-models, that didn’t reflect their physical characteristics.
I know that this is similar to other places in Asia, but it’s slightly different in each country. Sometimes it really is the aesthetic appeal, other times it’s more of the “modern” appeal, a mixed of both as others have commented. Sometimes it’s also because the individual does have some or a few features (natural or non)similar to the non-Asian models.
Especially among the educated, experienced, or financially well-off “reasonable” people who are living in an increasing powerful and globally connecting,though not ideal, place with a strong sense of where they come from, attitudes will “change relatively”.
Posted 06 Jan 2010 at 1:57 pm ¶
Afroagogo wrote:
9jah
Sorry, but you’re wrong.
I lived in China for 3 years and got into modeling the last year before I couldn’t take the country’s in your face racism anymore and fled back to the States…I’ll never forget the day my agent called me and told me to hop in a cab and get my arse over to a client for a go-see.
Minutes later, she called me back and said: sorry, they don’t want black models. Don’t bother going anymore.
Meanwhile, I was already racing across the expat district, wasting time and money to get a phone call like that? And certainly not the last before I left Beijing?
My husband was almost more pissed than I was, but that’s because he didn’t realize just how racist Chinese people could be. Me? It was more confirmation of what I observed already on TV, in ads on the walls, marketing on the buses…”Western” = white (whatever that is these days…straight hair? high noses? pinkish skin?), white = money, American = blue eyes and when I showed up for casting for “Western” or “American” women, I was “not what they expected.” Give me an fing break.
Pisses me off to no end. I wanted to be like: are you kidding me! It reminded of me when Vogue China came out and they put that alien looking blonde girl smack in the middle of the issue, while delegating the Chinese looking women to flank her to the sides or even worse, banishing them to the inner flap altogether.
Posted 08 Jan 2010 at 1:41 pm ¶
veebot wrote:
As the chinese mix more into western society they will probably stop the white people worship and start valueing their own beauty.
Once I moved back to the west (from africa), i got over it.
Posted 09 Jan 2010 at 8:07 am ¶