Elle magazine recently published a cover of actress Gabourey Sidibe, star of the film Precious. And I was shocked by the altered photograph. Sidibe, who is African-American, had a dramatically lighter skin tone.
Elle not only put this altered image in their magazine, but they have the balls to put it smack dab on the cover. To add insult to bigoted injury, they then try to defend it. Elle has insisted that they haven’t lightened Sidibe’s skin. Really? Anyone who doesn’t see the difference must be color blind.
Could it be that the highly-popular magazine was trying to make Sidibe more attractive to its readers by lightening her skin?
This is a ridiculous belief, which dates back hundreds of years to the old European ideal of lighter skin and hair. Hmm, where have I heard this before? If the editors of Elle ascribed to that then I can imagine ‘Hail Hitler’ being passed around in the office memo.
This makes my blood boil. Beauty comes in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Who is one person to say what is more attractive? Well, I have a lot of descriptive words for that person, but I’m not allowed to put them in print.
Elle has done this before with Beyonce. They received a lot of flack for that, but apparently their die-hard racism won over common sense — again.
The magazine has attempted to justify this by saying it’s the camera lens. In a way, that’s true. I’m a photographer and darker images can turn lighter. But, you use a different type of lens — problem solved. That’s Photo 101. Since photography is a large part of their business, claiming ignorance is a load of b.s. Unless you count klans-person ignorance.
Elle insists that they don’t see a difference in Sidibe’s skin tone, meaning that they’re color blind. This cliche has been repeated many times and I’ve never understood it. By not seeing the differences in races, you are denying them the beauty that is unique to them. And Sidibe’s cover proves this.
People need to stop saying that they’re color blind and start saying that, yes, they see color, but that color differences are inconsequential. And isn’t that celebrating the true beauty within us all?
