YOUR DAILY UNDERWEAR: Vogue Italia's Black Issue

so i was perusing blogs yesterday when i came across Vogue Italia's Black Issue in its entirety at Fashionista.
and i felt compelled to say a few words about that darn thing because it is probably the most racist thing ever.
the basic idea is that an issue with only black models is a "black issue"--a different issue, an out-of-the-ordinary issue--and that a magazine which features primarily black models is a "magazine which features primarily black models": whereas an issue with all Caucasian models is just an issue, and a magazine which features primarily white models is just a magazine (a mainstream magazine which does not cater specifically to white people). the implication is that whiteness is the norm and that whiteness is relevant to every other race, and that Caucasian-ism is this sort of base from which all other races come.
but thinking about it in terms of the reverse situation really does the trick, i think: you walk into a magazine shop full of magazine covers all featuring a black model/model of any other race (Vogue has an actress, Self has a smiley muscly person in a bikini, etc etc); the only white-modeled covers are in the WHITE corner which holds magazines geared specifically towards white people... Here whites become the minority, the alienated, not the mainstream.

what also struck me was that the black models/black people featured in the issue mostly had very traditionally white features. they were also not very dark. of course that does not take away from their blackness but racism is not only about the actual race (white vs. black, for example) but about color: dark vs. light. it wouldn't have bothered me so much but two or three times I HAD TO REMIND MYSELF they were black. i mean i thought i was looking at white women. when this happened it wasn't because of the models' looks necessarily but a lot because of how they were photographed. so i thought that was bizarre, really.

Jessica at Feministing gives her opinion here.

otherwise (well yeah..) the issue was really, really beautiful, really well-done, the photography by Steven Meisel was genius... a quote of his has been floating around, too: "I thought, it's ridiculous, this discrimination. It's so crazy to live in such a narrow, narrow place. Age, weight, sexuality, race--every kind of prejudice."

this got me thinking a little bit about how there is so, so, so much focus on fashion's weight issues, especially--because in terms of modeling there are few issues to choose from (really only the physical aspects)--and I think that that attention was definitely well-deserved a few years back but now the attention has become routine and almost useless (and, like with skinny jeans, i do think the public is getting a little bored) whereas almost no attention has (really!) been paid to fashion's race issues, which are a lot more serious, i think, for a couple different reasons: a relatively short time ago curvier shapes were in, then muscles were in, etc, so body-trends are pretty fluid and change quickly i think; also skinniness does have to do with genetic disposition but also very much with eating, so demanding skinniness is demanding a behavior--whereas demanding whiteness is demanding something that is or is not, that can't be changed: i think that is a lot more offensive.

all right well
great photography anyway :)
definitely take a look
and eat the dump, please
HALFF