Jezebel
Intern Maria did the tireless work of looking for black models, Asian models and models of any color but white in the December issues of the major women's fashion magazines. She writes, "Surprise! There were no women of color in ANY fashion spread (not counting the 'shopping' sections, since spreads are what matters in terms of 'big time modeling'). The products I noticed did use a lot of non-celebrity women of color were mostly skin companies (Aveno, Olay, Johnson and Johnson) and lower price-point companies like Payless Shoes and I.N.C. However, there were also a lot of (non-celeb) Asian women in Rock and Republic and Lord and Taylor ads. Bigger corporate companies like The Gap also threw in a few black and Asian models/celebs into the mix." After the jump, see Maria's tallies for W, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Marie Claire, Allure, Glamour, Lucky, Elle and Cosmopolitan.
Maria says, "I counted 'ambiguous race' when I thought the women were intentionally meant to be 'ambiguously' black/asian/white or mixed race."
So, what have we learned? Black, Asian and models of color are still not "fashionable." But advertisers use black and Asian models, because they know not to fuck with buying power — Bethann Hardison talked about this at the NYPL conference. Still - -can you think of another billion dollar industry in which blatant racism is tolerated? And what is a black or Asian woman who loves fashion and fashion magazines to do with this information?
W
Total number of ads: 103
Total number of black women: 4 (1 was a celebrity, 1 Naomi)
Total number of Asian women: 4
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 1 (ad for KLS)Total number of fashion spreads: 1
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0Harper's Bazaar
Total number of ads: 112
Total number of black women: 3 (2 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 1
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 1Total number of fashion spreads: 4
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0Vogue
Total number of ads: 173
Total number of black women: 10 (6 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 3 (1 celebrity)
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 2 (1 celebrity)Total number of fashion spreads: 4
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0
Marie Claire
Total number of ads: 99
Total number of black women: 6 (4 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 2
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 1
Total number of fashion spreads: 2
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0
(although they did employ an old Bhutanese man as a "model.")
Allure
Total number of ads: 96
Total number of black women: 5 (2 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 1Total number of fashion spreads: 2
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0
Glamour
Total number of ads: 91
Total number of black women: 6 (3 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 1
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 4 (2 were celebrities)Total number of fashion spreads: 2
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0
Lucky
Total number of ads: 147
Total number of black women: 8 (4 were celebrities)
Total number of Asian women: 2
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 3Total number of fashion spreads: 2
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0
Elle
Total number of ads: 161
Total number of black women: 6 (1 celeb, 1 "real woman")
Total number of Asian women: 1
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 3 (1 celebrity)Total number of fashion spreads: 3
Total number of black women: 0
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0Cosmo
Total number of ads: 103
Total number of black women: 3 (Budweiser, Dove, Lee Jeans)
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 1 (Levi's)Total number of fashion spreads: 2
Total number of black women: 1 (Beyonce)
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0Total number of beauty spreads: 2
Total number of black women: 2 (1 model, 1 Rihanna)
Total number of Asian women: 0
Total number of Hispanic women: 1 (Christina Milian)
Total number of women of ambiguous race: 0
Earlier: Where Are All The Black Models? Let's Start By Asking Anna Wintour
3:40 PM on Fri Nov 30 2007
Is Prada To Blame For the Lack Of Black Models?
We're Still Looking For Black Models
What's The Message Behind A Black Man In Heels On The Cover Of Vogue?
By dodai
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50 comments
Comments
Ugh, anyone else vaguely remember what Nicole Kidman used to look like?
I did this exact experiment for my sociology of pop culture class, and the only black models were Naomi Campbell and Kimora Lee Simmons (okay she can in NO way be considered a model). The only asian people were advertising a special japanese-line of pumas. Depressing...
we've covered this before. not surprised by it anymore. still saddened. no, i don't think it'll change.
but didn't marie claire use real women of color for the holiday dress spread??? or do we not count real people?
@puppyciao: KLS is too a model plus she can get counted twice
everyone wins!
Flipping through lady-mags sounds like a fun thing to do, but I bet this was exhausting, titius, and annoying - bravo, Maria. I hope you at least got to do some of this reading whilst on the toilet.
I still feel sorry for the poor interns how have to go through magazines counting things, but at least this exercise tells us something about the culture we live in, even if it's something we already know. It's good to have the concrete statistical facts when you're making a point. I still don't know what the point of counting how many times Lucky used the word "pretty," or whatever, was.
I guess we're going to have a White Christmas.
@puppyciao: Since when can Kimora Lee Simmons be considered black?
I thought she was Filipina, or maybe mixed?
@Boredinacubicle: THAT'S Nicole Kidman? Yikes!
I think I'm just lazy. According to Wikipedia she's "half African-American, one quarter Korean and one quarter Japanese"...but in the picture she looked black to me. whoopsies!
@ArmCandy: the hell
filipina? not to get all prejudicey in here but she's 6'1" with a weave
she's black and korean/japanese (i'm still working on figuring out the asian side)
I'm so tired of telling natural redheads to stop going blonde. Lindsey and Nicole, I'm talking to you.
I guess Christmas and fashion just doesn't happen for us colored folk.
@Boredinacubicle: Can anyone solve this for me: why do naturally big looks look sexy, but artificially plumped lips always look weird? Is the shape different, or do they jut out from the face differently? I can't figure it out.
you know what's beautiful to me? seeing tionna smalls full and shapely body once a week on this website. Her pictures makes up for the lack of models of color in magazines that I don't even suffer to read. That and the afrobellas featured on afrobella.com and the beautiful women featured of 13minutesmag.com and many many more.
I don't even bother anymore. I get the importance of Intern Maria's calculations but I keep sane finding other resources and telling others WHERE I CAN find beautiful, fashionable women of color.
Happy Winter Rain, SoCalian!
Another industry with blatant racism? Porn.
This sucks so hard. And can you think of anyone whiter than Nicole Kidman?
@echoparkgal: I mean, SoCalians. Dammit, Southern Californians, i speaks to you!
@echoparkgal: um im a cleavage fan and all but sometimes less is more
@GoldHoops: Powder. It goes 1.Powder 2.Nicole Kidman 3.Yeti
@hypnotic: less is more also applies to # of times a week we are gifted with the death faces of nicole kidman, the olsen twins, etc.. etc..
Yeah...I don't read fashion magazines. I can't actually remember when I last bought a magazine other than The Economist. And I guess aside from the fact that I'm still wearing boot cut jeans instead of skinny jeans, I'm not really missing out on anything.
SHOULDN'T THAT HEADLINE ALSO SAY HAPPY CHANUKAH?
:yells at people in power every day about black/asian/model problem to sort of an avail:
@echoparkgal: jezebel isn't bossip i'm not expecting to see snap judgments on gabrielle union
@Boredinacubicle: Total sidenote, but I hate it when redheads go blonde (i.e., Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Kidman). They just look so blah. Red hair makes your skin color look awesome!
@hypnotic: of course not gabrielle union always looks fabulous. there is no need to pass judgement :) but there are others...
never read bossip and probably never will. i can't fit anymore blogs on my daily itinerary.
@Boredinacubicle: I think the cover of Radar magazine this month poses that question quite nicely without saying a word...
[www.radaronline.com]
(They don't have a huge pic of it, but scroll down half way and it's in a bright yellow box)
Frightening. Who wants to take bets on how much of this cursed SoCalian rain it will take for her to start melting???
So, black women aren't seen a beautiful? What else is new.
Being a medium-skinned Asian (i.e. not a porcelain-skinned china doll), I used to read Latina for makeup tips. They seemed to be decent at recognizing that not everyone of a given race actually has the same skin tone or color.
Out here in the SF Bay Area there is, or was, a mag called Audrey aimed at AA women. But I only read one issue and don't remember if their models looked like most models of color, i.e. light and skinny.
My husband suggested tracking down some Filipina mags for makeup stuff. Those are probably pretty easy to find here, but I'm lazy.
@puppyciao: @hypnotic: My mistake. I actually thought her hair was natural! Well, she's beautiful and different looking, which is fantastic.
I'm right with the commenters hating the redhead to blonde conversion. Seriously, wtf? I don't get it.
I never look at fashion magazines so I can honestly say I really had no idea of the content until I started reading Jezebel. Suffice to say, it's convinced me to keep not reading them.
@ArmCandy: please even j simpson rocks tracks
i was just being tongue in cheek
I only read Glamour. I guess black women are good enough to write their articles and be woman of the year, but not models.
:(
"Still - -can you think of another billion dollar industry in which blatant racism is tolerated? "
Any industry you can name in 21st century America.
Somebody there please get Maria a biiig Waterford tumbler of iced Grey Goose and an eighth of a kilo of beluga.
@hypnotic: OOooo, Kimora has a weave. I know they're better for your hair with the hot lights and constantly changing styles and all, but I feel much better now.
Lame. Just...lame.
Dear Fashion Industry: When you quit marketing solely to skinny white bitches maybe we'll talk again.
Fuck white fashion magazines, fuck fashion magazines, ahh fuck fashion... I'll dress however I want.
That's okay: I like to be inspired to be white.
This reminds me of that Harpers Bazaar issue a few years back featuring the "oriental" fashion spread with white models painted to look like Asian chicks. So very retro.
Just can't put my finger on an era.
And then when glancing at Nicole, I am starting to suspect that all these people who work on the photoshop of covers are actually slowly subverting the mag industry - Nicole doesn't even resemble a human.
@MissedtheExit: Audrey is still around, I know this b/c my local library (in L.A.) subscribes to it. Funny thing is, the town I live in is like 80% Latino...still, the other 20% seem to be Asians, so it's a good thing that they subscribe to Audrey as well as Latina :D
What about the Gilles Bensimon fashion spread of Bonnie Morrison in Elle? I sort of think that counts, as it's GIlles Bensimon and she's black. It's on page 162.
Just saying.
@speculationsforschoolboys: Plus, an asian model and a black model in the 'elle fashion jewels: new faces' spread. There's also four ads that feature latino models. It's not good enough, to be sure, but the tally above doesn't really seem accurate at all.
I wonder how many white models are in Essence.
I feel it is important to note that ANTM's Yaya is on the back of the issue of Marie Claire posted here. I put myself at 98% certain it's her. Since I thought she was a better model than Eva and hate the show's "personality" testing, it made me very happy.
According to the census bureau, in America the population is 80% white, 13% black, and 4.5% Asian. Seems like the fashion industry just needs to up their numbers a bit and they will accurately represent the population. Oh except for that 64% of the population that is overweight.
Why do you not count beauty well stories? They're just as high-profile as the fashion ones!
hmm, women's fashion magazines doing something totally despicable, that's so weird! i wonder if any of the models are over 18?
Outrageous!
The old rationale that "the customers won't like it" to justify racism, sexism and bigotires of all kinds is exposed (yet again) as The Big Lie.
Do you wonder why kids who absorb this transparent bigotry pic