Skin Lightening

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Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
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goldenlady
09/09/09

In reply to Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
The picture on the right looks like the skin tones you get in some video game character creators when you try to make someone with brown skin. The browner you go, the more of a grey/purplish cast you get, as if the game's designers have never seen real live brown people before and don't know how to render their skin tones. She looks ashen, cold, and almost zombie-like. The picture on the left is obviously lightened but at least she looks alive.

I wonder what this says about the state of race in Russia? I've seen several stories recently about an increase in racism and xenophobia in Russia (their's even a wiki: [en.wikipedia.org]). To me, though, darkening Beyonce's skin isn't in line with that attitude. With the influx of stories, covers, and whole fashion magazines decdicated to women of color, was this a misguided attempt to show how progressive Russian fashion mags can be?
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jadelyce
09/09/09

In reply to Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
I actually saw Beyonce in person at the Houston Intercontinental Airport in 2002 (in line at Popeye's, with HPD security detail no less).

BOTH pictures are darker than she is in real life.

She is VERY fair; her mother is creole, if you notice her nephew has light coloring (the genes are recessive). Granted, when I saw her, it was Christmas Day, so she probably is lighter in the winter.

It's sad how she's changed to fit what notions of her will make others comfortable. I suspect the right cover was accented to underscore her blackness.
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apollonia666
09/09/09

@jadelyce: I seen Beyonce at Burger King.
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cand86
09/09/09

@apollonia666: Cazwell is awesome.
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MizJenkins
09/09/09

In reply to Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
Wait, so what's Joy? Did two Russian magazines really use the same picture of her on their covers?
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Skellatrix
09/09/09

@MizJenkins: Yes - two years apart. Because there simply aren't enough photos of Beyoncé in the world.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
09/09/09

In reply to Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
Maybe Beyonce is part chameleon, that would explain how her skin seems to change color so fast on various magazines.

Or maybe she's a mood ring.
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Edited by Zombie Ms. Skittles at 09/09/09 10:26 AM

NefariousNewt
09/09/09

In reply to Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
Racism will soon be eliminated -- they will simply Photoshop us all until we are all the same shade of gray.
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greengrey
09/09/09

@NefariousNewt a.k.a. General Awesomesauce: Are you grey snarking??
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babydollhathnofury
09/09/09

In reply to Beyoncé's Skin Tone Is Never Good Enough
In the first pic it looks like that awful make up Eddie Murphy would use to dress up as a white man, and the second one is just not even close to her natural skin tone at all. They are both very unnatural looking, but that is the poin, right?
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
09/09/09

@babydollhathnofury: I think her skin is naturally darker than the one on the left, but naturally more golden than the one on the right. Of course, with all the photoshopping poor B gets, who the hell knows what color her skin actually is.
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Breamworthy
09/09/09

@babydollhathnofury: The one on the left doesn't look too bad to me. I think her skin might be that tone under bright lights. The one on the right doesn't look like anyone's natural skin tone. It looks like a white actor made up to look black in a movie from 1953.
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babydollhathnofury
09/09/09

@Breamworthy: That is really interesting, because I see it in the complete opposite way. I think, if anything, the right looks more believable (not for beyonces) but of tone in general.
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Birthday Girl
09/09/09

@Breamworthy: Agreed. Had it been up to me, I wouldn't have spotted a problem with the one on the left. Perhaps that's largely because I'm so used to seeing her skin lightened.

But the one on the right is a catastrophe. It doesn't even look like her.
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Maulleigh
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
Perhaps, but maybe it's just the bright lights of the photoshoot. No I'm not being a smart ass, just it's not a big conspiracy says this photo retoucher.
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HallieMarie
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
I have a 14-year-old cousin who lives in the Philippines (she is half-Filipino, half-white). On her last visit, I noticed she was using that skin-lightening cream.

I didn't even know what it was at the time, and after she explained it to me, I was just baffled. I didn't really know what to say. I weakly offered, "you know, over here, people try to tan to get dark skin like yours." And she just said "that's funny," and then something like "this is what WE think is pretty." She seemed to equate it with a brand of lipstick or a style of clothing.
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veronykah
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
It is absolutely the super hot strobe they are using to light her. If you look at the left side of her face, the top of her arm and shoulder you can see that they are browner than the parts that are getting the direct hit of the strobes.

Trying to find a good example to show what I mean to all of you non-photographers.

It is, however, obvious that they WANTED this washed out look. Any photographer shooting for vanity fair knows how to shoot for accurate skin tones.
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Andalucía
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
I wish they tried that shit with M.I.A.
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Hana Maru
02/12/09

@Andalucía: Awesome.
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Rooo sez BISH PLZ
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
"Did Vanity Fair whitewash Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto in the March issue?"

This is a rhetorical question, right, Dodai?
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picardia
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
That is the only bad picture I've ever seen of her. Whether whitewashed or simply overlit as all get out, it makes an utterly beautiful woman look freakish and not human.
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Flackette Goes Retro
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
It could just be the intense lighting. But yeah, she looks lighter there.
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roodles
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
blerg. I'm so over this pin up look. This woman is gorgeous as it is why so much photoshopping and contrived poses?

I hope that she comes out of "Slumdog" with a better career than Parminder Nagra did after "bend it like beckham" but at least in "Slumdog" there's not a skinny white actress that can usurp the "it girl" title from her...I'm not optimistic though. Anybody remember Sarita Choudhury?
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
02/12/09

In reply to Welcome To Hollywood! Now Lighten Up.
I'm disgusted with the Photoshopping. She does look suspiciously lighter, yes. That may just be from the lighting they used. But my main problem is that the photo looks like a bland, generic, watered-down version of her. Or someone else who looks vaguely like her. She is amazingly beautiful and should not have been digitally altered at all! Just like all of the other women in magazine photos! I would give a toe to look like her for a day. I'd spend the entire day looking at myself in the mirror and brushing my hair. I'm serious.
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