Wednesday's episode of "America's Next Top Model" had Tyra Banks taking the six remaining contestants to Hawaii for a photo shoot which required each model to represent a different blend of two different races. To do this, the contestants had body makeup applied to change their skin tones and wore fashion interpretations of cultural garb.
Oddly enough, a number of media outlets are deeply concerned. Yahoo! News, AOL News, E! Online, and Entertainment Weekly all are trying to bill this as controversial and to encourage their readers to be worried about the deep racial insensitivity behind the ANTM shoot.
EW, for instance, tells us that "It's impossible to 'transform' someone's race without setting off some serious blackface alarms". Scott Harris at AOL Television writes, "Tyra Banks re-imagines the remaining contestants as biracial models through the use of skin darkening agents and ethnic costumes. Or, in other words, blackface."
The problem is, "blackface" is not actually another word for "skin darkening agents and ethnic costumes". The term "blackface" refers to a very specific type of entertainment aimed at negatively stereotyping black people; ANTM's photo shoot, as anyone would know who bothered to watch the episode, had absolutely nothing to do with blackface. In fact, even comparing the two indicates a serious lack of understanding on the part of all of these writers of the real issues behind why blackface was cruel and insensitive.
The idea of "blackface" that (rightfully) elicits negative reactions dates back to American minstrel acts of the 19th century in which white comedians would darken their faces (using burnt cork, greasepaint, or shoe polish), exaggerate the size of their lips, put on woolly wigs, and perform as clowns; the clownishness, the humor, of their acts derived from the caricatured features and the portrayal of negative character stereotypes (laziness, dishonesty, cowardice, etc.). So, too, did the racism. The issue, in hindsight, was that the blackface comedians were saying, essentially, "all black people are laughable because they look, talk, think, and act in this ridiculous way," a way that was negative and demeaning. The central problem of blackface, in other words, is in the representation of negative stereotypes for mockery and comedic purposes.
Tyra Banks' photo shoot had nothing to do with this. Did it portray stereotypes? Sure. The models wore colorful "traditional" outfits "inspired" by the clothing of the cultures they portrayed. But Tyra told the viewers and the models that "every outfit is not necessarily what people of that culture are wearing now... it might not even be a necessary exact [replica] of what they've worn, even in the past... it's a fashion interpretation of it." And, as fashion interpretations, the clothes were glamorous and beautiful. Did the models know anything about the cultures they were representing? Not really. (Erin, the contestant assigned a role as part-Tibetan said that all she knew about Tibet was that "it needs to be freed.") Did the models act in a ridiculous way? No more than they normally do to complete their photo shoots. Did they portray negative character traits in order to mock the cultures they were portraying? Not at all. There is no real reason why this photo shoot should at all be associated with the negative connotations surrounding the term "blackface" -- not unless those writing about it are looking for something to label as racism.
This brings to mind the "controversy" surrounding the recent French Vogue photo shoot, in which light-skinned model Lara Stone was photographed in varying shades and combinations of body makeup (including white makeup). This, too, was quite erroneously labeled as "blackface", and a number of "news" types got very upset about it. (Jezebel.com, one of the loudest complainers, very conveniently posted only seven of the fourteen pictures, leading the reader to believe -- incorrectly -- that the majority of the shoot involved Stone in dark makeup.) The spread, however, did nothing to further negative racial stereotypes; if anything, it just showed (as did the ANTM shoot) that skin color is irrelevant to beauty.
Some inanely asked why, if the editor and photographer of the Vogue shoot wanted a model with dark skin, they didn't hire a black model. A quick look at the pictures will show that the point of the spread wasn't "a model with dark skin", it was "a model in colored body makeup". In this case Vogue wanted to photograph Stone. Why? They like her. They dedicated a whole issue to her in March, and she showed up on the cover again in September. They used the model they wanted to use. If Lara Stone happened to be black, they would have used a black model. They would have put her in colored body makeup, too.
One of the funnier lines is from Shine's Joanna Douglas, who says, "While the photos are not necessarily portraying model Lara Stone in a negative way, it could still be considered racist." Yes, it could be... if one were looking for opportunities to consider things racist. Which, it seems, is exactly what Douglas, those at Jezebel, and all of the other wolf-criers are doing. Seek, and ye shall find.
So yes, the ANTM episode will set off "blackface alarms" if one is uninformed enough to automatically associate the changing of skin tones with blackface. Thus far, though, it seems that the only people so uninformed are the people who are writing these articles. Judging by the comments posted on most news stories about this, the bulk of ANTM viewers felt, quite rightly, that there was no reason for them to be in any way fazed by what they saw.
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