Normalize Black Beauty

@the_tamz

Continuing to focus on the subject with the current Black Lives Matter movement, I have decided to blog about another topic that, again, shows the discrimination against black people in the current fashion industry, while also featuring my friend and future psychologist pictured above, Tamia Hayes. 

Throughout history there has been a fine line of not including or representing black men and women as models both in magazines and on the runway. Tyra Banks spoke about this in the past, explaining that she was told often that “they already had one black girl and did not need her.” Additionally, black models are still not shown equally as much as white models and are generally underpaid compared to the white race. Racism creates a large effect in all aspects of our world, and especially the fashion industry. 

While today there have been more black models both on the covers of Vogue and on the runway, they face a different discrimination issue. Black models are told that hair stylists and makeup artists are unfamiliar with how to do their hair and lack a wide range of dark foundations for black skin tones. Black models feel rushed and unfinished, and this plays a part in low self-esteem and discomfort when being photographed or walking on the catwalk.  

Tamia Hayes, both a very fashionable and intelligent woman currently studies racial microaggressions and is an activist for her undergraduate college regarding racism and making sure black voices are heard. I asked Tamia for some information on how these acts of discrimination affect black women in the fashion industry so that we can better understand and be educated about the psychological impact this causes.  

[New Orleans Fashion Week, 2019] Photographer: Eduardo Benitez, Model: Niricha Williams, Store: West London Boutique

“For ages, the fashion industry has excused their racially exclusionary practices as a fear of sacrificing aesthetics. Unfortunately, aesthetics in high fashion most often involve models who are replicas of the European ideal. They are expected to have straight, long noses, thin or narrow figures, small lips, and straight hair. Black models entering the industry are typically at a loss, considering the combination of these traits are often a phenotypic rarity. Based on Wissinger’s (2012) article, black models are tokenized, and only accepted for the purpose of having a contrast to the monochromatic women who often dominate runways and commercial gigs. Even after being booked, these models have limited access to professional assistance to maintain the necessary image which they need to perform in their workplace. Without proper hair and makeup teams who are capable of handling the unique needs of black models, generating the creative aesthetic of the director becomes the responsibility of the models themselves. Oftentimes black models use their hair and makeup to diminish their ethnic features, using contour to narrow their facial structure and straighteners to lengthen their hair. On the other end, if their director is looking for a more ‘ethnic’ look, the expectation is for these same models to accentuate the very features that may hinder them elsewhere, emphasizing cultural staples of black women such as wearing an afro or locs, enhancing the size of their lips, or wearing clothing which makes their breasts and backsides appear larger. This phenomenon only occurs in the career of minority models, the fluctuation between white-washed and ‘ethnic’. There is no gradient of girl next door to bombshell as there is with white models. Rather, black models are either forced to assimilate to their white counterparts or are hypersexualized and exoticized for their audience. Because the market for black models is limited to these two looks, competition is increased amongst young black women to fulfil the small quota which involves them fulfilling one of the two roles (Chhabra, Y, 2017). 

[New Orleans Fashion Week, 2019] Photographer: Eduardo Benitez, Model: Erin Haynes, Store: Maiya Boutique

For models who experience these blanket requirements from recruiters and lack of acknowledgement by hair, makeup, and the overall casting team, these subtle digs are representative of a larger message. Their culture is bizarre and used to contrast what has been established as the ‘norm’. Their skin and hair are too different to be worked with, too difficult to manage. In an industry which commoditizes the features that make up the physical appearance of an individual, indignities such as these can be emotionally tolling.  These indirect forms of discrimination are referred to as racial microaggressions. Racial microaggressions are daily, subtle indignities experienced by people of color which are perceived to occur specifically due to the racial or ethnic identity of the recipient (Sue, 2007). For black models whose careers inherently magnify the importance of their racial and ethnic appearance, these indignities are expected to be more frequent. Health outcomes directly related to recurring experiences of microaggressions include an increase in the release of the stress hormone, cortisol, (Zeiders, Landor, Flores, & Brown, 2018), positive correlations with anxiety, negative affect, and impulsive behaviors (Nadal, Griffin, Wong, Hamit, & Rasmus, 2014), and a decrease in implicit self-esteem which measures ‘unconscious and automatic evaluations of self’ (Wong-Padoongpatt, Zane, Okazaki, & Saw, 2017, pp. 575). Black models who experience microaggressions are at an increased risk for these poor outcomes over their white counterparts, because of the culture which the fashion industry has created. With little accountability for unequal treatment of black models, this business has flourished despite their lack of representation and resources for their black employees. Fortunately, within the past five years the fashion industry has become more ethnically diverse, possibly due to diversity reports which measure major fashion shows’ range of models.

[New Orleans Fashion Week, 2019] Photographer: Eduardo Benitez, Model: Alexis Sewell, Designer: Monica Rougelot

According to the Fashion Spot website (2019), representation across over 200 fashion shows during Fall 2019 in New York, Paris, Milan, and London showed approximately 40% of models were non-white models. Although this statistic shows a promising lead for people of color (POC), the breakdown of ethnic identification of models was not available. Also, how the models were coded to be considered POC was not available. Because of this, representation of black models was not explicitly clarified. Even still, this was a dramatic increase from their first year of measurement in 2015 which included only 17% POC models on the runway. This increase is representative of a promising future for black women in the modeling industry. With these diversity reports holding major fashion brands accountable, perhaps changes in the periphery may occur as well. Photographers who understand the lighting of black skin, makeup artists who carry products which match black clients, and hair stylists who understand the movement and texture of black hair will hopefully become an integral part of the hiring process. With an increase in ethnic diversity on the runways and in catalogues, I also believe we as consumers will shift as well. We will no longer expect black models to meet Eurocentric beauty standards or be the niche outlier in an otherwise white cast. Our expectation for black beauty will be in a category all its own and celebrated independently until the end of time!”

The more we talk about and speak of these issues within the fashion industry, the more change will come of this. Awareness of the psychological inflictions upon black models can encourage justice and promote equality.

Model Ashley Chew

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References

 The more we talk about and speak of these issues within the fashion industry, the more change will come of this. Awareness of the psychological inflictions upon black models can encourage justice and promote equality.

Nadal, K. L., Griffin, K. E., Wong, Y., Hamit, S., & Rasmus, M. (2014). The impact of racial microaggressions on mental health: Counseling implications for clients of color. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(1), 57-66.

Newman, S. L. (2017). Black Models Matter: Challenging the Racism of Aesthetics and the Facade of Inclusion in the Fashion Industry.

Chhabra, Y. (2017). “We’ve Already Hired A Black Girl”: Empirical Evidence of Quotas in the Fashion Industry.

Sue, D. W., Capodilupo, C. M., Torino, G. C., Bucceri, J. M., Holder, A., Nadal, K. L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice. American psychologist, 62(4), 271.

Tai, C. (2019, March 25). Fall 2019 Runway Diversity Report: Racial and Age Diversity Step Forward, Size and Gender Inclusivity Step Back. Retrieved June 17, 2020, fromhttps://www.thefashionspot.com/runway-news/828413-diversity-report-fall-2019-runways/

Wissinger, E. (2012). Managing the semiotics of skin tone: Race and aesthetic labor in the fashion modeling industry. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 33(1), 125-143.

Wong-Padoongpatt, G., Zane, N., Okazaki, S., & Saw, A. (2017). Decreases in implicit self-esteem explain the racial impact of microaggressions among Asian Americans. Journal of counseling psychology, 64(5), 574.

Zeiders, K. H., Landor, A. M., Flores, M., & Brown, A. (2018). Microaggressions and diurnal cortisol: Examining within-person associations among African-American and Latino young adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63(4), 482-488.