I thought Samatha Critchell’s description of Michelle Obama’s light tan or “champagne” dress as “flesh colored” might get her fired. If nothing else, I figured it’d be warning to all other journalists out there to, for gawd’s sake!, watch your racist language.
But, alas, the parade of “champagne”-colored gowns at this year’s Grammy’s had led a flood of fashion writers talking about the color “nude.” Here are just a handful of examples from the first three pages of my google search
Elsewhere in the Los Angeles Times:
VH1:
Keri Hilson and her dress:
Popsugar:
Of course (almost) no one is actually “nude”-colored, but the term still manages to naturalize whiteness insofar as white people’s skin color tends to match colors described as “nude” moreso than the skin color of non-white people (though there are always exceptions). I’m really surprised that journalists are still managing to get this language past their editors.
—————————
Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
