The image below is from the latest episode of Britain’s Next Top Model (image found here). I would comment, except I just recently wrote almost exactly what I would write for this post here. You might also want to look here and here and here and also here for historical context.
Dude, we are so not making this stuff up.
Thanks to an anonymous tipster in our comments! Don’t forget you can always email us tips at socimages@thesocietypages.org.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 19
73man — July 4, 2008
A great post on something that takes skill to call it! Are the black people in these shots like the mirrors and lighting? All eyes on the white woman? In the same way as you pointed out that women cannot 'do complexity', it seems that black people cannot 'do fashion'.
Dangger — July 4, 2008
I don't know how much money they paid the black people, but they sure as hell don't seem interseted in anything that's going on. And also, who is the public of these pictures? Rich white males from the 18th century? To me this is not appealing at all, it is also dumb to the point where it is funny (and no, I'm not a white rich male from the 18th century).
The dressing of the black people is not only anachronic but also anastupid (and no its not a word).
Dude, I know you are not making this stuff up like some of the people who send altered images to photoshop disasters.
R. Wright — July 4, 2008
That's something that can't be made up no matter which way you flip it. My question is how many of the "Africans" in that picture identify as "African" and are not in fact some other nationality that just so happens to have dark skin? As Dangger pointed out it's not appealing and it's dumb. What was the story this photoshoot was trying to tell? I always thought they tried to tell a story using photos even in fashion.
Mammy redux, again « don’t do that — July 4, 2008
[...] And… more link love for Sociological Images - this post on African People As Props for White Femininity. [...]
jim — July 4, 2008
Not so much props as background. It looks like the models have been green-screened in.
Anonymous — July 4, 2008
According to the website (linked above), they're in South Africa, home of apartheid. In the summary (same page), we learn that, "The next day they were greeted by Zulu dancers and Huggy, who informed them that the warrior men would join each girl on their photo shoot." I did a bit more digging and found a recap of the episode. That morning, the models were told to "Get ready to discover the fashion warrior in you."
So are the models supposed to be like these Zulu dancers/warriors, then? Or is the reason that the "primitives" look so lifeless that the models have they dominated them, perhaps with their whiteness/Britishness (especially in the first two photos), or how much of a "fashion warrior" they are, or [some other throw-back to colonialism]?
I'd be really interested to find out what directions were given during the photo shoot, both to the models and to the "props."
Le — July 4, 2008
Um white models are more or less the central attraction in countries around the world. Here is my blog on the phenomenon in Asia.
http://covergirlsthedocumentary.blogspot.com/2008/06/white-models-in-asia.html
Anonymous — July 4, 2008
You can watch BNTM on youtube. This episode starts here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mh4aD9Krk8
Breck — July 4, 2008
Are you fucking kidding me!? To reprise what I said months ago about Iceland: Holy shit! What the fuck is wrong with the U.K.?
Now, to demonstrate that I am not incapable of learning from my mistakes of generalization, allow me to be more specific:
Holy shit! The producers of Britain's Next Top Model are a rabid pack of racist, imperialist, colonialist shitbags! Fuck those assholes.
nitay — July 6, 2008
that's very similar to this picture by an israely fashion company:
http://www.notes.co.il/lir/user/bar22.JPG
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