Vice President of Color Editing the skin color intentionally to whiten? Vogue in controversy

Vogue cover of controversial vice president-elect Kamala Harris. [아메리카 보그 트위터]

Kamala Harris, 57, who is the first woman and the first woman of color in the United States to become vice president, was engulfed in a’whitewashing’ controversy. There are suspicions that the famous fashion magazine’Vogue’ has purposely corrected the photo of Kamala, who appeared as a cover model, to white.

The British Guardian reported on the cover photo of the February issue, which Vogue released on Twitter on the 10th (local time), and reported that “there are criticisms for making Harris’ skin bright like white.” The guardian used the expression’white washing’, which means that characters of color are deliberately changed to white in cultural content such as movies. It is a criticism to the effect that Vogue did a’devil edit’ to make America’s first vice president of color appear white. Harris was born to a Jamaican-American father and an Indian Tamil mother.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ speech. It is different from the skin color of Vogue’s cover. AFP = Yonhap News.

The arrow of blame is also headed to Vogue’s celebrity editor Anna Wintour, 70. He is also famous as a real character of Miranda, editor of fashion magazine, the protagonist in the movie’The Devil Wears Prada’. In the real fashion world, Anna Wintour has a reputation for being directly connected to popularity and sales. At least for Wintour, who had nothing to be afraid of in the fashion world, this controversy is an atmosphere that becomes a major test.

The New York Times (NYT) was also criticized. While posting a column by Wajahat Ali, a lawyer and political critic. In a column, Ali said, “It seems that Anna Wintour doesn’t have black friends or colleagues,” and “I’m 100% sure that it will be better than this (cover) even if I shoot with my Samsung phone.”

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, known as a real person in the movie’The Devil Wears Prada’. Central photo

Vogue denied that the skin color was not intentionally brightened. He also added that Harris-elect was able to choose his own clothes, clothes, hair, and makeup style. This photo was taken by Tyler Michelle, a young photographer who took the cover photo for the September 2018 issue of Beyonce.

However, the racist controversy surrounding Vogue and editor-in-chief Wintour continued for a long time. Last year, NYT interviewed 18 fashion editors of color who had worked with Vogue, including Anna Wintour. At the time, they complained, “As a result of Anna Wintour’s over 30 years in the role of editor-in-chief, discrimination in Vogue became widespread.”

According to testimony at the time, Wintour preferred’skinny white’, and preferred employees born into affluent families or graduated from prestigious universities. One editor accused him of “he used the word’piccaninny’.” It is an insulting expression for a black child and is rarely used today. Wintour apologized at the time, saying, “I admit I made mistakes while working.”

White House official portrait of Mrs. Melania Trump [사진 연합뉴스]

Apart from the correction, criticism came out that the level of the photo itself was low. The cover photo is the face and symbol of fashion magazines such as Vogue. That much effort is spent. However, there is an evaluation that the cover, who was elected by the vice president of Harris, did not meet expectations. Charlotte Klimer, a LGBT rights activist, posted a post on Twitter that criticizes, “It’s a picture far below Vogue’s standards,” and “it feels like a homework that was only finished in the morning.

Vice President-elect Harris himself has not given a special position on this controversy. He takes office on the 20th (local time), about 10 days later. Meanwhile, the Guardian pointed out that First Lady Melania Trump has never appeared on the cover of fashion magazines in the past four years. This is because it is compared with Harris-elect, who was selected as the cover model before taking office.

Although Melania has been a famous model who has appeared in advertisements and fashion magazines since her teens, she did not receive a cover model proposal for the four years in office by her husband, President Donald Trump. It’s also in contrast to Ms. Melania’s former First Lady, Michelle Obama, who appeared several times in magazines including Vogue in December 2016.

Reporter Kim Sun-mi [email protected]