There is a huge stir over Beyonce's new L'Oreal Paris Feria hair color ad, which many are claiming has been "white-washed" in post-production to make the black superstar have lighter skin.
Personally, I think the drama is a bit overblown. Any variation of lighting, editing, makeup, and wardrobe could have made the star look paler than usual, which she admittedly does. I certainly don't think the cosmetics company lightened her intentionally with their white clientele in mind, however.
Where does the real fault lie? With the news sources and blogs who are running side-by-sides of a "darker" Beyonce and the "lighter" Beyonce (which we'll do also, to make our point). TMZ and Media Bistro both ran this photo, which shows a Beyonce who has noticeably darker hair than she usually rocks. It seems these two outlets were attempting to highlight the "contrast," but it's awfully weird to me that they would exploit a photo of a raven-haired Beyonce to make a racial statement.
Other outlets have been running this comparison, which I think is totally inconclusive. Beyonce looks sunkissed and bronzer-ed up on the left, while it just looks like her hair- and dress-color are washing her out on the right.
A whole lot of fuss over nothing. The only crime in this ad is that it doesn't sell hair color at all, because Beyonce's hair looks a weird, unnatural shade of orangey-brown!
Source: Media Bistro, TMZ
Hmmm...I'm sorry, I don't know exactly what they're motivations could've been, but thats too light to be an accident or coincidence. For me the nail in the coffin is that they've completely matted her skin tone. One of the defining features of being a woman of color, down to a very light Asian person, is the variance of skin tone as light reflects off our faces. So to matte and lighten her skin is disturbing.
Posted by: Jessie | August 10, 2008 at 04:05 PM