The Whitewashing Of Black Women In Magazines.

Today's class about body culture in advertising proved to be very interesting to me not only because it addressed how women are portrayed in the media, but also because this is a topic that touches close to home. As a former full-time magazine editor, I've seen the work that goes into creating the cover images that the public sees on the front of the magazines. And by work, I mean the extensive Photoshopping that's usually done.

One of the first shoots that I ever worked on was in the early 2000's and featured Beyonce. Not only did I have the opportunity to attend the shoot, but I was also given the opportunity to meet her. Such exciting times for new magazine editor such as myself! While I worked predominantly in the Beauty department (my official title was Beauty Editor ) but I was also a part of the Cover team. This meant some of my work duties included providing assistance to the editors on the team which included shuttling completed pages back and forth in the office for approval. I remember being so shocked to see the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine give her orders as to what she wanted Beyonce to look like after viewing all of the images. I thought she looked perfect, but nope. The Art Editor spent hours whittling down her waistline, lightening her skin tone, toning down the size and shape of her hips, nose and lips. It was disgusting and I was appalled. I remember even asking the Art Editor about the work she was going and whether or not she hated it. She sighed and said "It's just a job, not a big deal" and continued carving away at the image.

I later learned after attending some of the business meetings at Time, Inc. that this Photoshopping work was done to black females based off of research done that showed what people responded best to. It should have been surprising to see that light-skinned celebrities with long hair always skewed the highest when it came to sales. But, it wasn't. It doesn't seem like there will ever be a time or date when we as black women aren't being whitewashed.