Millions of images representing ideas about women bombard modern human perception every day. The work that goes into creation of these images, ideas, collections, and advertising campaigns is related to race relations and the intersectionality of race and gender in more ways than would be understood by many of the consumers of these images. In a perfect world, the spread of white women and women of color in the fashion industry would ultimately be representative of the industry’s consumer audience. According to research by Mears (2009), out of 677 models used for spring/summer collections of 2007, 27 models (4%) were non-white. While it is incredibly difficult to find reliable data speculating the racial breakdown of the world population,
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In addition to an underlying succumbing to the constitutive theory of race, colorblind approaches can be easily identified among modeling scouts and casting directors. The word “race” is often replaced with the more euphemized term “personality” (Hardison, 2007). In a discussion presented by New York Public Libraries titled “Out of Fashion: The Absence of Color”, speakers called for models with character or personality, instead of specifically speaking of the racial issues the title of the discussion so clearly specified. During this talk, prominent fashion figure James Scully speaks on his experiences working for Gucci and seeing trends change. Over time, he says, casting became less about the model and more colorless and lacking personality as the role of the model transformed into a way to hang clothes. By using this term “personality”, as opposed to racial categories or terms, these figures diminish the role race plays in the hiring of models and also diminishes the hardships that have come about due to this intersectionality of race and gender in the fashion …show more content…
Halloween costumes picturing overtly sexual Native Americans, and even items sold in a local popular youth clothing store can be found to make use of cultural appropriation, possibly unknowingly and without understanding. Cultural appropriation can be defined as
“Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else 's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture 's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It 's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is a particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred object. (Scafidi,
In addition to an underlying succumbing to the constitutive theory of race, colorblind approaches can be easily identified among modeling scouts and casting directors. The word “race” is often replaced with the more euphemized term “personality” (Hardison, 2007). In a discussion presented by New York Public Libraries titled “Out of Fashion: The Absence of Color”, speakers called for models with character or personality, instead of specifically speaking of the racial issues the title of the discussion so clearly specified. During this talk, prominent fashion figure James Scully speaks on his experiences working for Gucci and seeing trends change. Over time, he says, casting became less about the model and more colorless and lacking personality as the role of the model transformed into a way to hang clothes. By using this term “personality”, as opposed to racial categories or terms, these figures diminish the role race plays in the hiring of models and also diminishes the hardships that have come about due to this intersectionality of race and gender in the fashion …show more content…
Halloween costumes picturing overtly sexual Native Americans, and even items sold in a local popular youth clothing store can be found to make use of cultural appropriation, possibly unknowingly and without understanding. Cultural appropriation can be defined as
“Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else 's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture 's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It 's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is a particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred object. (Scafidi,