Better Lives Blog 1: Lecture Reflection
Attending the better lives lectures for the first time this year, I found that the lectures that touched upon culture, diversity and race, to be the most intriguing to me. Being a Vietnamese photographer that usually features people as the subject focus of my images, I believe that this is why I found these particular lectures to be engaging.
In Julia Crow’s lecture about Power, a quote from human right’s activist, Malcom X really stood out to me, “The media is the most powerful entity on Earth”. Western pop culture has been the powerhouse that has spread throughout mass media to the whole world. This results in a projection of one type of look that is Eurocentric, which can cause repercussions on people who don’t meet these European-eques beauty standards. For example, in many South Asian, East Asian, even African and South American countries where deeper skin tones are common, it is seen as “dirty” and undesirable. This has resulted in an emergence of lucrative skin bleaching markets, as fairer skin is seen as more desirable.
Colourism is common in mass media, with people and media favouring lighter skin people over darker skin people. In addition to this, longer hair that has looser curls over tighter coiled hair. This can be seen in Destiny’s Child, with Beyoncé being fairer than the rest of the group – Kelly and Michelle. While they were active as a group, many people preferred and favoured Beyoncé due to this, despite all of the members being as talented as one another. Even Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé’s father, mentioned that he thinks if Beyoncé had darker skin, it would have affected her success.
I resonate with these points raised as from a personal point of view, as in East Asian culture, I am constantly reminded by my family that fairer skin is more desirable and beautiful, and to stay away from the sunlight. You are perceived as poor and/or a labourer if you have tanned skin. I noticed that colourism even exists in Korean idol groups such as Girl’s Generation, where one of the member’s Yuri has tanned skin. She received the label “black pearl” because her skin was darker than the rest of her members, which also resulted in her being one of the least popular members of the group.
Bringing all these points of issues together to Shahida Bari’s lecture about the importance of diversity, which is to reflect society and the world around us. With fashion being a visual medium that people look towards to create and express individualism and identity, it is important to represent all human diversity. To normalise all of our “differences” and to unite the world through fashion.