Blog 1: Lecture Reflection
Unsure of what to expect from this unit, I came into it with an open mind in order to fully appreciate the knowledge on ‘diversity, sustainability and social responsibility’, which I’ve never delved into in relation to fashion. All the lectures were inspiring to watch and really showed how powerful the work of any individual can be to change society for better, and how possible it is for anybody.
I particularly took note of Teleica Kirkland’s lecture on representation. At the beginning, she highlighted the link between mainstream demographic and capitalism. I was curious to understand the historical connection to today’s society. I also took note of the term she used, ‘Eurocentric’. It is the idea that the European standard surpasses those that oppose it, and can refer to beauty, music and other aspects of culture. Within a western society it was made easy for this ideology to come to light, as other demographics are a minority, and so are wrongly suppressed. It is clear to me that no matter how aware people may be, it is only when they truly understand that change can be made.
Within this western culture stereotypes are predominant. The implication that a person’s skin colour can be seen as a weapon, is one of the biggest issues society faces. With concepts such as these, it is impossible for diversity. For some, this notion may be present subconsciously, which is why the awareness of suppression (whether someone sees it directly or not) and the urge for representation is extremely important. Particularly applicable to those who fit the European standard. This lecture was a great source of wakefulness. It is shameful that most of the stereotypes of people of colour are portrayed in a negative light. Examples include associating a black man to be a drug dealer or a black woman to being aggressive. In reality, these are things that are separate from the colour of someone’s skin, and these such labels should not be deemed as ‘okay’ in the western culture.
Also, from this lecture, I picked up on the idea that having lighter skin or curly hair is ‘admirable’. Teleica used examples such as Beyonce to emphasise this. There clearly needs to be a big change in the representation of female music artists, where darker skinned women are also greatly presented in the media (particularly in the hip-hop industry). On the contrary, I believe women with such features are also stereotyped heavily. Many use the term “you’re being light-skin” which generalises people of this nature to being rude, big-headed and snobby. Furthermore, women of this race are highly sexualised and, in many opinions, do not meet the standards that are “wife material”. The idea that the attributes of one’s appearance are connected to the attributes of their character should not be assumed in such a way.
After watching this, it is obvious that there needs to be equal representation for all genders, ethnicities, etc. This would reduce the previous stereotypes and show that anyone can be anything, regardless of their skin colour, sexual orientation and more.