Blog Post 2- Themes Reflection Task
Representation has a long way to go in the global scenario. It is important to understand why we need representation for a diverse group of cultures at all. This is because there are different cultures that stay in a location as different countries open their borders for ethnic and cultural groups to settle in, hence the world becoming a global village. But that rushes the need for representation of all those communities in the media and the fashion world.
I, as a person of colour, have always looked forward to working for inclusion of diversity in every project I have done so far and aim to consider colour diversity making its appearance and open acceptance very vivid in all my professional projects. It can be very beneficial for brands and companies in fashion to present themselves as sensitive and tolerant to other cultures. As a student in PR, it is my responsibility to bring about this evolution with my communication skills that diversity in the global scenario is respected as well as represented. It is very important for me that all the connections and relationships I build in the industry feel included in what I offer them and all the brands I might work for work towards the diverse cultural representation. It is about putting in those efforts, even when I see it from a third point where the question is why do we have to put in effort in the first place? I think this disparity of cultures and their status should not have been created in the first place.
A question for Plus Size Models also arises that why are such sized models considered plus size? This question affects me personally hence putting a great impact on my work. I believe that it should not have been necessary to give bigger sized people a certain category name like ‘plus size’. Everybody should be called a normal size because someone’s normal is a size 8 and for the other it could be size 22. Now another dilemma for a mid-sized person arises, that size 14 comes under none of those categories (Czerniawski A., 2015), so it doesn’t seem necessary to give in and categorise oneself.
I chose Makeup Breakdown for my Better Lives unit and in the sessions, I created looks with imperfections as there is hardly any representation of highlighted scars, acne, and numerous other imperfections that are sometimes the result of birth or other times underlying tensions in life. These tensions and pressures are also unseen when it comes to media and fashion industry’s face. Another aspect in makeup that was included in my research and the project was that makeup is very genderised even after such drastic changes in the society about genders that have lead to enough acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and how makeup is something every person can use to express themselves. But even after that in many countries, why is it that only women can and should wear makeup. Is it that women need to cover their imperfections and men do not? Or the unacceptance of men wearing makeup because of how genderised it is. It is this kind of openness that I wish to bring in the society through my work.
Reference:
Czerniawski A. (2015). Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling. NYU Press. Available at: www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1287jjg (Accessed on: 24 May 2020)