Deepra Gagneja

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)

Looking back at the Better Lives lectures, I was driven towards representation as a subject as I am a person of colour in Britain. I come from India, where we have yellow undertones and brown skin, but it a land of diverse cultures like India is not limited to only brown as a skin colour. The main focus is on how we as a community, culture, and colour are represented in the western world, which concerns me a bit and makes me ask myself if I as a human really matter in the country I study and work i.e. United Kingdom. The lecture on representation lead me to think deeply about cultures, how one can feel about themselves and their own culture in today times where white culture is still considered the dominant one in every aspect.

Diversity when includes race, colour, culture, and body type, makes it very open and accepting to all kinds of people. We humans tend to comfort ourselves and occupy space wherever we can in that comfort, hence a place of diversity is a spread that provides comfort to all those people who feel less special because of their culture or any other aspect of their life. It makes them believe that what they do matters and hold some value in the society that they live in, though the prevalence of they dominant white society creates an idea that what a bright coloured person does will always be better and right. It is very difficult for a person of dark colour to find representation in the media and everywhere one sees. It feels great to see a person of the same community as you are bring laurels to your community and achieve greatness in the world full of people with white skin privilege.

It would be interesting to see how brands increase their interaction with people of colour and how it is a great deal for such people of colour and culture to be interacted with, by huge brands. These brands also misuse the freedom of adopting cultures in their work by creating insensitive and offensive content in order to stir controversy, derive attention, and hence profits.

It would be easier if the world took people for who they are and not focus on their backgrounds, colours, body and skin types, cultures, etc. But at the same time these are some aspects of us that help us belong to a certain community and feel at home with that community. That being said, it does not mean that one should feel unwelcome, but rather respected by other communities because of their differences.