Representation

Attending the Better Lives ‘Representation’ lecture delivered by Teleica Kirkland, allowed me to refine my knowledge on how the fashion and entertainment industry push monocultural marketing, neglecting the need for diversity. As a young black woman, seeing a vast majority of images and advertisements centered around eurocentric standards of beauty suggests that darker skinned individuals like myself are superseded in the order of precedence regarding beauty in the media and modern western society.  

In the media today, it seems evident that a lot of black individuals are mostly celebrated in the media for their achievements in sport as well as music. For example, such artists like Kodak Black and Travis Scott flaunt their extravagant lifestyle through money, fame and materialistic possessions as a means of amplifying their social status. It brings into question if western society have this agender to push this narrative of black people being capable of exceeding in only a few professions. Is it possible that the media are restricting the skills and career choices of black people through shedding light on more active achievements such as sport and music and concealing other academic pathways such as law? 

It can be said that the media contribute to perpetuating colorism amongst the black community with their bias towards lighter skinned black individuals. Colorism is one of the biggest factors in dividing the black community stemming from the centuries of slavery. It is heartbreaking witnessing young dark-skinned girls especially, feeling undesired in comparison to their lighter skinned counterparts due to feeling inadequate because of their skin tone. If darker skinned women were represented more in media campaigns and weren’t constantly being degraded and insulted on social media (since this has become normalised) then the self-esteem of black woman (and black people in general) would be drastically improved. 

As well as the lack of representation of black individuals in these industries, a lot of misrepresentation still occurs amongst powerful corporate brands. For instance, retail brands such as Gucci and Moncler have been guilty of advertising imagery of ‘blackface’ as a form of outrage marketing to gain attention and controversy. The power and privilege that these companies have are being misused because their bosses are far more interested in making their profits at minorities’ expense rather than engaging and understanding the needs of their consumers who are from various backgrounds. Companies understand the consequences and outrage when it comes to cultural appropriation yet continue to do so and suffer no long-term repercussions. Therefore, many can easily avoid taking accountability for their actions. However, if worldwide brands such as Michael Kors and Comme Des Garcons openly disrespect cultures through cultural appropriation and various comments expressing their dislike black people, then why do ethnic minorities continue to invest and shop at such places where the brand has no regard for our demographic? Perhaps companies can get away of being racially and culturally insensitive as the brands will not suffer long term due to modern day society’s obsession with labels and consumerism.  

It is devastating that cultural appreciation isn’t represented in the media as much as it should be as peace and equality doesn’t attract as much attention and controversy. I hope one day that more companies can see the mutual benefit of respectful representation.