Letter to the Editor - Cosmopolitan
Original Article:
Cosmopolitan’s 21 Beauty Trends That Need to Die in 2015 (January 5,
2015)
There was a break down on Twitter (“straight up racist "@KillioussBey: Boycott @Cosmopolitan this is downright
disgusting. pic.twitter.com/1KN7RwHIYP")
where Cosmopolitan was being accused of being racist. Their article included several pictures of women being compared for
beauty “do’s” and “don’ts” and the images included the captions “RIP’s” and
“Hello Gorgeous”. “RIP” represented the
fashion statement that should go away and “Hello Gorgeous” represented the new “in”. Sadly the perception was that the images that
were used with a woman of color were all “RIP’s”. Even before the letter to the editor was
released, Cosmopolitan put out this apology as a rebuttal to all of the
negative social media on Twitter regarding this article at the time:
“This article focuses on beauty trends with images that
represent those trends. Some images have been taken out of context, and we
apologize for any offense. Celebrating all women is our mission, and we will
continue to work hard to do that.”
Letter to the editor:
“With certainty, the insensitivity of your decision to
dichotomize fashion do’s and don’ts with the use of Black models, has been
called to your attention. That must be the reason why you released this
apology”
As you can see, the Cosmopolitan reader to this article is
highly upset because “as a 25 year old black woman with a career in media and
avid fashion lover, she could not identify herself with the article.
Erica I clicked on the link and I only saw one A.A. woman with R.I.P. However, if they original article had R.I.P. only on A.A. women then I see why one would be offended. But if it were different races of women then I don't see the insult in putting fashion statement L's to death.
ReplyDelete