Society and Women's Fashion

Society and Women's Fashion

Skin tone and a person's weight have historically played a part in determining the social status of people of colour. Through generations of being thought of as lesser beings, many dark-skinned women began to develop a sense of self hatred. An example of colour prejudice was in the 1950s when blacks were first allowed to live in Liberty City, Florida. Whites began fearing a black invasion and went so far as to build a wall that separated the whites and blacks from each other.

Only fair-skinned blacks or blacks with a skin complexion brighter than a brown paper bag were allowed to work in prestigious places such as a bank, for it was thought that a dark skinned person was too ignorant to work in a white collar environment (Starobinski et al 1999).

In Vogues magazines, the models are mostly women with European features. If there are ethnic female models in these magazines they are either something like an accessory or are selling something to women and are very few in number. In popular culture today, unfortunately not all races are represented. In most of Vogues magazines most of the models are white, a few are black, and the Asian population is barely even represented. A more ethnically diverse set of models must be showcased in Vogue in order to educate its teen readers about inner beauty rather than just broadcasting ethnically cloned models (Bernstein 1999). Sadly, women, especially teenagers are under the impression that this ideal of beauty is factual. It is possible that Obsession was using this ad to bring up a bigger issue of the direction that advertising is going these days. There are a lot of ads that constantly promote the idea that being skinny is beautiful. Consequently, this causes most women ...