Models Of Colour

Just one look into magazines, runways, Internet searches and ingrained beliefs and you will find the rigid beauty standards which are still evident in today's seemingly advanced society. Growing up, (and even now) I would be in awe over the girls splayed out in magazines with their light, wavy hair and bright-coloured eyes. Repetitively, I would find Caucasian features being praised whilst my typical Asian features were shamed and put-down. Newsflash - comments such as "you're pretty for an Asian!!" do not, I repeat, do not, count as compliments. The difficult navigation of our teenage years do not need the extra burden of being embarrassed and ashamed of our culture and ethnicity which makes up so much of our identity. 

White-washing is unmistakable in today's society with dark-skinned celebrities being edited with lighter skin, lighter and straighter hair and thinner bodies. L'Oreal have a crap history in which back in 2008 they were accused of whitening Beyonce's skin, in 2009 they were found guilty for racial discrimination for barring black, Arab and Asian women from selling its shampoo and now they are infamous for promoting their skin whitening products. Whether it be from lightening one's skin to wearing contacts to make one's iris' bigger or another colour to applying glue or tape to create double eyelids, European beauty standards have stilted the embrace of our own cultural beauty. 

Lastly, the fashion industry - which is usually renowned for their progressive attitude (I think) - unfortunately does not do well in this field either. According to Vogue Anonymous, the statistics of models of colour which appeared from the Paris runways of Spring/Summer 2015 were less than impressive. Acne Studios, Alexander McQueen and Celine only used three models of colour; Alexis Mabille, Carven and Saint Laurent only used two models of colour; Haider Ackermann and Valentino only used one model of colour and Comme des Garcons and Jacquemus used a whooping zero models of colour!! But honestly, the lack of diversity is shocking...

But hey! This post's purpose is not to get you down in your dumps and cry about the injustices of this world - you have plenty of time for that later. I just want to share some of the beautiful models of colour which I absolutely adore. So scroll on down to appreciate some very striking and gorgeous humans. X

XIAO WEN JU

MALAIKA FIRTH

AYA JONES

KIM SANG WOO

SAM HARRIS

ELLEN ROSA

MING XI

JOURDAN DUNN

KIKO MIZUHARA

CYKEEM WHITE

SAMANTHA ARCHIBALD

FEI FEI SUN

Okay honestly, is this gif not your favourite thing ever??
*Photos do not belong to me

So there you have it! A little compilation of some beautiful human beings. The list truly goes on forever and I hope after this long post you too can relate to the unfair beauty standards of this world and embrace and equally love your fellow people of colour. 

Anyway guys - I have wanted to write this post since I first started my blog and I'm happy that I finally got around to it. Racism is obviously still a major issue in today's world and as seen above, effects all aspects of our lives. 

So that's all from me today,

lots of love and kisses,

Mags xx

P.S I am totally not intelligent or educated enough on this issue to talk very confidentally and many of these musings are just what have been on my heart - not particularly researched or accurate information!