Representation of Black Women in Vogue UK: Is Fashion Racist?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Representation of Black Women in Vogue UK:

'Is Fashion Racist?'

Tania Claudia Varga

MD3248 Special Study: Explorations in 'Otherness'

Abstract

'"Racism and the Media" touches directly the problem of ideology, since the media's main sphere of operations is the production and transformation of ideologies. An intervention in the media's construction of race is an intervention in the ideological terrain of struggle' (Hall, 2003).

This extended researched essay focalises on the representation of black women in the media, especially in issues of the Vogue UK Magazine. The hypothesis is that black women are underrepresented in the pages of Vogue UK and where they are represented their image still suffers from stereotypical constructions and politics of representation.

I will aim to prove my hypothesis by looking at examples from various Vogue UK magazines and critically analyse them in relation to the images they portray and the representations they construct for contemporary black women.

CONTENTS

Abstract 2

Introduction 4

Vogue 5

Black Women as Metaphors for Africa 12

Erykah Badu's Representation in Tom Ford's Perfume Advert 14

The Assigned Place