And There Won't Be Vogue In Africa
A really interesting article about African models who have to conform to a Western standard of beauty if they want to get international modeling work:
In Africa, rolls of flesh are usually seen as a sign of wealth and status, not of ill health. Few aspire to a skinny look, as those who look starved and ill too often are that way through misfortune, not choice. But just as Africa’s youth find themselves choosing between Western music and clothes and those rooted in their own tradition, they are now faced with two opposing images of beauty — the Western ideal of an ever thinner frame and the African one of a buxom and well-rounded figure. Nowhere is this debate clearer than in the African fashion industry.
The article goes on to discuss how the models feel about these standards, and why they may or may not attempt to conform to them. It also discusses what kind of women African men prefer. Not the super-skinny models it turns out. But as the cultural norms change, who’s to say that won’t change as well? Sigh. I wish that we would see some of these buxom, well-rounded models in fashion magazines here in the West. I wish more than one standard of beauty could be celebrated here. But don’t we all wish that?
Oh, and I’ve learned one other very important thing today: there’s a Ghana’s Top Model competition!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fashion, International
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“It is a business. Almost every man I know, the skinny models, it is nice to take them somewhere. If it comes to really having a relationship, they prefer to have bigger people,” said Exopa’s Ibrahim.
This … this doesn’t seem fair, either to skinny models OR to bigger people! What, the skinny models get taken out like pets on a lead, but they don’t merit relationships? Boy, I hope the terms of those arrangements are spelt out explicitly, so the models aren’t under the impression that they’re worthy of being in relationships. And the flip side: the bigger women are worthy of being in relationships, but they’re not good enough to take out in public? WTF! And how do these men propose to establish and build relationships with bigger women, if the smaller ones are the ones they’re taking out?
I’m hoping that the women, bigger AND skinnier, have too much self-respect to accept that kind of treatment.
I totally agree with you, Dolley, now that you point it out. That’s definitely insulting to everyone concerned.
look at paintings done in the rennaisance period and you’ll find women with a rounder figure everywhere. the west cycles through fashions so big will be beautiful again.
” Almost every man I know, the skinny models, it is nice to take them somewhere. If it comes to really having a relationship, they prefer to have bigger people,” said Exopa’s Ibrahim.”
And they say WOMEN aren’t logical.