Beyonce Covers French Magazine…In Blackface?
Well, it seems like Beyonce’s been having a very interesting week. After attending the Grammy’s and looking quite fabulous clad in all black with bestie Gwyneth Paltrow by her side, Bey caught some flack from a British paper for looking too white.
The article wondered if Beyonce’s pale skin, blonde locks, and increasingly waifish figure sent the wrong message to little Black girls around the globe.
Well, how the tables have turned. Recently images from Beyonce’s cover shoot with French mag L’Officiel hit the net, and let’s just say they’re a bit controversial.
L’Officiel, a French fashion magazine, is celebrating its 90th anniversary and tapped Beyonce’ to grace it’s March 2011 cover. The issue also honors legendary Nigerian singer and activist, Fela Kuti, and because of this, Beyonce is styled as an “African Queen.” In the magazine, Bey is rocking a stunning African-themed headdress, long braids…and blackface.
*record scratch*
Wait. What?
L’Officiel writes,
“The Fashion magazine is about to celebrate its 90th birthday. To celebrate this anniversary, the festivities start with the March issue, with Beyoncé on the cover. She agreed to pose for an incredible fashion shoot, with the theme of African Queen, paying a tribute to the legendary Fela Kuti. Far from the glamorous Sasha Fierce, the beauty posed for the magazine with amazing fashion designers clothes, but also in a dress created by her mother. [It is] A return to her African roots, as you can see on the picture, on which her face was voluntarily darkened. All the pictures will be available in the collector edition, on sell at the end of this month.”
At first glance, the photograph just looks ridiculous. Darkening Beyonce’s face is not only jarring, but it also does little to highlight her as an “African Queen.” Moreover, I don’t understand how putting her in blackface–which is utterly offensive to most Blacks, especially in America–is the proper way to honor Fela Kuti, a man wholly concerned with the freedom of Blacks/Africans throughout the Diaspora.
While I understand the compulsion to use Beyonce as the model for an “African Queen” (I mean, she’s one of the biggest stars in the world), would it have really been that difficult to either feature her as she naturally is or hire an actual African model? To darken her face (which she agreed to do) evokes all sorts of uncomfortable cultural references that I’m sure neither Beyonce or the magazine wanted to bring up.
Check out behind the sceens footage of Beyonce’s L’Officiel shoot. What do you think of Beyonce’s choice to pose in Blackface? Sound off!
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My thoughts as well.
in the old days we would not have seen this since it was in france.
now, with the internet, all your dirt comes to light.
Disclaimer – I do like Beyonce’s music and performances.
Um…this doesn’t look like traditional Blackface but visual appearances aside, I think Blackface was in fact the magazine’s intent. The art itself is poor in my opinion, but again, art is all opinion.
I think it is unfortunate that Beyonce agreed to this campaign. Just seems like it will be a PR nightmare. However, I do not think she has no single-handedly destroyed the Black race as some would imply.
She looks like a cut and paste doll. She looks gorgous on the cover but I just don’t understand the other pictures. I mean they could have at least went the ful monty and paint her entire body one color why stop at the face and neck???? You are just asking for a reference for black face there. Though I don’t think this is blackface per se, i think people are using that term to loosely. I think this issue would have been so much better if they got beyonce and a bunch of black models of various colors to shot and celebrate the issue because this makes no sense
yea they should’ve have only captured the face if that’s all they were going to paint
I don’t understand why they felt a need to darken Beyonce’s face in order for her to represent an “African Queen”. Africans come in all skin colors just like Black Americans do, so they could have kept her original color. Secondly, if they wanted someone to represent an “African Queen” and pay homage to Fela Kuti, why not just hire an African model?????
@ Sasha,
Secondly, if they wanted someone to represent an “African Queen” and pay homage to Fela Kuti, why not just hire an African model?????
Fela is a man of great calibre for this nonsense to be approved!
She should be embarrassed.
She should be. A mess
beyonce looked a mess and that was in poor taste – she’s black so she didn’t need to “darken” her face to be a black woman. if anything, she needs to sit outside in the sun and allow the melanin to migrate in her skin cells, she is far too light.
and for all the idiots out there, blackface… they wouldn’t paint all of their skin black. and there was some idiot who said “that’s not blackface, she’s in brown paint!” << please, don't reproduce.
i love beyonce's music, i am a fan, but she really needs to use her brain cells before doing a shoot like this.
Beyonce is not “far too light.” She is the colour she is due to genetics . Hell, I get a few shades lighter in the cooler months. Are all Black people with Beyonce’s skin tone too light? What is “too light”? This type of thinking fuels the light skin dark skin debate.
I think a lot of people are reading into this photoshoot too much. It’s just one magazine’s artist expression and chance to get people looking and talking.
Everyone is looking, freaking out and talking. I’m sure the exec’s at the magazine are laughing all the way to the bank.
Blackface is to portray an insulting stereotype of black people; a mockery. Painting her face darker is not blackface unless she is portraying a negativity stereotype. Being dark is NOT a negative stereotype.
She was asked to do the shoot because of her status as a celebrity, the obviously painted her darker in some of the shots to send a message or create a vision of the artist/photographer.
The so called “vision” you talk of blew over peoples head! The vision should have been better put, especially as I’ve said before, paying homage to a LEGEND. Nonsense on their part!
As in beauty, “art” is subjective…and you are entitled to dislike it. But you can’t tell another how to express their own vision.
Oh, and this is not the first time fashion as changed faces. Alek did a shoot painted white, does that mean she is doing white face or wants to be white? No, it’s just a vision.
Except there is no malevolent, racist history of white face, now is there? You can’t just ignore centuries of historical context when it suits you. FAIL!
I sure can because I don’t think people are using it in it’s appropriate context, which my opinion is the biggest insult. Blackface is not some simple thing, the fact that people throwing it around all willy nilly just shows how disconnected we are from our history. Thank you very much.
“I sure can”
@Soul Touch
Not if you want to be taken seriously, you can’t (ignore the fact that there is no malevolent, racist history of whiteface comparable to that of blackface).
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“I don’t think people are using it in it’s appropriate context, which my opinion is the biggest insult. Blackface is not some simple thing, the fact that people throwing it around all willy nilly just shows how disconnected we are from our history. Thank you very much.”
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You’re welcome, but it doesn’t matter what message the magazine was striving to convey or whether or not, the context fits into a narrow definition of what you consider to be blackface. The images evoke a racist history, regardless of intent. History doesn’t just disappear simply when you want it to.
Remember the Tyra Banks “Bi-racial” girl ANTM shoot? Like you, Tyra was also certain that she knew what blackface was, and it was never her intention to offend by painting her models to imitate color and ethnicity, but the images still evoked blackface and cultural appropriation, none the less, and she was shamed into apologizing. I wouldn’t even be surprised to hear that no one on Tyra’s team questioned the concept of the bi-racial shoot because Tyra’s black, and since she said it was cool, then it must have been ok. So, this idea that it can’t be blackface unless you intend for it to be blackface, is bogus. People are often racist without ever intending to be so.
luv, you don’t have to like or agree with my opinion…but it is still my opinion and I’m sure I am not the only one who shares that opinion. It is not blackface. I tend to be a bit sensitive of negative portrayal (ie blackface) and I did not see it here. I may not like the vision of artistic expression but the two are not one in the same. Blackface is the portrayal of a negative stereotype or “dandified coon”…an act that cements and proliferates racist images, attitudes and perceptions worldwide is blackface. It is exploitation. If she had a gold grill, pregnant, with a toothy mammy grin would be blackface. In my opinion, anyone who knows about our history in respect would know the obvious difference. And I think it’s sad that people are so disconnected that they throw things around so easily.
Now, thank you once again for giving your opinion on my opinion.
Now, a prime example, to me, of a minstrel show/black face would be these madea/martin movies of mammies shucking and jiving. Why? The portray exactly what defines blackface/minstrel shows – negative portrayals and stereotypes.
Blackface is the portrayal of a negative stereotype or “dandified coon”…an act that cements and proliferates racist images, attitudes and perceptions worldwide is blackface
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I think that anyone who would make the analogy that I initially replied under is disconnected. Your definition of blackface is based mostly on intent and allows for cultural/racial appropriation as long as it’s not “stereotypically negative,” (i.e. gold teeth, pregnant, gang signs, etc.) but the stereotype doesn’t necessarily have to be negative or a “dandified coon” for it to be blackface.
There are plenty of examples of people painting themselves or taping their eyes back to appropriate race and ethnicity in the mainstream media. Applying bronzer to Ava Gardner so she could portray the character of Julie LaVerne (a mixed race, black woman) in the film adaptation of Show Boat doesn’t make it any less of an example of blackface because the character wasn’t negatively stereotypical. The Charlie Chan detective books were written in part to provide an alternative to the Yellow Peril stereotype, but that doesn’t change the fact that Warner Oland (a white man, heavily made up to “look Chinese,”) was in yellow-face when shooting the TV show. Beyonce may not be intentionally playing a negative stereotype but she is portraying a stereotype just the same. The idea is that she needed to be darkened up in one/some of the pics to play “African” in some type of homage, and yes, that is blackface.
WHAT stereotype is she playing? In those examples it was people playing others of different races PORTRAYING acts that are stereotypical to that race. WHAT stereotype is she playing? What act is she showing us that is a stereotype, slanderous or otherwise to darker-skinned women?
Sorry, we are going to have to agree to disagree.
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“WHAT stereotype is she playing?”
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I already explained that, and so did others on this thread. “The idea is that she needed to be darkened up in one/some of the pics to play “African” in some type of homage, and yes, that is blackface (and a stereotype . . . that one needs to be darkened to be African).”
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“In those examples it was people playing others of different races PORTRAYING acts that are stereotypical to that race.”
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There was nothing stereotypical about Julie LaVerne. So, no, Ava Gardner was not playing a “stereotypical” black character. First you were saying that the Beyonce shoot wasn’t blackface because there was no racist intent, just “changing faces”. Then it wasn’t blackface because it didn’t fit into the confines of what you consider to be negatively stereotypical, but now you seem to think that Beyonce can’t be in blackface simply because she’s black.
You can be black and be in blackface. See Bert Williams
This is the model Sasha Gaye Hunt
http://www.style.com/peopleparties/modelsearch/person3570/slideshow?iphoto=9
This is the model Sasha Gaye Hunt in blackface
http://straightfromthea.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/blackface.jpg
And again, refer to the Tyra “bi-racial” girl ANTM shoot example. Racism/blackface/ cultural appropriation were not Tyra’s intention, but nevertheless, she crossed that line. It doesn’t matter whether or not anyone intended to offend. The practice itself evokes a racist history. The team that arranged the i-D shoot with Gaye-Hunt may not have had the slightest intention of referencing blackface (though I doubt it), but the photo evokes it none the less. The exact same could be said of the Beyonce shoot.
*waits for you to say . . . but but but, Gaye-Hunt has on pink lipstick*
What kills me the most is that people are insulted that Africans are being portrayed as dark…as if that’s the actually insult.
@ S-Touch,
I am insulted to think that these idiots think that chocolate equals African. We come in all shades too. My feelings stem out of their ignorance! There is nothing wrong with being a dark-skinned sister, but there is something wrong with insinuating that her original color was not African enough. As an entertainer, I don’t care how much puppetized they are, they owe it to themselves to become culturally aware of images or people or places they are going to represent.
I’m sorry, but I thought that most of the pics were of Beyonce in her own natural complexion? So then…would that make “all”…no. Like you said, Africans come in all shades…the pictures came in different variety. So… But thank you for your opinion on my opinion.
I’m really not surprised by this. Over time, Beyonce has done everything in her power to make herself as light as possible. First of all, she is quick to point out that she’s “Creole,” not realizing that Creoles come in all shades, just like any other African or African-American. I have Creole heritage too, like many other African-Americans, and there is no way you would mistake me for being anything other than African-American. Second, she’s lightened her skin considerably (realize that black people don’t get lighter as we age, we generally get darker.) Beyonce is no longer brown, but her skin has taken on a gold appearance, not golden, but gold, like a coin. Look at the picture in the above article. Sometimes she’s even glittery, LOL. Here’s a pic: http://superwomanspeaks2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/back-in-dayz-celebritiesthen-and-now.html. Third, do I have to mention the blond hair that we all know she wasn’t born with? Fourth, the nose job where she tweaked her nose just enough to make it a little more European. Here’s the link: http://celebrity-surgery.popsugar.com/Beyonce-Knowles—Had-She-Had-Nosejob-187336. Fifth, and finally, now she’s lightened her eyes with colored contact lenses. Here’s a pic: http://www.healthandbeauty.net.au/face/. What’s sad is the fact that she believed she needed to darken her face to pay homage to anyone African as if she weren’t dark enough to do so in her own black/brown/gold/next-year-she’ll-be-white skin. The fact that she’s still whoring herself for L’Oreal after this mess: http://bossip.com/125751/loreal-we-dont-want-black-women-selling-our-cosmetics/ shows me that Bey is about making money for Bey, not making a difference for anyone else.
I definitely agree with this point of view. As much as I want to harp on about the hurtful and dangerous legacy of oppressing blacks, through propaganda like blackface, I can’t help but look at this with a blasé sigh. Beyoncé is a business, with a capital B! I am sure that we can all be in agreement that we as women with African roots (no matter if our ancestors were brought here or not, or if we are of mixed, but of African descent) would definitely accept Beyoncé’s current skin shade as representative of a woman of African descent, because we are all not ignorant enough to think that light skin equals Non-African (at least, I would sincerely hope so!). What matters, though, is that Beyoncé had a choice in the matter and CHOSE to depict herself this way. FOR A REASON. I cannot be sure of it, but I’m starting to believe that she is gradually trying to become the ‘origin-less-exotic’ international icon she set out to be, while in the process trying more and more to separate herself from her black identity, INTENTIONALLY, for personal and business gain.
Disclaimer: Though I, like many others, am consistently disgusted by Be’s self-serving business ploys, I, like many others, will still admit, Beyoncé/Sasha Fierce is still one of the TOP entertainers of our day, despite the critics. Her work ethic is that of a machine’s. And I don’t think I’m going to be putting down my ‘I Am…Sasha Fierce’ album anytime soon!
I think it’s fine, not blackface (as it’s not an exaggerated, pejorative-for-laughs portrayal of blacks), and not that big of a deal. And true – African women come in all kinds of beautiful shades, but unfortunately, colorism persists and advertisers seem to still place greater value/focus on lighter-skinned women.
For that reason, I think the darkening of her skin was an effort to highlight the persistent nature of beauty beyond simple color (hence the gradient), and I think it’s fine – quite nice, in fact. I understand that a woman doesn’t have to be dark-skinned or have non-Anglo features to be celebrated as an African queen, but…if Charlize Theron (who’s South Africa born and bred) had been chosen for the cover, dressed up, and labeled as such, I expect there would have been some serious blowback.
Meh. This doesn’t bother me. It’s random but here today, forgotten tomorrow.
As they say, All press is good press. Just look at Kanye. This will boost Beyonce into the public’s eye once more.
I’m over the blackface thing. In this context I see it as art not racism. That’s just me though.
Now, if you want a minstrel show…let’s talk Martin and Tylers’ need to portray the fat black woman shucking and jiving mammy images enforcing stereotypes,.
poor Bey…she can’t win.
i think she could win if she would stop playing the fool.
If caucasian women can receive pressure from their peers and/or society (by their own misguided mechanations) either indirectly or directly persuaded that “blondes have more fun” then I don’t expect Beyonce will know any better than Michael Jackson (may his soul rest in peace). This may be a true to heart preference of theirs or a misguided atempt to assimilate into a race that for so long has dominated even our image of god. I cannot judge anyone, I recognize that our perception of beauty is subject to the culture with the most capital/power; consider the influence that China will have as they grow in power and how that will change our perception of beauty unless they too have fetishsized ” the lily white concept”
I actually think its kind of an awesome F*** you to the people saying crap like “beyonce is too white looking”.
also its artsy, maybe its supposed to make people think and reexamine issues surrounding color that are still very much an issue in society
This is foolish. She is not in blackface. She just isn’t. Granted, while I don’t understand why she agreed to it for the simple fact that it just doesn’t suit her and doesn’t seem that appealing this is still not an accurate representation of what we historically know blackface to be. If her face was literally painted with the color black and if they ever threw some white around her lips, then and only then we can talk and address the issue.
That is not the case here. I’m so tired of all of these sensationalized stories about blackface. Even with Will.I.Am’s look some months ago. Was it blackface? No. Did he look a plain mess? Yes.
If they’re going for some sort of artistic angle, that’s their prerogative. Just let it be. There are other, more constructive and pressing areas where we could and should be focusing our energy when it comes to racial matters.
this may not be a typical blackface but it is definitely a jibe, in the name of art, at black people everywhere. i’m sure it’s not lost on the magazine that Beyonce’s image is always catching flack for being made lighter and lighter. i’m sure that if they wanted to represent an African Queen there were many other ways to do without resorting to darkening her face.
I agree Jasmine.
She looks more beautiful with darker skin.
http://www.musicals101.com/News/jolson.jpg
This is not the derogatory “blackface” white and Jewish performers
used. See Al Jolson with and without the blackface.
http://www.musicals101.com/News/jolson.jpg
what is it with the French and Blackface!!!
African Queens come in all shades – even lighter than Beyonce for that matter!
word to the wise – darkening your face doesn’t make you more African. i don’t know where Beyonce’s head was at in this matter but this is an insult to Femi Kuti and all Africans (Diaspora included)
ugh!
I’m going to need Beyonce to stop allowing any company/industry compromise her complexion.