Wondering
By Brandon Astor Jones
The GLW article entitled "Whose magazines?" (June 1) caught my eye. Kath Gelber, author of the "... and ain't i a woman?" column made some poignant comments on these magazines directed at women.
Some of the women's magazines mentioned such as Woman's Day, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Elle are international in form and content. I have been a subscriber to Elle for years. Yes, I am intrigued and very interested in women's issues, fashions and trends. As a heterosexual man I do not feel it is my place to contest any of the issues Gelber has raised, but I do want to provide a perspective she did not present in her article.
Gelber said, "The women's movement has always had on its agenda the creation of new forms of media, by and for women; media which tell real stories of real struggles and which aim to go beyond the establishment stereotypes; media in which we create our own images and tell our own stories. The 'women's' magazine market goes nowhere near being able to do this".
Basically I agree with her. However, I must ask that henceforth she separate Elle magazine. It's not at all stereotypical. The reason I make that distinction is because out of more than a dozen of the magazines she mentioned, Elle is the only one that repeatedly features women of colour as models and frequently as contributing columnists on its pages.
When you consider that a full 70% of the world's population consists of people of colour, the self-serving promotion of beauty, intelligence, fashion and associated trends as the exclusive domain of European women is an overt insult to nearly three quarters of the women of the world. Alas, all the so-called "women's magazines" Gelber refers to in her article, with the exception of Elle, perpetuate that global insult.
Let me clarify and qualify that. In what to me comes off as throwing a token bone to people of colour, some of the magazines mentioned limit their presentations of such people to a certain type.
It seems that, more often than not, they search high and low for women of colour whose mulatto facial and skin features covertly promote European beauty concepts. Conversely, Elle roundly promotes beauty in African, Asian and European characteristics though not necessarily always in that order. The obvious result is a more realistic and honest presentation of the world's people.
I have beautiful grand-daughters and most of them have lovely dark skin. But if one of them ever aspires to be a model, her aspirations would probably quickly fade away if any encouragement had to be found in most of those other magazines mentioned. Women of colour who look like them are rarely, if ever, featured or presented in any appreciable form therein. Indeed, two of the magazines mentioned do not even feature women of colour in their make-up ads.
I have no doubt that what Gelber said about Murdoch and Packer controlling the women's magazine market in Australia is true. Of course, GLW readers do not need me to remind them of how widespread racism is in the print media. Knowing racism as many of us do, with much sadness I would wager that not a single one of us can begin to imagine the pain a young Aboriginal girl, aspiring to be a professional model, must feel when she peruses the pages of those other magazines. Surely she will wonder, "where and when will I fit in?"
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]