A New Look for Modeling Agencies
- emilyybonson
- Sep 24, 2022
- 3 min read
By: Emily Bonson
In the modeling business, there can be a lot of controversy. Many agencies have one specific look that they are trying to find. Sometimes that doesn't include people of color. In the workspace African Americans can be discriminated against. African American women are just as beautiful as any other woman are, so why make them feel like they aren't. The modeling business can be hard to navigate and sometimes people can't relate to what they go through. This is when people need to look more into this topic and start to support all women no matter the color of their skin.
This cover of Vogue was important for people to see that anyone can be a model. In the article, British Vogue's Momentous All African Cover Spotlights 9 Young Women Redefining What It Is To Be A Model, by Funmi Fetto, he writes, "And while, in the last decade, the Black model has come to prominence, I love that we are finally giving more space to African beauty." It shows that this last decade has been so crucial to African American models. They have been fighting for this for a while and now they finally are being accepted. They are being treated like any other women in the modeling agencies. All it takes is for one big company to step forward and say something. When that one big company starts a campaign like this it will encourage all the other big modeling agencies and magazines to recognize how important it is to stand up for African Americans. The power of social media is that the word gets spread, this campaign made people want to start getting these African American models before anyone else can get their hands on them. In the article, by Funmi Fetto, he goes to say that this campaign is a good start but is still not enough to get people to realize the point of it all.
Picture of Funmi Fetto, from Vogue
African American models have been treated differently on set. In the article, Black Models Are Coming Forward Against Racism in Fashion, by Taylor Champlin, she references Joan Smalls, an Afro-Latinx model, about her experiences. The model posted a video on instagram talking about her experiences that she has had on set. Champlin says, "she would be excluded from certain opportunities due to her race and even for her hair while being described as "too difficult to work with." This shows that the people who are in charge don't think about the diversity of the people they are hiring. If the can't accommodate all models, why hire them then when they can be treated a lot better at a different agency. It is good for these models to speak out about their experiences because you are getting the story first hand, right from them. Models need to join together to make sure that all models are treated equally and can be accommodated for their needs, no matter if they have a different kind of hair or a different skin tone.
A video on the Vogue cover controversy, posted by I Am Eloho
Now in 2022, African American models are finally getting the recognition that they finally deserve. They are starting to get treated better and are being well accommodated. It has been rough for the past couple of decades, but it is really amazing to see how they have stayed through it all and now have made names for themselves. They didn't give up even if they felt like they wanted to. Modeling companies are now beginning to have multiple faces for their agencies. They have all types of races and colors, not to mention different body types. It is so great to see people come together to support one another, to make sure that everyone is given an equal chance at whatever they decide to do. It is good that there was controversy because if this never was brought to the surface then who knows how these African American women would have been treated. If they would have been given the day of time or if they would have ever been accommodated. This is just the start to all of this, there could be so much more under the surface that us outsiders don't know about. We need to make sure that modeling agencies don't start to go back to their old ways. We need to empower every female, even if it starts by empowering one race at a time.
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