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| Cover photo of the February issue of’Vogue’, a fashion magazine featuring US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (Captured on Vogue Twitter account) |
The photograph on the cover of the fashion magazine’Vogue’ featuring the image of US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was caught up in controversy over’whitewashing’.
Whitewashing refers to the behavior of casting as white actors even for non-white characters in the movie, which is a suspicion that Vogue adjusted the skin color of Harris-elect, who opened the era of the first black vice president of the United States, to white.
According to the British Daily Guardian and others on the 10th (local time), Vogue posted a photo of the cover of the February issue, featuring Vice President-elect Harris, on Twitter. In the photo, Harris-Elect is standing in a black suit and Converse sneakers against a green wallpaper with pink curtains.
Among netizens, it is pointed out that Vogue has artificially adjusted the skin of Harris-elect to make it brighter.
One Twitter user said, “Harris has the brightest skin color among black women, but Vogue turned the light into a’bad version.'”
New York Times (NYT) contributor Wajahat Ali criticized the photo as “completely ruined,” saying “Ana Wintour (the editor-in-chief of Vogue) really doesn’t have black friends or colleagues.”
He pointed out a Samsung-branded mobile phone and said, “I’m 100% sure that it will be better than this cover even if I don’t get paid and even take a picture with my Samsung smartphone.”
Some people point out that the photography itself is below the standard, even aside from the whitewashing controversy. The overall background of Harris-elect’s clothes and photographs is awkward.
“The picture is far below Vogue’s standards,” said Charlotte Klimer, a LGBT activist, on Twitter, saying, “I don’t think I’ve gone through enough deliberation as if I finished my homework the morning of the deadline.”
Vogue dismissed that it had not corrected Harris’s skin tone to make it brighter.
However, Harris-elect’s side told the Associated Press that the photo that Vogue had originally agreed to put on the cover was changed without consultation.
On this day, Vogue also revealed a photo of Harris-elect, who wore a sky blue suit in front of the gold curtain, and that it was originally supposed to be the cover, Harris-elect said.
They explained that they knew that the cover photo had changed only after seeing Vogue’s Twitter post.
When Harris is inaugurated on the 20th, he will become the first woman, black, or South Asian vice president in the United States. ()
