Stephen Van Dyck
Visual Language & Culture
1 June 2018
Dark Skin Women In Media : Taking a Stand on Stereotypes Throughout history, dark-skinned women have been stigmatized and misrepresented in mass-media. From advertising, to character representation in TV shows, dark-skinned women are either; misrepresented, getting their skin digitally lightened in photographs, or completely ignored in popular culture. In advertising, dark-skinned women are rarely represented in a campaign, and when they are featured, their skin is almost always lightened during editing to seem more appealing. In many cases, companies hire focus groups to test models and often show a photo of the same model twice but with a slightly different skin color to see which one does best. It seems, consumers and mass media have agreed that light-skin women are more desirable and sell product better than a dark-skinned woman, regardless of ethnicity. This essay will explore and analyze different images in the media to support the argument that dark-skin women are being misrepresented and deemed less desirable. Society sees everything through the eyes of corporate heads and venture …show more content…
“PHOTOS: Is That You Beyonce?” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Jan. 2012,
Phillips, Yoh. “D.R.A.M.'s Videos Are Fun, But Dark-Skinned Women Are Missing From The Party.” DJBooth, DJBooth, 20 Feb. 2017, djbooth.net/features/2017-02-20-dram-music- videos-lacking-darker-women.
Sweney, Mark. “L'Oreal Accused of 'Whitening' Beyoncé Knowles in Cosmetics Ad.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 8 Aug. 2008 www.theguardian.com/media/2008/aug/08/ advertising.usa.
Staff, TMZ. “L'Oreal/Beyonce Whitewash.” TMZ, TMZ.com, 9 Apr. 2010, www.tmz.com/ 2008/08/06/loreal-beyonce-whitewash/.
Li, David K. “O, RÉALLY? L'ORÉAL DENIES WHITEWASHING BEYONCÉ.” New York Post, New York Post, 8 Aug. 2008, nypost.com/2008/08/08/o-really-loreal-denies-