Beauty Politic

At the airport, en route a couple of days back, I found myself with only two pieces of reading material: Elle and Vogue. Believe it or not, I am actually a regular reader of fashion magazines, Vogue in particular…for the fashion photo spreads (some of which can be cool and edgy–such as the one featuring Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo in August 2006, one of my favorites). The artistry and self-expression in fashion is what I find compelling.

But I digress.

The isolation/boredom of being alone in an airport can lead to all sorts of interesting epiphanies. I was flipping through Elle (which, coincidentally, had Rihanna on the cover) and had a thought: let’s say hypothetically, aliens landed on Earth, and through some radical coincidence they got their hands on an internationally syndicated fashion magazine like Elle…and they read it from cover to cover, including fashion spreads and ads. What conclusion would they come to? 1) Everyone on Earth is a Size 0- and 2) We are a globe dominated by white people.

Why? Because almost EVERY single model in those pages would be Caucasian, (and a total twig). OK, you might think, everyone knows that. What I think is more interesting is what that says about what is being marketed to us as beautiful. Beauty is more than what is aesthetically pleasing to the eye (even that is not as objective as you think). Beauty has a whole host of political and cultural meanings: what is valued, what is “good”, what is treasured, desired and admired by men and women alike around the globe. For women especially, it is central to our self-confidence (for good or worse). How many young girls read magazines like Vogue and aspire to be more like the women in its pages?

But say you’re a Brown girl, Black, or any mixed caramel in between.  Say you don’t have those nordic features, that blond straight hair, light skin and light eyes.  YOU are not reflected in those pages…like a big, giant YOU DON’T BELONG sign, you are not beautiful by our standards.  A sprinkle of “exotic” is okay, maybe. But not too much… hence the popularity of mixed race models. And even these are primarily those mixed with white. Again, the history of blatant racism in the modelling industry is no surprise: Tyson Beckford, Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks and others have spoken out about it.

Rather, what I find most disturbing about the almost total absence of people of color from the runways is the global reach of the white-as-beautiful mantra. One can argue that yes, there are local magazines in non-European countries that promote their own ideals of beauty. But I argue that it is definitely not an equal playing field, Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, etc etc have a massive, dominant and widespread audience. And secondly, even “brown/black” oriented women’s mags fall into the trap of promoting Caucasian oriented standards of beauty, light skin/straight hair/colored eyes et cetra.

This is not to say that white women aren’t beautiful. But I will say that for the longest time–and certainly now, they are perceived at the top of the proverbial heap when it comes to beauty. Too be “other”, brown/black/dark was too be uglier, less desired, less MARKETABLE. Even though humankind is infinitely more diverse, extreme, and different than Elle and Vogue would suggest…they simply DON’T reflect the world we live in. And as beauty is the standard by which our society judges women to a large degree, what is considered beautiful affects which women are valued and put up on a pedestal, and which ones are not.

I’ll leave you with this pic, which had me simultaneouly outraged and in stiches. This is Vogue India’s inaugural cover, with two dark, gorgeous indian models/actresses…and a white model plunked in the middle, ’cause you know how light-skinned Europeans totally reflect what the average South Asian female looks like (dripping with sarcasm, of course. ha)

 

WTF?

On (Civilized) Debate

I’m probably preaching to the choir here…but something I gotta get off my chest nevertheless…(excuse the profanity, but Anger is My Motor needs an outlet!)

Where the hell has reasoned, civilized, intellectual political debate gone nowadays? Meaning: why can’t people with differing opinions talk with some measure of decency and common sense? Younger folks and older ones alike…All too often I’ve gotten into a discussion with someone on a hot topic and they blow up and start taking out personal attacks and talking sh*t. And more often than not, they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, either. To me, a good academic, intellectual debate focuses on history, policy, and consideration of all sides. It’s like yo: if I’m criticizing a particular candidate…this is not at attack on YOU. We.are.discussing.public.figures.and.issues. This isn’t even about you! So talking smack about the other person will not help your argument…rather it will END IT!

A good example: I got into an argument with someone a few weeks ago about Obama vs. other candidates in the upcoming election. Anyone acquainted with me knows that I’m an Obama supporter. Not that I don’t find things that I don’t necessarily like, there are no perfect candidates. But in the current election, I’ve begun to really detest Hillary and her race-baiting comments...and McCain is pretty much Bush: the Second Generation. So I think Barack is the man for the job, imperfect as he may be. When I simply suggested that “Hey, how come you don’t support Obama?” (It’s called CANVASSING, people) to this other person, instead of engaging in a lively political debate this person trips out and starts a) Making personal attacks on me/other Obama supporters b)Accusing me of “telling him/her what to think/do”.

Uh, okay…

Obviously, anyone with half a brain/college education should be well versed in intellectual debate. Trying to convince other people to support a particular candidate is what WE DO! If you disagree…it’s totally cool! But don’t start talking smack about individuals…debates are about ideas and issues. When we start making personal attacks we 1) Take the focus off of the issue at hand 2)Devolve the argument into petty bickering 3) Don’t do anything constructive because you’ve effectively ended dialogue by hurting someone’s feelings. All in all, not good.

Also, it also speaks to the fact that young folks in general need to educate themselves about current issues. We have a huge stake in what’s going on around the world, people! The Iraq War: who’s fighting it? 18-30 year olds! Who feels the effects of economic recession/hunger first? Young people! Rising gas prices, increasing tuition, gang violence, you name it…we will be dealing with the aftereffects of what happens NOW in the coming decades. So PLEASE educate your damn selves, so you don’t construct faulty, dumb-sh*t arguments and then start tripping out when someone calls you on it! Have an educated response! BE SMART!

This is not to say passion and anger and what not can’t be good things. Hell, it what motivates me to write to begin with. But that can be channeled into passionate debate and brainstorming, to be used constructively. So that’s our challenge: to speak to our disagreements without hurting the individual, to resolve bigger issues without petty bickering. it’s a tall order folks, but I think there is hope.

Seattle Gets Schooled

Seattle has a dirty little secret.

It’s called Seattle Public Schools (SPS), a.k.a one of the most racially divided and unequal K-12 districts in the entire country. It is divided neatly between a privileged, white North End and a poor, black, immigrant-dominated South End. And the quality of education in the “South End” schools is absolutely deplorable compared to the North.

Not possible in a liberal, tolerant city like Seattle you say? I beg to differ: The “achievement” or “equity” gap, or the gaping gulf between wealthy white students and students of color in Seattle proper has been such a problem that they even created an “Office of Equity” awhile back…and then they promptly disbanded it after its director caused controversy with some inflammatory comments about race. (which I thought was hilarious…isn’t the point of the office to address racial issues?)

How would I know, you ask? Better yet, why do I give a damn about SPS’s problems (other than being a bleeding heart-liberal college student of color who cares about community issues, ha)?

Because I am a proud product of the Seattle Public Schools system circa 2003. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was what the media charmingly calls an inner city school kid (still am, to some extent!) and in addition to that I’ve spent a fair amount of time as a college mentor/tutor in the South End high schools. I can speak to what I’ve seen personally, on the ground and as a student.

Let me break it down for you. It is common knowledge that if you want to get a halfway decent,AP-level, college-preparatory education–hell, if you want to go to college at all–you go to the following high schools: Roosevelt, Nathan Hale, Ballard, Garfield (ONLY if you’re in the “Gifted” program…otherwise you’re screwed). All of these schools, with the notable exception of Garfield, are in the Caucasian dominated North End, a.k.a. North of Downtown Seattle.

Wanna get a substandard education, inexperienced teachers, and almost no access to AP classes and circa-1950 textbooks? How about a lack of quality extracurriculars? Better yet, want a chronically underfunded academic experience? Mosey on down to the minority/immigrant-dominated South End and go to Cleveland, Ranier Beach, West Seattle, Franklin, Garfield High’s bottom floor (NON gifted)…and up until a few years ago, Ingraham HS. I guarantee you’ll probably see a grand total of maybe ten white people (teachers not included). Hell, my high school class had like eight in a class of 200.

So there’s the scene. So what’s the real story? how can we explain that in a government-funded academic system, two students in the SAME DISTRICT–one white, N End, the other minority, S End can have such UNEQUAL access to good education in the good ole “LIBERAL” Seattle? Why does one go to college, and the other not graduate (other than due to personal foibles?)

I went to one of the most privileged, white dominated middle schools in the entire city, and then to a N.End high school school that had lost all its Caucasian students due to white flight and now was dominated entirely by Black, Latino and Asian students fleeing the South End. What can explain the disparity? The answer is pure and simple: protection of white privilege. PTA’s, parents and school administrators catering to Seattle’s wealthy and influential, who don’t give a shit about whether a low-income Somali immigrant child from Ranier has a shot at going to the University of Washington. Money, influence, and connections only flow one way: North. This disparity of privilege and power trickles down to every individual student: it determines connections, education quality, safety, and in many instances: success in graduating.

Case in point: bussing. Seattle used to have a system where students from South Seattle get free transportation to attend a school far from where they live. (and vice versa…but most North end folks here would rather cut off their right arm than go to a S. End school). This was challenged by some disgruntled (white) parents who were appalled at the idea that their kid be–gasp!–denied entrance to Ballard because someone was being bussed in from downtown. And guess what? it was taken all the way to the Supreme Court, and they won (no thanks to Bush’s “Idelogically balanced” court. ha) The result? The maybe 30-50 minority kids who had a crack at getting a good education are denied access. Score one for the privileged folks. Basically it boils down to this: the N.End, white community of Seattle has essentially created its own district-within a district, and they will go any lengths to protect that system.

What’s the solution? I think that bussing needs to be revived for one. Second, rather than spend money on “Conversations on Race” (SPS’s ingenious plan to solve the aforementioned problem) they need to improve access to AP Programs and College-preparatory curriculum, standardized across the board starting from Elementary school. Of course, these are just broad things and there are problems that go much deeper. When you compare SPS to Bellevue Public Schools, next door for example the gap is just astronomical. But SPS provides a case-in-point: that within one school district, with a centralized authority we still see glaring inequalities. Money is a problem, yes, but I argue that bureaucracy–and the perpetuation of white privilege–is even greater.

A Picture is Worth 60 Years

A picture can indeed be worth a thousand words…or in this case: sixty years.

I was reading the Seattle PI’s world news section online, and was browsing though the “The Day in Pictures” section when I came across the photograph above. The caption:

“Palestinian Yamnah Ibrahim Harab, 95, reaches to hold the key of the house which her family left in a village near Tiberias, northern Israel, in 1948, from a relative in the West Bank refugee camp of Kalandia between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Israel is will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state starting Wednesday night, but Palestinians see the founding of the Jewish state as a tragic event which they call it al-Naqba, Arabic for “the catastrophe.”

I was struck by it, not only because it summed up the tragedy of the Palestinian struggle, but the strange, melancholy mixture of hope, sadness, and remembrance that Palestinians–and Muslims around the world living in oppressive condition–feel A woman, representing a collective past, reaches for the key to her home–being given to her by a younger descendant, embodying the future. A key from the tragic past opening the door to a new hope? One state or Two states? Who knows.

In a way, the irony remains that it is a symbol, and not a current reality. The lady in this photo can’t return to her home–if it is still even standing. But perhaps there is value in symbols such as these–and in a larger context, like there is value to every symbolic piece of land that Palestinians–and all those expelled from their native lands–demand to return to. No matter how small, it is a mode of remembrance, a way to commemorate and recognize what was taken away from them.

And that, folks, is the power of political symbolism. As Indian Muslim, every time I look at the Taj Mahal and Jama Masjid in Delhi, or visit my family’s ancestral lands taken away by the Indian government during Partition I feel that connection to my history, and the history of millions of Muslims dispossessed in India and abroad. Like the Palestinian woman above, engaging in remembrance of one’s homeland has a deep symbolic value: It reminds us that a struggle never dies as long as it lives in the hearts and minds of people.

“…It is better to die on your feet…then live on your knees”
-Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Revolution

Welcome, welcome

I would like to inaugurate my all-new blog with these words:

“Live Rightly. Think Rightly. Act Rightly.” -Gandhi-ji

and add my own: “Write rightly”