Lighten Up

Radar magazine online is questioning Beyonce's blackness on the November cover of Vanity Fair. I thought it was cool that she was on the cover and almost bought the magazine. But my magazine budget is getting out of hand so I had to walk away. I actually thought it was interesting that she's the cover girl for a "Hip Hop Kings & Queens" issue, but the pickings are kinda slim these days. Anywho, now that I read this story in Radar, which says that Beyonce's skin was lightened by Vanity Fair, I kinda get it. She's probably the most "acceptable" face associated with hip hop. Although I'm not sure why her complexion would be an issue for Vanity Fair. I mean, it's not like they've never had a black woman on the cover before. There was Tina Turner in 1993. She's clearly shot under white lights against a white background and VF says that the picture was not manipulated in any way, but you decide.

If the pictures aren't enough, there's an inside source at Vanity Fair telling Radar that Beyonce's image was definitely manipulated, so much so that her cover image clashed with images of her inside the magazine. So the art department had to lighten the images of on the inside too... The source says, "All the photos of Beyonce had been made so white that Jay-Z literally looked like [Sudanese supermodel] Alek Wek standing next to her, so then he had to be lightened up, too."” Crazy, I say! Hardly a scandle in these days of Photoshop, but it shows that black is still not beautiful in some segments of society.