On Beauty: Rihanna Covers Vogue Paris

Source:  Vogue Paris

On Beauty: Vogue magazine misses the mark

Photo courtesy of vogue.com

I have loved Vogue Magazine for what seems like forever.  Even after they bowed down to how social media influences consumerism by featuring Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover. Even as they constantly shove Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid down our collective throats.  I will probably still go on loving the magazine because of the history and the fact that they mostly get it right, even though Teen Vogue is way more on the cutting edge when it comes to social and political commentary.

It is the March 2017 issue, celebrating the magazine's 125th anniversary, that is the most recent blemish on my beloved magazine.  The magazine's Instagram post promoting the issue states that Vogue is "celebrating the modern American woman."

I say, 'bish where?'

Kendall and Gigi are, of course front and center; there are two light-skinned black models, Imaan Hammam and  Adwoa Aboah, whom I love; and Ashley Graham is the token "plus size" model, while the rest of the women are basically the same size - tall, long-limbed and slender.  They are all in matching black turtlenecks and shorts that basically highlight their body similarities.

Vogue had the opportunity to truly reflect what the modern American woman actually looks like, especially in this dangerous climate where "diversity," "womanhood," and "feminism" are being attacked daily.  But it dropped the ball.

Where is the hijab wearing American Muslim woman?  Where is the dark-skinned black woman?  Where is the Latina woman? 

I get it, there are modern women who look like these seven women, but I feel as though a few women could have been added to show the true diversity of the American woman.

On Beauty: A Young Harriet Tubman

Photo courtesy of Swann Galleries

When I first saw this newly discovered photo of a 40 something Harriet Tubman, tears sprang to my eyes.  As a black woman, the photo held a particular resonance for me. 

Tubman is casually seated, with her arm resting on the back of a chair, wearing a dark shirtwaist and light patterned skirt, her hair neatly parted down the middle and drawn back in a style popular during the 1800s. 

She wears the face of defiance, pride, strength, and resilience, but there is an unmistakable beauty to this image, that despite everything that her oppressors threw at her, she was HERE. 

The photo shows Tubman closer to the age that she would have been when she led enslaved families and friends north to freedom on the Underground Railroad, and served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army during the American Civil War.

The photo is said to have probably been taken when Tubman was living in Auburn, New York where she had purchased land from then Senator William H. Seward.  The photo comes from an album owned by abolitionist Emily Howland, friend of Tubman and source of the iconic photo of the freedom fighter in a black gown standing next to a rocking chair.

The photo goes up for auction March 30 by New York City auction house Swann Galleries.

Michelle Obama for US Vogue, December 2016

On the cover of it's December 2016 issue, Vogue magazine calls Michelle Obama "the First Lady the world fell in love with," and that's no lie.  Michelle Obama has caused a stir from the moment she took center stage on election night in 2008, next to President Barack Obama and her girls, Malia and Sasha.  She was poised, confident, radiant.  She broke barriers by baring her arms in her official portrait, causing controversy and admiration for our physically fit First Lady.

Over the past eight years, she has embodied her phrase, "when they go low, we go high," by taking on each challenge and criticism with extreme class and determination.

Michelle is the entire package - smart, compassionate, strong, wise, kind, with an amazing sense of humor and self-assurance that many First Ladies never accomplish under the shadow of the "Leader of the Free World."

It was wonderful to follow the causes she has championed, to eagerly await her sartorial choices, and to simply bask in her Black Girl Magic.  She will be greatly missed as First Lady of the United States, but I am looking forward, with much anticipation, to what's next for her.

Whatever it is, I know the world will continue to follow and love her with all the devotion as when she was our First Lady.