Acting Colorblind

Mainstream beauty standards in the U.S. celebrate white European features, while simultaneously appropriating non-white features through such beauty regimens as lip injections and tanning. The reality of contemporary racism and how it relates to beauty standards is often ignored. Aamito Lagum, a 23-year-old model from Kampala, Uganda walked the runway for J. Mendel, Tadashi Shoji, Ohne Titel, Kanye West’s Yeezy line, and even closed for Zac Posen. Lagum, who won  had a successful New York Fashion Week. Unfortunately, her victorious week ended with some online bullying.

Lagum was viciously attacked via MAC Cosmetic’s Instagram account the week following New York Fashion Week.  Lagum was photographed in profile wearing a purple lipstick from MAC backstage at a Ohne Titel show. Her full lips created a stir on the MAC Instagram feed, with anonymous Internet trolls making racist derogatory remarks about Lagum’s features and others in contrast defending the model.

As first reported by Katherine Roseman (The New York Times), MAC Cosmetic’s branding team contacted Instagram and began flagging for removal of comments that contained racist verbiage. “Our MAC fans are very opinionated, generally speaking, and we encourage that dialogue, but abuse and cruelty are not something we tolerate,” said Karen Buglisi Weiler, the brand’s Global President.

Alexa Adams, one of the designers behind the Ohne Titel also publicly responded to the unfortunate turn of events that transpired after a picture of one her models went viral.

“I think this only affirms the idea that fashion and beauty companies need to stand for a wider and more diverse show of beauty,” states Adams. To show their support Adams and Flora Gill, the designers for Ohne Titel, posted an image of Lagum backstage at their show and it generated more likes than any photo posted onto their account.

Lagum started the hashtag #PrettyLipsPeriod to be an activist for young women of color and any woman who feels as though she looks different.

“It’s an opinionated world we live in, and while they have a right to their own opinion, none of those make a change in who I am, or what those dear to me think about me. So I guess to the emotional trash is where those comments went,” Lagum told Dazzeddigital.com. “I am Aamito, I am black. I am African and sure as the sun, every inch of me is beautiful,” Lagum expresses that self love is key.

Taking a step back it’s mind boggling that an African American model is being called ugly for her natural full lips when there are countless women injecting fillers into their lips because they desire the full lip look. Why is a woman who is not black with full lips considered beautiful and exotic but an African American woman with full lips put down?

Teens and young women want their lips to mirror Jenner’s full lips. Although her lips are not natural and she has admitted to using injections to create a fuller look people praise her full lips. Videos online went viral that showed young teens participating in the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, where young women would suck into a shot glass to plump their lips landing some young women in the hospital. Jenner now has a lipstick line that is unbelievably successful because of all the press her lips have received over the past year.

At first Jenner did receive her fair of criticism but not because she was deemed ugly. The media criticized Jenner because she was only 17 years old when she started injecting her lips with fillers, and she was denying the fact that she was using injections. The media headlines revolved more around a teenager enhancing her features at such a young age not that her large full lips were ugly. She wasn’t called racist derogatory names because she’s a white woman.  It lends to ask the question, are full lips only considered ugly when they are the features of women of color?

As a society we ignore that racism exists, we choose to believe that we are better people today than we were generations ago and that racism is in our past.  Therefore, we also ignore that beauty standards are tied to racist ideologies. If beauty standards exist, then is beauty really subjective? Are we as a people taught what is considered beautiful and what is deemed ugly? Racism may never die but we shouldn’t pretend that it doesn’t exist in the 21^st. century.