Damn that shit pisses me off. Now, I'm guessing it's an ad for hair colour but her goddam skin tone is changed SO MUCH.

It does my head in looking at famous African Americans and how bloody none of them seem to have black hair any more. WTF? Apart from the awful social implications it doesn't even look good on most people! But it works.

I used to find Jessica Alba incredibly hot in Dark Angel. Wee bit of muscle, sexy dark hair. You'll notice since she went blonde and even more waif-ish that she's got bigger budget parts. Depressing

Oh my god. You mean Beyonce's been black...the whole time? Why didn't they just hire a white model if that's what they wanted?

Yeah, I'm really not seeing it. I mean, I don't like that the darker you are, the less society sees you as beautiful, and I get that Beyonce is a stark reminder of the fact that if you're black, the only way you're going to get into the business is if you're lighter.

But I'm sort of a medium on the skin tone chart, and I can look really black or really light depending on what kind of lighting I'm in. And you don't even know what seasons that picture was taken in, she could have tanned or lightened naturally.

I really don't think they went back and photoshopped it, except for airbrushing like they usually do.

and by really light, I didn't mean pale white, I just meant like...a slightly tan white person.

and by really black, I didn't mean actually black, just sort of like milk chocolate.

sorry, the calibration of colors to description that I grew up with was kind of different. I guess I have to tweak it a bit.

And Loreal is claiming that they didn't touch up her skin color or features.

Right... /sarcasm

The major problem I have with the link is that it doesn't say when the first picture was taken. Would be helpful to establish perspective, time, etc.

At any rate, do I think they lightened her? Possibly. Is it relevant if they did? Absolutely.

Her hair, skin, and eyebrows are a completely different color!!!

But then, I guess they had to lighten her skin so that the weird, fake haircolor wouldn't look terrible. Eck!

Yikes! Why mess with perfection? She looks much better on the left.

I'm always shocked when TMZ and Feministing converge...makes me feel a little bit better about reading that drivel. Yeah, it is bullshit and although some of the difference can probably be explained due to the bright lightening used on the photoshoot and time of year (winter for the ad, summer in the one on the left). I think Beyonce was blonde for a while as well. But I think it's no coincidence how very light she looks in the ad.

So this hair product bleaches your entire body?

i'm not surprised they did this to beyonce-they figured she would'nt say anything about it.

i must admit i have had a particular dislike of beyonce because she reeks of desperation from saying in a young girls magazine of how she only eats half a tomato a day to saying she wouldn't let her daughter become a singer because she would'nt be able to find a man (because, apparently-thats the whole reason for women existing).

beyonce always appeared to me to chase the "patriarchal head pat" (to steal a phrase from this site), so i would be surprised if she complains about this ad. skin lightening is a dangerous practise-i only hope her young fans don't aspire to this impossible photoshopped ideal.

Her skin matches her freaking hair. It's like they primed her and painted her gold.

And they definitely messed with her nose as well. The angle makes it kind of a moot point as to whether they would've narrowed it, but it's longer and pointier as opposed to flat. Even her eyes don't look the same shape, though that could be because she's not smiling as much.

If it weren't for her facial structure (and the common knowledge that Beyonce is black), I'd swear that she's white. So, yes, obviously there's an issue.

I did a quickie color comparison in Photoshop, and it is all over brighter in the haircolor pic, but only slightly when it comes to skin and eye color. It's the hair color that's actually making it look far more extreme. It's kind of funny, but even my pale self looks even paler the blonder I get. You'd think it'd be the other way 'round.
So, this is 1/2 picture brightening, and 1/2 hair creating an illusion of lightness.
I don't really see that big of a difference in features, either. Except that in the "after" pic, she has fuller looking lips.
She looks like she's glowing gold....

Hate this shit. And to everyone who thinks it's "just a photoshop technique"--does it really matter that you can set up some kind of comparison and show that her skin by itself wasn't changed much, when the overall effect is so clearly to give a different racial impression? I don't buy for a second that it's an innocent use of a technique- especially when there are documented cases of darkening people's skin to present them in a negative way (O.J. Simpson).

Perhaps the image isn't meant to give an impression of a different ethnicity, but more to give an impression of an unrealistic golden aura to make Feria's unrealistic hair colors more appealing? (I've only seen golden white girls in James Bond movies, myself).
It's not a realistic picture, in general, especially the color palette.

It doesn't even look like her. And honestly, the fact that her skin looks whiter just underscores the whole "Impossibly Beautiful" phenomenon that Shakesville blogs about with semi-frequency.

To be fair, it is easier to even out a person's skin tone by lightening it overall. But it is not the only way. There is still no excuse for all the photoshop alterations though...

Beyonce always kept pretty light colored hair. She rarely keeps her hair dark, and you have no idea when those pictures were taken. My skin tone looks different on different seasons, why is beyonce any different?

As a graphic design artist and photog, it doesn't look to me as if she was "Photoshopped" or "whitened." It seems more like a combination of changes in lighting, camera exposure, and possibly seasonality.

Nevertheless, this ad does send the wrong message. They should have taken care to not make it look like she was "whitened."

Apparently, beauty is synonymous with "whiter."

This is kind of off-topic, but they certainly think so in Asia. And they find it truly bizarre that people in the West intentionally tan. They sell "skin whitening" products in the 7-11's in Thailand.

In the photo on the right, her hair is the same colour as mine, and I'm of Anglo-Celtic origin with pale skin and light hazel eyes! In order for the hair colour to look believable, they had to lighten her skin, because black skin and strawberry blonde hair just don't look natural together. I would question whether it's a wig anyway because there is no visible natural parting of her hair, unlike on the left. But they've gone beyond changing her hair and skin - her whole facial structure looks different. She looks infinitely better in the photo on the left, except that she's straighted her hair to within an inch of its life. This ad is sending out the same old message to women of colour that the more you look like a white woman, the more attractive you are. Beyonce is a prime example of this, and it is a shame that someone as successful as she is feels it necessary to participate in an ad campaign which tells women of her own race that they would look better with lighter hair and skin. But I guess it worked for her, and it just perpetuates the message, while bringing in the dollars for L'Oreal.

I did a quickie color comparison in Photoshop, and it is all over brighter in the haircolor pic, but only slightly when it comes to skin and eye color.

really? i just pulled the photo into photoshop out of curiosity and, well, the skin is significantly brighter on the right (check out body skin to avoid some of the burnout from lighting, though the face is brighter on the right, too). the hair is tons brighter on the right (duh). the eyes, though, are darker on the right. clothes and background are irrelevant, though i'm sure the darker background on the right was used to accent her lightness.

at any rate, are you guys familiar with other pics of beyoncé? she definitely has been, at turns, darker and lighter than the picture on the left, but the picture on the right is quite anomalous.

for what it's worth.

yeah, also, most color correction increases the contrast on a photo, which means to lighten the lighter parts. and the photos were clearly taken quite some time apart; however, i've had a hard time finding a lighter picture than the l'oréal one.

Apparently, beauty is synonymous with "whiter."

Well... yah!

Didn't you know?!

Beyonce dyes her hair blonde, gets it relaxed etc., like loads of black women. So that's not their fault with regards to the actual hair.

The skintone... I dunno. I can't tell if it's just the lighting or not.

Beyonce looks drastically different in this light http://dailyblabber.ivillage.com/entertainment/archives/Grammys_Beyonce.jpg

than this one http://www.product-reviews.net/wp-content/userimages/2007/07/beyonce-louis-vuitton-tribute-patchwork1.jpg

Yes, the hair color can make the skin colour appear darker or lighter. When I dye my blonde hair brown my skin appears darker, too.

Time of the year might have something to do with it. Lighting will most certainly make a difference. All these things can have produced that picture with no photo-shopping necessary.

Heck, my pale white self once looked all Navajo coloured in a photo due to lighting. You'd never have guessed I was white. And that photo definitely wasn't photo-shopped in any way.

The irony is that large numbers of white women in the entertainment industry use fake tan. Seems like you can be too white, as well. The beauty industry leaves no stone unturned in making us women feel something's wrong with the way we were born looking...

This whole conversation reminded me of a particular songs performed by a wonderful and confident lady:

For those who are interested, check out India Aire, especially the songs "I Am Not my Hair" and "Video". Her work is so inspiring.

I'm not sure...She certainly looks lighter, but that possibly could be the lighting by itself. Ironically, she as a teenager was criticised by the other girls in her school for being too light coloured. It's one of the few pieces of info I know about her.

@JemimaAsian
The irony is that large numbers of white women in the entertainment industry use fake tan. Seems like you can be too white, as well.

This is hardly the same thing...Being too white does not remove white privilege from a body. This image is all about erasing beyoncee as a black woman because WOC, specifically black women are seen as the ultimate anti-woman. When I posted about this one of the things I point out is that white as beautiful is maintained by creating black as ugly or unattractive. It is a binary. White women are forever held up as the symbol of beauty while bodies of color are worshiping her..this can obviously be seen in the recent top model shot for Britain. It is startling reminder of just how colonized bodies of color still are in western societies.. Kiplings legacy lives on.

renee,

or vivienne westwood's appeal for editors to use more models of color... and then how she chose to portray those very models:

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/02/28/new-vivienne-westwood-ads-feature-black-model-but-with-what-message/

@pucklash..those images are disgusting and reflect exactly what I was pointing out about colonized bodies.

hmmm, i'm not sure, either if her skin was lightened. photo on the right seems to be higher contrast in order to make her teeth look almost unnaturally sparkly white. in that photo, some of the shiny spots on her face are just as light as in the right-hand photo. right-hand photo is much lower contrast so that the hairdye wouldn't look as goofy.

i'm not sure, either, if this is a black-is-ugly issue either. i see it more of a natural vs. unnatural divide. feria and other makeup brands (urban decay, smashbox, etc) have always been marketed as the more "dramatic, edgy" makeup/hairdye lines, so to me, this ad is specifically trying to show how dramatically different one can look with this product. black women, asian women, and a couple of white "punk-rock" ish-looking women are also on the feria boxes, so i'm not convinced that this is racism at play....for a contrast, see the advertising for natural match hairdye, which featured penelope cruz, and specifically targets people who want a more realistic hair color. so i'll be slower than some here to call them racist.

sorry, i can't get too bent out of shape with the WOC-in-fashion issues, as the fashion industry is already so disgustingly oriented toward extreme wealth and skinniness that i think those sort of privileges far supercede racial divides in that industry. it's hard for me to get too worked up when an industry that by its very nature sells fantasy is, well, fantastical.

sorry, i meant to say that the photo on the LEFT is higher contrast to show off beyonce's freakishly sparkly teeth.

I can't stand stuff like this. I have always felt beauty was darker to me, thats just being Native I guess and I love it!

It really does not look like her in the picture in which they make everything on her lighter.

Photographers are very specific with lighting; it’s one of the most important parts of professional photography. So, while lighting accidentally makes your skin tone lighter or darker in your home candid photos, all the lighting on professional shoots is completely thought out ahead of time and constantly adjusted during the shoot. If the lighter skin tone can be attributed to the lighting during the shoot, you can bet it was intentional.

This was no mistake or accident. Everything done in the fashion/beauty industry, hell in marketing/advertising in general, is deliberate and planned. Especially large companies like L’Oreal.

Bey is prettier in the undoctored picture. Thats my girl right there. I love her and Jay.

re Renee: Posting actually by AliCat, "seems like you can be too white as well"

In making my post I was in no way denying that the fake tan does not remove or take away the advantage having a white skin gives a woman. I was merely pointing out that the beauty industry thrives on the insecurities of ALL women, in making us believe that using their products will make us more attractive, desirable, younger, sexier, etc, etc. Are people aware that L'Oreal has, for a while, been the proud owner of "The Body Shop", a company which started out as a offering a real alternative, priding itself on sourcing ethically produced ingredients and supporting the communities producing them, particularly women? The "Dove" brand which preaches to us women to love ourselves the way we are, is owned by Unilever, which advertises other cosmetic products using the same old stereotypical hype. Even when supposedly offering us alternatives, we end up being taken for a ride - the seemingly "aware" messages linked to these brands are just clever advertising ploys with the same aim - to extract money from our pockets into theirs by whatever means they can.

AliCat,

Yeah, that's why folks need to get more ish from Carol's Daughter. BROOKLYN, BABY!!!!!!

To repeat what "whatsername" said so well on August 8, 2008 1:26 AM:

"Well... yah!
Didn't you know?!"

I mean seriously. Look at the Latino culture. They are a naturally a dark people. But after influence of Spaniards and Western America telling them that true beauty was lighter skin and lighter, straighter hair, now Latin America suffers from "colorism.” Since they're the same race, Latinos divide themselves based on skin tone/color.

Is it wrong what makeup companies (etc.) are "changing the race" of their models/actors? Eh. What's the difference in lightening up Beyonce to using only White models/actors to promote your stuff? In the end, it's business ($). They want to sell stuff, and to sell stuff to a society, you have to make the people that make up (ha!) that society identify with what you are promoting. To do that, you use what they are comfortable with/or what they want to be.

Do I wish it were otherwise? Who doesn't?
Do I find it annoying? “Well…yah!”

ShifterCat said:

"So this hair product bleaches your entire body?"

LOL!

& SailorROX I also love India Aire

It makes me so sad that Black & Hispanic actresses have to try so hard to balance themselves between being "too ethnic" (that term always makes my skin crawl. I mean, aren't we all "ethnic"?) and being "too White". Why can't they just have the hair and skin they were born with? Would people like them less?

I went into a Duane Reade the other day and was really grossed out that they had an aisle called "Ethnic Hair Care". That means that all other hair care products are for White people? Why can't you put them all together? I'm sure everyone will still find what they're looking for, right?

I remember an interview with Cosby Show start Tempest Bledsoe, where she said that she doesn't get a lot of work because she refuses to straighten her hair. I say good for her, but sucks that she can't get gigs unless she agrees to "Whiten up". (P.S. Not to say that straighten your hair is necessarily an attempt to look "Whiter" but in this specific case that's what her agent was asking of her.)