Why Vogue India Choosing Kendall Jenner For Its May Cover Is Problematic

Brown girls, brown girls everywhere — but not one good enough for covergirl?

For years Vogue has been the go-to fashion magazine of Biblical levels. It has, intentionally or unintentionally, set the standard of fashion, ‘chic’, beauty and beyond. It seems Vogue India is carrying on this legacy with their May 2017 cover, except this time completely missing the mark. Because attention spans are shifty, let’s clarify right from the get go that the issue has less to do with singling out one publication, and more to do with the media industry at large. Not to mention the impact they have on society. Vogue India might be the name of the hour, but it is the industry as a whole that continues to be at fault, perpetuating the erroneous notion that white skin is somehow more desirable than darker complexions so much so that despite having a plethora of talented south Asians to choose from, once again, we’re presented with a skinny, Caucasian model.

To the magazine, our questions is simple—why Kendall? Where’s the connect? In their response to the backlash, their reasoning was direct if not fully thought out. They wanted an international personality—a perfectly acceptable want in this age of globalisation—but their options were not limited to somebody who has absolutely no connection to the country either via achievements or interest. Even as purely a business decision, catering to a strict audience, Kendall still doesn’t make the cut when you think of it in terms of business stratergy. A young, privileged supermodel of the Instagram era, belonging to a family that’s famous for being famous has zero relevance and offers little-to-absolutely nothing that is appealing to the Indian market.

More importantly though, today, we have numerous individuals of the south Asian diaspora that are breaking stereotypes and truly representing a multicultural, globalised world of acceptance in the West. Be it Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, Priyanka Chopra or Riz Ahmed, your choices are plenty. If you truly want to be ‘Indian, yet international,’ look no further than Lily Singh, Mindy Kaling and Deepika Padukone who have the world fawning over them. Look at other industries, celebrate people who have spoken up, done something new and different; people who have made it ‘okay to be different’ in society. Why not Sonam and Rhea Kapoor, in the context of the fashion world, or Masaba Gupta? Or even Dutee Chand or Dipa Karmakar for that matter. These are people who’ve worked hard to shatter the glass ceiling and truly deserve to be on the cover of magazines.

The Indian reality is that of being judged by your skin tone, for both women and men, and it is so systemically ingrained in our psyches from an early age that even the most educated and richest of the lot fall prey to prejudice. In a country where things from marriage to empowerment and job opportunities can be determined by your ‘brownness’ and, well, physical appeal, powerhouse publications media outlets should be pushing for diversity, should be, for lack of a better world, glorifying darkness, splashing it across their ‘collector’s edition’ making brown skin the new norm. So many young girls and boys grow up looking at such magazine, dreaming of one day being on its pages and glossy covers, or believing they aren’t good enough because they’re never represented in a realistic way. ‘Dream big’ is being replaced with ‘dream white,’ and we, as the media, have the responsibility to change this narrative. It is important for us to represent diversity — of skin colour, bodies, features and faces. When every the presence of Facebook and Whatsapp exists in every corner of this country, and the world, the need for representation exists today more than ever, and we often forget the kind of impact digital media can have.

Shouldn’t we not be celebrating European standards of beauty, ones that have left deep scars on a colonised nation still struggling to shed the hangover?

The point is when a publication’s masthead is meant to be a dedication to highlighting desi talent, it raises one’s hopes that real women, from all aspects of life, race and ethnicities, will be become a part of the mainstream and not the fall back into the marginalised. Of course, there has been put forth a counter argument — if we celebrate Indians making it onto international magazines, why can’t international personalities adorn Indian covers? Why is it even a big deal, it’s just a magazine cover? What it is, is another opportunity where south Asian, in fact any women of colour could be celebrated, but have instead been sidelined, yet again, for the ‘ideal beauty.’ It is a big deal because we are a new digital generation — one of diversity, inclusivity, dialogue and a far-reaching impact. It is at a time like this, today, where such a move is just plain irresponsible.

Many will find this stance hyper-sensitive. But when you grow up in a country that pelts you with fairness cream ads until you break, there is an obvious chip on people’s shoulders. More than that, there is an obvious desire driving young, confident women to defy the set societal standards of what beauty is supposed to be, and it’s not too much to expect open-minded, forward media outlets to promote the same.

Below, we’re posting a short post our friends over at Kajal Magazine wrote about the same too.

Vogue India decided to put Kendall Jenner on the cover of their last issue and people are NOT having it. For many, it would have been more valuable to see actual Indians on the cover — especially Indians that aren’t represented by mainstream media like Vogue.

This is especially surprising given that Kendall’s been pretty problematic about Indian culture in the past.

Kendall has been in the headlines a lot recently. From the Pepsi ad to this, now, she is usually let off the hook by media for the problematic ways she’s complicit in the actions of companies like Vogue and Pepsi. People on Twitter, however, are less forgiving.

The shoot was a collaboration between Vogue India and Mario Testino, a fashion photographer. It signifies a deeper problem with Vogue India, a magazine that has previously done problematic pieces on the exploitation of labor in India by clothing companies abroad.

The magazine has also culturally appropriated Native American attire in their photoshoot with Alia Bhatt & Sidharth Malhotra for their March 2016 issue.

When will the whitewashing end.

Introduction by Sara Hussain.