Search Style Sheets: Your Photos, Your Looks

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• Esther_kuijpers

  Pfffff why bother?! It’s just some paint.

• Artondekz

  whats wrong with beyonce painting her face darker and paying homage to her roots. she wasnt trying to mock black people like white people was doing only a few years ago. im glad she did it for the simple fact it makes ignorant people uncomfortable. Fela Kuti is dope, Sofia Maldonado is dope for painting his wives and beyonce is dope for bringing that to pop culture. white america wouldnt even know who he was if it wasnt for her. thanks B.
  ART ON DEKZ.

• naomi

  On one hand media blew this one out of proportion, since its only a photo shoot. On the other hand, they are right in saying that this photo shoot is just another caricature of an african person. The tribal face paint(they are evident in all ethnicities, not just in africa). The animal print clothes,supposedly that’s what africans wore, its so in the past, basically they kill the animal and wear it. Clothing styles of different cultures evolve, african fashion is not only animal prints, everyone wears it. Beyonce is african-american and she has her own skin color, i don’t see the reason why she has to have her face blackened. Its not completely paying tribute to her african roots as such, its just a photo shoot being inspired by face painting in a general sense. Photographers use these kind of inspirations, but its not about african queen/king, certain rituals blah blah blah. Its only face painting and its a poor representation of african culture.

• Empress Nefertina

  It was ignorant and racist considering French colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean. It was insensitive to the fact that Europeans put a South African woman by the name of Sara Baartman on display in the 1800′s and kept her body parts after her death until President Nelson Mandela demanded their return these many years later.
  http://blackhistorypages.net/pages/sbaartman.php
  Beyonce is nothing but a modern day hottentot venus and she is too stupid to know that. And because history isn’t taught wholistically or truthfully, most people today are too stupid to know how wrong this ‘blackface’ is. I mean look up the history of minstrelsy in the U.S. for pity sake!!! SMH!!!
  @ Artondekz, if it takes something as stupid and racist as this to introduce you to a internationally known musician and human rights activist like Fela Kuti, well I’ll just let that speak for itself… People like you are the reason ‘reality t.v.
  is such a hit… LOL!!!
  Last but not least, in Africa the face paint most commonly used is ‘WHITE’ not black so the magazine is telling a lie, there are no groups in Africa who darken their skin, I mean duh why would they need to??? This was NOT paying homage to her heritage, it was INSULTING her heritage and helping others to do so as well. Only the ignorant and racist would see this as homage!!! Beyonce should spend some of that money and get herself educated because she keeps doing and saying things which prove what an idiot she is… SMH twice!!!

• 2kishia

  @ EN- I hear and respect everything that you’re saying and you make some valid points, but think about this…How much more ‘drama’ would she have gotten had she painted her face white instead? We all know how society reacted to Michael Jackson’s ‘skin lightening’. Why would she be treated any differently? She’d be referred to as a ‘sell-out’ or as being ‘color-struck’. How about if a white person had adorn the ‘blackface’? Then, they’d be called a racist and all hell would have broken loose in societies high and low. Beyonce, nor any other celeb will ever please EVERYONE. Truth be told, I don’t think that this event will affect her album sales or fan pool to a point that she would financially notice at all.

• Mljmhstennis

  She’s black regardless. What does it matter if she paint’s her face darker, she’s still black! Now it would be something else if she wasn’t and she did.

• guest

  this is ridiculous. beyonce would not pose as a ‘caricature’ of her own people. why go so far as to call it ‘blackface’ at all?! aren’t we past that ? maybe its just MAKEUP to make her look STUNNING. which she did, in every shot. people are obsessed with the exotic, and that does not only extend to african cultures. janet jackson loved to put asian influences in her looks and videos etc, and no one called her a racist for that. Whenever blackface comes up in the news as controversial and racist, as showing quote un-quote “one idea of what african people look like”, i always feel for those people that ACTUALLY DO HAVE THAT SKIN TONE. how must they feel that everytime someone tries to look a little similar to them in fashion and the media, it gets attacked as a racist caricature. people make their skin lighter all the time with makeup, black and white, and theres no racial term for that! and SECOND of all, if you watch the dang video of the behind the scenes in the l’officiel photoshoot, the people behind the entire concept of the photoshoot are VERY dark skinned themselves, saying that the shoot was to pay tribute to the african queens. its not some racist french white person putting blackface on a model. there are skin tones of all shades in Africa, and beyonce was representing that in an exotic and fashionable way. and furthermore, she would have been attacked for this anyways as she gets attacked by the media and people every day for being “too light skinned.” the girl can’t win.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naxB6zvguvM

• Empress Nefertina

  @2Kishia, you may have heard what I said but you didn’t understand what I said. So I will try one more time. They made a mistake with this photo shoot, but instead of apologizing and owning up to their error, they lied and said it was tribal face paint. I said they use white like chalk face paint in Africa and that is not bleaching or lightening creme like Michael Jackson. If they wanted to represent African tribal face paint, then they should have contacted someone from a specific African ethnic group and asked for assistance so they could be accurate instead of racist, that way no one could criticize her or them. Because of the nature of racism and the way it seeks to cover itself with ignorance, far too many people can shrug their shoulders and say ‘well what’s the big deal?’ If people would educate themselves and face their own inner racist maybe they would know that this was wrong, insulting and just continues a long colonial history of French racism against Africans. And to the person mentioning records sells who cares about her fans, most of these celebrities are paper mache anyway who sell to a dumbed down audience so what does that have to do with the price of tea in China or this subject which is not about her record sells? Some of you people really prove money is not only the root of all evil but alot of stupidity too. ‘Blackface’ is wrong and racist no matter the color of the person doing it!!! Turn off the idiot box and pick up a book and stop reading so many of these trash magazines sometimes… sheesh!!! No wonder the rich keep getting richer, they can count on the stupidity of the masses to keep them that way… smh

• Shabainbox

  Its not about what colour pain she used, It about paying respect. To pay respect you don’t have to do things the exact way. Relax a black woman tried to pay respect to an African musician, she may not have done it the way you would like but we all know she had hood intentions at heart.

• Shabainbox

  Its not about what colour pain she used, It about paying respect. To pay respect you don’t have to do things the exact way. Relax a black woman tried to pay respect to an African musician, she may not have done it the way you would like but we all know she had hood intentions at heart.

• logic

  Do you guys get paid for this? Is it your job to be offended? cause it sure seems like it.
  “The magazine quite clearly has one idea of what African people look like and felt the need to make Knowles fit that mold.”

  um I think that if that was the case then clearly the entire photoshoot would have Beyonce’s face painted dark. but it’s clearly not the case isn’t it?

• noliah

  Comparing this to authentic Blackface is a real stretch. Stick to the fluff, Styleite.

• Trulypriceless

  I’m the only person that seems to see the monkey behind her with red lips. Beyonce is a damn FOOL!

• guest

  styleite:
  you surely don’t know a damn thing about style

• Guest

  No one said anything about Natalie Portman in Black Swan with her WHITEFACE. People are ridiculous, over-sensitive and above all — want something to complain about. Beyonce looks beautiful and the clothes are GORGEOUS. But let’s find something wrong with this and start a so-called “controversy” when there are so many other things going on in the world. Ugh. People are so annoying and NEGATIVE it makes me sick. I’m sitting here with my BLACK roommate as we both type up this comment and how crazy it is that someone would even view this as “racist” or “disrespectful.”

• Lowr

  Fuck beyonce haha are they jokin is not is not every african country dat got darkkkk ppl by da way

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_76F7SAA3N35X4IBY5BGVQML2YM James

  Regardless of the reason it was a fashion misfire. I can think of about a million more interesting ways to depict a person.

• Seba

  U know what I find interesting is that U mention the fact that Beyonce is too stupid to know what she is doing if I understand correctly!!! U have forgotten that Beyonce is also a women of creole descent and If you have ever been to mardi gras you will see that black face or for that matter painting the face is truly a part of the creole culture!!!! Speak  what u  know! Your chastizing her and you should take some time to know where she is a derivative of!! And oh recognize that Creole culture is very real!

• Seba

  Dear Empress:

  U don’t know every cultural society to make that statement! We could go all day about this topic!!! U must understand that what may be offensive to you in your culture may not necessarily be offensive in another in theirs! You see your making a blanket statement about people of color as if to say that u know all people of color societies and I really doubt that u do!!! And u mentioned that what does that have to do with the price of tea in China!  I was laughing hell they paint their faces in China and that has its own meaning! So it depends on where u r and what that group of people determines the meaning of something to mean!!! You shouldn’t generalize ever!!!