Managing the semiotics of skin tone: Race and aesthetic labor in the fashion modeling industry

Abstract

This article explores the aesthetic labor of embodying race. The author’s research on fashion models in New York City uncovered a demand for aesthetic labor that differs along racial lines, namely, black models must fit themselves to a narrower set of standards, and experience their race as both an asset and a liability. This difference is evident in the context of the market for black models, where the “white gaze,” and the “corporate gaze” intersect. Yet both employers’ desire for workers with a particular “look,” and workers’ willingness to call on personal resources to style that “look” for the job foster a structural bias toward racist practices that are masked by appeals to “aesthetics.” Managing one’s racial appearance reveals a unique quality of aesthetic labor that emerges only when race is taken into account, arguing for its inclusion among the characteristics workers manipulate when their work is studied as aesthetic labor.

Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance, Culture and the Need for Change

“…Creative industries sub‐sectors vary in the extent to which they are considered aesthetic labour, with the most marked distinction between the static and performative (embodied arts). The modelling industry, for example, is highly aesthetic (Entwistle and Wissinger, ; Holla, ), with appearance‐based market segmentation that perpetuates stereotypes (Wissinger, ) similar to those observed by Dean () in her study of performance agents and actors. Our study echoes previous findings that women are not treated equally when it comes to their skills; rather, they can be given roles that are stereotypically feminine (Banks and Milestone, ; Jones and Pringle, ; Proctor‐Thomson, ).…”

Making Skin Visible

“…Nor do we contend that such photography is unique in its representational ability; clearly, other representational forms such as painting and film produce similar effects. Further issues to explore include how skin performs aesthetic labour (Tate, 2017; Wissinger, 2011), creation of ‘ethnic’ identities, such as Asian-American (Pham, 2015; Shankar, 2012; Snell and Wan-Hsiu, 2017), obsessive focus on skin and skin colour in media outlets such as National Geographic (Lutz and Collins, 1993; Parameswaran, 2002; Swerdlow, 2002), the notion of the cyborg body (e.g. Campbell, 2010; Muhr, 2011; Schueller, 2005), how skin colour ‘performs’ within visual culture (e.g.…”

Making pastel pop on dark skin: How fashion stylists dress Black NBA players

“…Harlem complained, “We can’t put skinny jeans on you even though you want to wear them, because you have hips and thighs, things that are considered stereotypical Black attributes.” Harlem’s comment about “stereotypical Black attributes” stems from the belief that Blacks trend on the side of being too big. For example, although one model in Wissinger’s study had textbook measurements of 34–24–35, one casting director believed she was a “little round” (2012: 135). European designers are often stumped by NBA bodies.…”

“…The privilege of subject positionality enables Whites to link racialized perceptions to vision (Morris, 2001: 88), making the physical features of the racial “Other” highly visible and subject to disqualification. Wissinger’s (2012: 134) study on models in New York revealed that gatekeepers shunned Black models because their skin is not photogenic and they also have abnormal bodies. The technical “limitations” of mediums and ways of visualizing the racial other as “different” (Morris, 2001: 88) obscure White bias in promulgating anti-Blackness (Dyer, 1997).…”