This one’s gonna hurt, Jimmy Fallon – but turns out Jessica Biel makes Justin Timberlake laugh his ass off, too … plus, she’s way hotter. JT and JB looked like a couple of kids on a first date, going all LOL Thursday evening in…
Friday, December 1, 2017
Meghan Markle: Did a Magazine Make Her Look White?
While it’s bad news for fans of the hit USA network series, Meghan Markle is leaving Suits for the best possible reason: she’s engaged to Prince Harry. For real, this time.
Now, as she prepares to formally join the British Royal Family, her visibility is on the rise. Her photos are going to be everywhere.
But … did a magazine cover whitewash away her racial features?
Meghan Markle is a successful actress. She’s beautiful. She’s American.
And, through her mother, she’s black.
While American women marrying into British nobility is nothing new (it was actually something of a trend, a hundred years or so ago, as noble families found themselves short on cash and sought wealthy American brides for their male heirs), Meghan Markle’s mixed-race status is a milestone for the British Royal family.
Honestly, the fact that her (white) father is partially of Irish descent might have ruffled some feathers in the not-so-distant past. And that’s not even a racism issue, that’s just standard Europeans-hating-each-other-out-of-habit.
For anyone who managed to believe that racism was somehow over, the last couple of years — Nazis marching openly in the streets in the US and in Europe, Brexit, the election of Trump — have made it abundantly clear that racism is alive and well.
But not all racism takes the form of obvious hatred. Sometimes, it’s our beauty values and cultural norms that are more informed by white supremacy than any of us would like to believe.
The sorts of noses that people like, the types of hairstyles, the eye shapes, the lips — for centuries, the entire Western world’s beauty values have come from European standards. A lot of traits associated with people of color have been considered less desirable, or even “ugly.”
So, when people noticed that Meghan Markle looks a little different on this Elle cover, they had to ask: did someone airbrush away to make her look “less ethnic?”
It’s easy to immediately recognize that something about the soon-to-be Duchess looks different here than in other pictures.
And no, we don’t just mean that her hair is up.
Her skin tone looks the same as usual, which is good — because so often using airbrushing to “whitewash” a person of color includes digitally lightening their skin.
Her lips, her nose, her eyes, all look how we’re accustomed to them looking.
It took a little while, but we were finally able to put our finger on what’s different:
Her freckles appear to be gone.
Either the makeup for the photoshoot or some airbrushing after-the-fact (but probably both) erased her freckles.
The good news is that this was probably not racially motivated. Magazines usually remove blemishes, and it’s very often that freckles get caught up in the mix.
Meghan Markle is gorgeous with or without her freckles, so it wasn’t immediately apparent. There are some actresses who would be almost unrecognizable without their freckles, but Markle’s distinctive beauty is unmistakable.
The bad news is that this will probably happen again, which is not going to be encouraging to young women — and particularly young women of color — who have freckles and are excited about a “princess” (she’s marrying a prince, folks, even if the title will technically be duchess) who also has them.
And it might be a little sad that we’re feeling relieved that nobody radically transformed her appearance.
But we’ve seen world-famous black women whitewashed. Dark-skinned black women made to look light-skinned. Light-skinned black women made to look white.
Maybe the fashion world and the publishing world are making progress.
Or … maybe they’re just extra careful with how they edit the photos of a woman who is about to become royalty.
We cannot tell you how heartwarming it has been to see black women on our social media timelines celebrating Meghan Markle’s engagement.
Just because her title won’t actually be “princess” doesn’t preclude anyone from getting excited about the “black princess.”
(Incidentally, though interracial relationships and marriages are on the rise in the UK, they’re still less common than in the US, where nearly 20 percent of recent newlywed couples are interracial)
And it doesn’t hurt that she’s from the US.
So as we all look forward to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding date, we should remember that they’re also making history. In a way that still matters to a lot of people.
And let’s keep a close eye on how Markle is photographed and discussed.
Prince Harry & Meghan Markle Greet Fans in Nottingham
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are fresh off announcing their engagement but already in full swing with their royal duties … shaking hands and probably kissing babies. The newly-engaged couple visited Nottingham Friday and greeted a throng…
Matt Baier and Jennifer Conlon to Amber Portwood: Congrats on the Baby!
Although Matt Baier has moved on from Amber Portwood, how does he feel about the fact that she’s expecting another man’s child?
Better than you might think, given their personal history.
The controversial Teen Mom OG superfan-turned-cast member and his new wife Jennifer Conlon told Radar that they’re quite happy.
“We are very happy for Amber and her baby,” Conlon said.
“We’re in love ourselves so we don’t have ill will,” she adds. “Their split was a blessing in disguise for everyone involved.”
This crew is acting far too mature about all of this.
Portwood called off her wedding to Baier a second time this year after he failed a lie detector test regarding him making sexual advances.
Toward other people, that is, while dating Amber.
Although the two tried to save their relationship on Marriage Boot Camp, they split for good … and she began dating Andrew Glennon.
Glennon, who was a crew member on that show, promptly got Amber Portwood pregnant with her second child as Baier moved to Vegas.
There, Matt Baier married Jennifer Conlon, pronto.
Yesterday, Conlon spoke out for the first time about their wedding and their relationship, as the couple looks to put any rumors to rest.
Says Matt: “All I ever want is for her to be safe and happy. Amber is very intelligent. If she’s happy then I’m happy. She deserves to be happy.”
“There are a lot of people who want me to bash Amber because of the situation. I have nothing but good thoughts and hopes for Amber.”
Baier admitted that while he wasn’t “hurt” by her pregnancy, he was blindsided, and wishes he found out from her instead of the media.
“She’s not under obligation to let me know,” he admits. “But I would’ve made the courtesy call because our relationship wasn’t over for long.”
Asked if he hoped he would reconcile with Portwood before the two moved on, Matt said, “We were very co-dependent on each other.”
“When we split there was a sense of ‘this breakup can’t last‘ because we were too dependent on each other,” the 47-year-old added.
“When I got in my relationship and she got in hers that was the sign that it’s really done. My hope is we can we remain friends.”
His new wife is equally hopeful and optimistic.
“When you meet somebody and you have a connection, you know it in your heart,” Conlon said in their candid interview.
“It’s not something you question. It felt right to us. Getting married is something we wanted. We decided it was time, so he asked me to marry him.”
As for those allegations/uncomfortable facts that Baier is a lying, cheating drug addict with 7-9 kids and a sketchy history of supporting them?
“Matt is a wonderful man,” she told Radar.
“What people think of him and how he’s portrayed, that’s not the man he truly is. He is everything and more. He’s generous and loving.”
“It’s unfortunate that people think differently.”
“Matt is a good man, yet he gets attacked in a way I don’t understand. That’s not the person in front of me. His actions don’t show that.”
Conlon says she doesn’t understand the public’s fixation with Matt’s past, adding that it “has nothing to do with the relationship.”
“The life we have now is what we have now.”
“Matt is a wonderful partner, friend and someone who listens. I take a person for who they are today and what they do now.”
Sounds very promising. Of course, they’ve only known each other a few months, and he’s only been apart from Amber a few months.
She’s also not one of the people he owes child support too, so clearly the couple will have to beat some pretty strong odds.
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