Beyonce's Skin Darkened For L'Officiel Magazine: Offensive Or Artistic? (VIDEO, PHOTO)

Jezebel has drawn our attention to Beyonce's photo shoot for L'Officiel Paris' 90th anniversary issue. The pop star poses in traditional African clothes and pays homage to Fela Kuti.

According to a statement from L'Officiel:

Far from the glamorous Sasha Fierce, the beauty posed for the magazine with amazing fashion designers clothes, but also in a dress created by her mother. [It is] A return to her African roots, as you can see on the picture, on which her face was voluntarily darkened. All the pictures will be available in the collector edition, on sell at the end of this month.

Jezebel's Dodai Stewart writes:

When you paint your face darker in order to look more "African," aren't you reducing an entire continent, full of different nations, tribes, cultures and histories, into one brown color? [....] What if Beyonce were an Asian singer painted to look like a geisha, or given exaggeratedly almond eyes? Perhaps even more important: By painting Beyoncé's face darker, aren't the French fashion editors basically treating her like they would a white model, i.e. a blank-palette object on which to place concepts? And not an actual, authentic black person with African heritage?

Brown Sista notes, "Beyonce is almost unrecognizable to me, as her skin color has once again been manipulated by magazine editors so as not to offend their mostly white female audience." And The Root reminds us of Beyonce's 2008 L'Oreal ad, in which her skin appeared to be digitally lightened.

Take a look at the news report from France's TF1 below and tell us what you think.

Quick Poll

Beyonce in 'blackface':

Offensive.

Artistic!

Unsure.

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Comments

[Daisytoo]

02:16 PM on 03/26/2011

Looks like the French Vogue 2009 exploitation of black-face proved profitable enough for them to go there again, only this time w/a black model.

http://fashionbombdaily.com/2009/10/12/lara-stone-in-blackface-for-french-vogue/

Superficiality for profit is always a safe assumption when it comes to the rag trade.

[ChaCubed]

01:16 AM on 03/23/2011

That they wanted a dark-skinned woman of African descent to model these clothes is perfectly reasonable; that they didn't choose a dark-skinned woman of African descent is not.

Yunguns, get your Google buttons ready ...

It's reminiscent of the old days of film and television when they had Marlo Thomas with horrible eye-make-up playing a Chinese woman on Bonanza; and legions of 'white' actors covered in the most awful, shiny brown goop playing Native/First Americans.

[Tamara Flaherty]

04:19 PM on 03/22/2011

well due to the many comments to this post it show that there is something wrong with how Beyonce's photo shoot for L'Officiel Paris choice to tribute Nigerian musician/activist, Fela Khuti.

In any event I feel like many others this was tasteless and ignorant not to mention a failed attempt to great something that could have been just drop dead amazing. I am not personally offended because like what was already expressed by many others she has been fake for many years and this one thing just adds to the list of other things she has done over the years to conclude that. I can however see how people can take offends to these photos the photo shoot is titled "tracing back to her African Roots," but it is clear that the effort was only half applied. For example at least the material used to make the clothing should have come from Africa, along with the beading and jewelry.

ps. for all those who keep saying her hair was sandy.... ummmm no it was not it was thick, long and brown... so her long blonde lace front is no where near her natural hair color

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Yi3tA5yIlkc/R1JpxxhaFAI/AAAAAAAABQ4/UwsNGLbIxak/s400/celebhaterz-beyonce.JPG
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lm8Y5U8e5WM/SjMUFam83_I/AAAAAAAAAPM/5KwBBoETmro/s400/-beyonce.jpg
http://toyaz-world.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/beyonce-and-mathew.jpg

[ElenaOfJersey]

05:56 PM on 02/27/2011

Artistic, definitely, but I don't think it was pulled off very well. The darkening looks like wax. It's actually a bit creepy. :/

[Jominok]

05:59 PM on 02/26/2011

Honestly... I dont get all the fuss around this. If she powders more than usual and decides to have fun with some "whitish" hairdos and whatever, she's racist. If she does a black themed photoshoot, she's racist and offensive aswell? Non sense.

[MrsPeel]

12:35 AM on 02/26/2011

After watching the video of the photo shoot, I'm ambivalent.

However, I wholeheartedly agree with this paragraph from the article:

"'We're all so busy debating whether or not it's racist to think Beyoncé darkening her face is racist that we've ignored the fact that the singer and her husband have twice now taken large sums of money from the family of a dictator who is currently killing off protesters in his country,' writes Salon's Drew Grant, referring to Beyoncé performing in front of Muammar Gaddafi's son. 'Beyoncé doesn't have to apologize for her L'Officiel shoot. But she should be donating some of that $2 million back to organizations helping people in the Mideast.'"

That she and Jay-Z have no better sense or ethics than this is truly offensive.

[Jominok]

05:59 PM on 02/26/2011

I'll agree with that part, she should have known better.

[elizabennett]

09:41 AM on 03/02/2011

She should be donating ALL of that $2 million; not just some of it. She earns more than $80 million per year.

[my2cents4all]

01:11 PM on 02/25/2011

It is true that Americans cannot impose our views of blackface on the French, but Beyonce is an American, an African American at that, it's her responsibility to "know better than that" and perhaps explain to the Frenchmen why this is not appropriate for her to do. But since Beyonce is uneducated she probably has no idea of the significance of blackface and the exploitation of African Americans in the U.S. To me it's just a sign of her ignorance, not the magazines.

[holiday2010]

05:47 AM on 02/26/2011

I think that's a little extreme.

As someone of African descent, yes, Africans do very in colour but West Africans, as Fela Kuti was, tend to dark in complexion, at least the majority. Most people from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin and other West African countries tend to darker skinned. Although this complexion varies.

[ColinZeal2]

10:28 AM on 02/25/2011

L'Officiel is a French magazine.
Blackface IS AN AMERICAN CONCEPT.
Please, stop trying to impose your cultural taboos on other cultures.

[Absolute]

12:35 PM on 02/25/2011

No one is attempting to "impose" anything on this publication. We are just discussing an issue from our own points of view. I think it is still illegal to compile data based on ethnic criteria in France, and the French government still pretends that racism does not exist.

[ColinZeal2]

01:22 PM on 02/25/2011

People are discussing this issue from points of view that cannot be applied. It's like a literary critic giving thumbs down to a Russian novel because the letters are all weird, there are backwards R's, N's, etc.

[NatTurner1]

04:42 PM on 02/24/2011

Beyonce should officially refrain from using dark makeup in advertisements or for the sake of art when models/actors and actresses refrain from laying out to get a tan, going to a tanning salon or using bronzing products.

Otherwise its hypocritical!

This is a non issue and bring race into it is silly.

[LinseyLins]

03:49 PM on 02/24/2011

Color, race issues and all of this nonsense seems to only be an issue because WE'RE making it one. I see nothing offensive about a Black woman posing for a photo shoot in an array of designs, clothing, and skin tones to convey the beauty in ALL women, light or dark, with an African heritage. I can't fathom how Beyonce is being criticized right now! It just doesn't make sense to me...

This entire argument is one sided, and we should really start picking and choosing our battles these days. Getting your panties in a bunch over this photo is a waste of precious energy, smh.

[JKPHILLY]

02:17 PM on 02/24/2011

I do not take offense to this picture at all.
It is Beyonce's way of paying homage to Fela Kuti...
Second, with all the varying shades of color among african americans....what is the difference with her making her face darker? After all, I am a woman of color and wear bronzer in the winter to darken my skin.....should I be accused of wearing "black face" as well?

[Absolute]

05:48 AM on 02/24/2011

She will do anything for a dollar and anything for attention. Beyonce is an uneducated, unaware, unmitigated disaster.

[lotus321]

01:12 PM on 02/24/2011

Who could buy and sell you four or five times over...

[Absolute]

02:52 PM on 02/24/2011

Yes of course, and she could buy and sell you in the same mannerr. But why is her wealth relevant?

I think she's an excellent entertainer, a beautiful woman and a very savvy businesswoman. But I also think that on issues of real education and political/social awareness she is sadly lacking.

[NatTurner1]

04:43 PM on 02/24/2011

but talented and rich!

[Absolute]

05:07 PM on 02/24/2011

That's true. I really do admire lots of things about her. My first comment on this thread was overly harsh.

[angelosnote]

02:22 AM on 02/24/2011

Well, the term 'blackface' to me is not appropriate to describe these fashion shoot images. Beyonce is a black woman is she not, and there are varying shades of skin tone among the black race. This is also true of other ethnicities who live all over our planet. The stylist, or whomever chose to darken her skin tone for the photo shoot and to me this just emphasizes the fact that Beyonce is a very beautiful black woman regardless of the degree of darkness in her skin tone. I have black female friends and they all possess varying shades of skin color, but they all will say that they are black. I find nothing wrong with these images.

[ixarix]

01:37 AM on 02/24/2011

It is worth stating that Beyonce volunteered to darken her face and as it has be stated, she is paying tribute to African artist, Fela Kuit. Also, I feel that this photo is being taken out of context. In the extended photo shoot video, which can be see over a ew.com, the magazine L'Offical states that the photo shoot is a "homage to the African Queen." As a poster on that site pointed out, the African face comes in many hues, ranging from the whitest of white to the blackest of black. I think the photo shoot in it entirety is terrific, Beyonce looks amazing and the controversy this photo in particular stirring up is really much ado about nothing.

[Kalemeh]

12:39 AM on 02/24/2011

Will.I.Am also got flack for painting his face at the VMA's... lol... is race relation so bad in America that even black people can't darken their faces? Especially when what they are doing is so obviously not minstrel?

The shoot wasn't artistic nor was it offensive imo... this drama surrounding it, however, is significantly more of a giant step backwards...