Rising Inclusivity in Fashion:
A Review of Digital Fashion Media and Journalism
Sakshi Lokhande(1), Student(2019-23), Department of Fashion Communication,
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bhubaneswar
[email protected]
8007498190
Sonali Srivastav(2), Assistant Professor, Department of Fashion Communication,
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bhubaneswar
ABSTRACT
The Fashion Media Industry has come a long way from the non-glossy magazines and
newspapers. The Digital age has made it very easy to keep updates on the new trends and latest
fashion news’. Blogs and vlogs have simply broadened the horizons of reliable sources of
fashion trends and affairs. But there are also a few sides of the industry that are still in the dark.
With emerging fashion centers across the globe, fashion media is still partial and not inclusive
which makes it difficult for all people to relate to the content and increases dissatisfaction.
Fashion Media has created an ideal standard of fashion and beauty which has led to the
persistence and in some cases, the creation of body image issues and social comparison of beauty
standards. The exclusion of certain ethnicities and racial groups in the fashion industry through
printed media and mainstream media has been challenged by the emergence of Fashion Blogs,
Webzines and Vlogs that depict beauty as it is and break the ideal beauty standards based on
discrimination and aesthetic labour. This review relies heavily on secondary data and will help
ascertain that the side-lining of certain groups has had an impact on culturally diverse ideas of
beauty. The results hint at digital and less censored mediums of media being, more often than
not, found to be more relatable and favoured by a diverse base of loyal readers.
This review focuses on the digital age of Fashion Media and how it has helped shed light on
certain areas of the elite fashion Industry which are usually overlooked.
KEYWORDS
Digital Media, Mediated Beauty, Body Dissatisfaction, Beauty Standards, Discrimination
AIM: The aim of this paper is to study and to put forth the lack of wider and broader
representation in the mainstream mediated media which is a stark contrast to the newer digital
media, changing consumer behaviours and the impact of the two.
OBJECTIVES:
● To study the adverse impact of the media “ideals” on individuals.
● To study in depth, the causes and consequences of the mediated ideals on ethnic groups
and their cultures.
● To shed light on the racial and ethnic discrimination of the conventional media.
● To put forth the positive impact of the digital media on consumer satisfaction.
INTRODUCTION: - Since the digital age has flourished, the plethora of unspoken things and
unexpressed opinions have come to the attention of people all over the world. Earlier, only the
people with the right educational qualification in the Fashion and Media industry could talk
about their views and express themselves through the printed media like magazines and
newspapers. But now, since the popularity of the internet and online journals, blogs and news
sites, the common people with just enough knowledge in the subject or even interest have the
opportunity to ask and express. This has led to more voices being raised against the blatant
discrimination in the industry based on ethnicity, skin colour, body types and ignorance of
fashion variations in different cultures.
With the change in the medium of Fashion media and Journalism, the number of people taking
an interest in it has increased, mostly because of the inclusion of various different angles of the
industry.
The Beginning of Digital Fashion Media
Since a very long time, women have relied on Fashion Magazines to know the trends, the
dressing styles and beauty tips. However, the new generation has shown more favour to blogs,
YouTube, apps, social media and similar digital sources than to fashion magazines, probably due
to the easy access they provide in this digital age. As mentioned in Mcquarrie, Miller and
Phillips’ study, the internet/ web has brought the world close by giving the ordinary people who
are actually the consumers, access to a mass audience. This ensured that even ordinary people
are able to influence and shape the fashion world and not just models with certain ideal standards
or people with conventional educational qualifications (Mcquarrie, Miller, & Phillips, 2013).
Fashion Magazines made an appearance in the seventeenth century and by the mid-1800s, they
had been adapted as a medium for the widespread acknowledgement of trends and styles for the
middle-class fashion enthusiasts, who were ideally women. First introduced in the early nineties,
fashion blogs have secured themselves as the fundamental stage for fashion-related topics.
Although deemed as an outsider source, Fashion blogs have been given the same platform as
mainstream media by their readers and have brought to light the changing journalism world. The
blogosphere is a hypertextual space. Hyper-textuality has come to commonly refer to the
electronic linking of a wide range of written texts and images, brought together in a constantly
shifting configuration of networks in the sense used in this paper. "In their constant, often daily,
updating of sites with new posts, fashion blogs feed into this tyranny of the new, constructing,
more than any other media, fashion as transient, passing, already gone" (Rocamora, 2012).
As a result of the “Megaphone effect”, the web is now available to a larger audience whereas
earlier only the people affiliated with an institution or having some institutional qualifications
were given access and those with no such means, but the knowledge and skills to express and
contribute were not able to do so. This changed with new media, which started on a smaller scale
with little to no access to mainstream celebrities and famous people, which led to the inclusion of
ordinary people, giving a source of relatability to the audience (McQuarrie, Miller & Phillips,
2013).
These earlier theories of aesthetic labor, in a way, have some sort of direct reflection on being a
fashion blogger. These bloggers have to tailor their personal styles, such that it fits the aesthetic
and look required to gain an audience (Rocamora, 2011).
Conventional media’s imposition of racial and ethnic discrimination
Consumption of cultural apparel perfectly mediated the influence of strength of ethnic
identification on consumers’ attributions of emotions, and partially mediated this influence on
consumers’ attributions of meanings (Chattaraman & Lennon, 2008).
A lot of studies that have further probed the impact of ethnic identity with how it affects the
person’s consumer tendencies, have defined ethnic identity as a person’s strength of identifying
with their ethnicity (Chattaraman & Lennon, 2008).
The fact that people can relate to the representation of their own ethnic identity of skin colour
simply proves that the inclusion of all diversities will only benefit the industry, and yet, the
acceptance is hard to come by as the ‘ideal’ ‘barbie’ standards are the barrier that guard the
narrow-minded lane of the people and the discriminative industry they uphold. The stereotypes
must be shattered for the sake of the industry that created beautiful things for all and for the sake
of the people who fall prey to social comparison and body dissatisfaction due to mediated beauty
standards.
When we consider the relationship between race and aesthetic labor, we come across two
significant findings. Initially, in model markets, there is a strong reliance on subjective
judgement in recruiting, which might intensify racial inclinations in hiring procedures, as this
study by Wissinger reveals. On the one hand, because there were no objective criteria to quantify
competence, gatekeepers in the fashion world, such as model agents and clients who hire models,
intuitively relied on social factors such as gender and ethnicity, which were classified into
"types," to employ and market models. Black models, on the other hand, indicated that while
struggling to squeeze into these "types," they were held to a tougher aesthetic level in terms of
their height, weight, and general look, making modelling jobs not only tougher to acquire, but
also tougher to execute. A second, related issue is that, in line with the ethnic "types" that limit
the number of employment possible, black models' aesthetic labor sometimes took the specific
form of regulating the appearance of race.
When assessing possible candidates in modelling, subjective judgments focus on social aspects
such as gender or ethnicity rather than individual characteristics like educational achievement or
work abilities. While some modelling agencies have open calls, where they will see any aspiring
model who walks through their doors at a certain time, the bulk of models are spotted through
"scouting." Through a scout, there is no way to "apply" for a job. Assertions about race and
gender can have a significant impact on this style of labour recruiting, allowing long-standing
discriminatory practises to flourish. If a scout feels black models don't "sell," he or she will be
less inclined to hire one. (Wissinger, 2011)
Black people modelling feel the pressure of the white perspective, which in its experience has a
conflicting form and sometimes requires it to produce in conformity with European beauty
ideals, whereas at other times its 'otherness' has to be emphasised by its customers in accordance
with white stereotypes of the dark appearance. The appearance of the "other'' in this sense
becomes a body resource or responsibility in a stereotyped workplace performance under its
"white gaze." Black models' aesthetic labour depends on a series of social conditions that don't
affect white models to the same degree not just on clients' demands but also on the racially
powered system.
Cameron, a young white male agent at a major New York City firm in the early 2000s, explained
that these methods were dictated by the business: "There's a limited demand." For a black model,
there are just so many jobs available. It's not in the best interests to have 25 Asian models when
there's 80% less employment for Asian models than there is for white models. We only have a
limited number of human resources at the agency, and we need effective models.
Extensive colour descriptors and national modifiers wrapped up in racial hierarchies were seen
in casting requests. These queries immediately catalogued generic facial traits, complexion, and
hair texture and colour, whether it was "London beat," "brown-skinned Bollywood," or
"black-black black."
While the descriptions were purportedly about national qualities, “alternative images and
concepts are smuggled into these descriptions,” according to the researchers, including “national
reputations for various sexual tendencies, attitudes, and behaviours.”
Laura, who works as a contract model for a cosmetics firm, shared her story. The majority of the
make-up artists she worked with were white, and they frequently lacked the appropriate tones to
keep her complexion from appearing "ashy" or "grey." She often questioned that if they knew
she was black then why did they not have the makeup artist bring the appropriate make up. She
further adds in pique, that if they knew she was scheduled to show up on a certain day, then they
should be prepared for the same, considering that they have almost ten shades for lighter skin
tones and barely any for hers. She also expressed her agitation at being asked to bring her own
base, while it is most definitely not her job.
Laura also realised that white hairstylists weren’t aware of how to style black hair and
they were somewhat afraid to do it. But sometimes, she was fortunate enough to meet
some Japanese and Hispanic stylists who had a little more knowledge of the same.
Most of the time, she would do the hair herself by explaining that she cannot lose a
customer just because the stylists were not bothered to do her hair (Wissinger, 2011).
When called out about the industry’s obscene requirements, the half hearted attempts for
inclusion of all ethnic and racial diversities did little to crush the stereotype as the only
requirement they now had was of colour and ethnicity but not the person’s proficiency in their
work or the variations within these diversities. The coloured people in the industry don’t get the
same treatment as the other models. In fact, it seems like they have been recruited only to fend
off the incredulous media attention as their only requirement has sometimes been devalued
down to being ‘coloured’.
Body image
The media often promotes the thin body type as the idea, where they decide what is supposed to
be attractive and desirable. Media conveys these body ideals like skin, colour, weight, facial
features and hair in a very tunneled way, which usually aligns with western attitudes about
beauty.
Body image is a complex concept that refers to the perception and mindset towards sizes
and shapes of the body. It refers to how we see ourselves in terms of body, size, weight,
hair, physical traits and how we carry ourselves, and how we think or feel about these
things. These are the perceptual and evaluative components, which then translate to our
behavior patterns and body dissatisfaction which refers to the shortcomings one finds in
their bodies, after comparing or idealizing the societal idea of beauty and how these
attributes of one’s physical appearance should be for the person to be coined under the
term “beautiful”. Body dissatisfaction is the product of how we see societal ideals and also
how we look at or perceive our own selves. [Shannon, Amy & Hogue, Jacqueline.
(2017)]
According to a meta analysis by Groesz et al., after examining 25 studies with a total of 2292
participants, they found that the body image of women became more negative after being
exposed to media images, as opposed to the images of average or bigger sized models (Shannon,
Amy, Hogue & Jacqueline, 2017).
Social comparison is basically a person’s tendency to create a comparison to other individuals
and this tendency or state or even a psychological state is often the medium for the idealistic
media to make an impact (Shannon, Amy, Hogue & Jacqueline, 2017).
The fact that the public figures who usually talk about body positivity, are the ones who perfectly
fit in only one widely desired ‘idealistic’ body image and the people cannot seem to relate to
them although the issue they bring up is pretty relatable. The main catalyst in this unrelatable
approach is the message that is unintentionally sent across when the women who fit into the
‘ideal’ beauty standards talk about the ‘not-so- ideal’ beauty standards. It comes across as - ‘it’s
normal and beautiful to have dark and golden skin, it’s beautiful to be of varied sizes and you
being you is enough; BUT if you want to enter the industry and hold enough attention to talk
about this, you need to look ‘ideal’. Honestly, people would be able to relate more if dark or
mocha skinned, healthier plus- sized women were more in number in the industry and they were
the ones leading this cause. Through research, the relation between media representations of
body ideals and body dissatisfaction has been further studied. For example, there is a relation
between the importance given to magazine images, thin ideals and eating patterns, and
viewership or exposure to such popular printed material. (Tiggemann, 2003).
Few studies have also carried out experiments to study the impact of these seemingly perfect and
sometimes unrealistic ideals on women with eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia or even
pregnancy, even after few minutes of exposure to these images, increases body distortion as
compared to the exposure to neutral, ordinary women’s images.
[Ogden, J., and Russell, S. (in press)]
It also provides an insight of how 32 Black women digested information from either a White or a
Black fashion magazine. Rejection, media criticism, and ambiguity characterised comments to
the ‘White' magazine, but joy, identification, and a desire for depth characterised comments to
the ‘Black' magazine. Their self-identity as a Black woman, which was brought to light either by
a sense of alienation (White magazine) or involvement, transcended these issues (Black
magazine). By reducing the processes of social comparison and internalisation, such an identity
promotes resistance against media thin standards. [Ogden, J., and Russell, S. (in press)]
This paper talks about the negative use of digital media which has led to certain standards of
body image to be raised due to lack of inclusion of diversities in the industry. The media brings
to attention how the use of ‘ideal’ standards has caused body image dissatisfaction in the age of
digital media. The paper by Jane Ogden and Sheriden Russell elaborates on how coloured
women find engagement and recognition in magazines featuring women and men of colour or
ethical differences. The study is based on 32 women of colour who showed disinterest in content
that features only white people and they would not show much interest in buying such
magazines.
How ‘ideal’ affects age old images of beauty in foreign cultures
The Fashion posters and magazines, which are generally a source of fashion ideas and styles,
which the dress makers and people borrow from and build on and update their wardrobes
according to these trends, can be seen on almost every street and store and even in the
dressmakers stores as models for the clothes that they can sew. Where Fashion and beauty is
concerned, Young women in Ghana are daily subjected to these, wherever they go (Domi, 2010).
GHANA
In the Ghanian and African societies, where being fat, big or plump was looked upon as a sign
and even pinnacle of beauty, is now being looked down at as ugly, distasteful and unappealing
with the conformation of western ideals of beauty, which deem “thin and slender” as the only
beauty, by the media. (Domi, 2010).
Domi et al (2010) explains how the Akan ethnic group urged its leaders to seem plump and
magnificent. Akan women also kept on special diets for roughly forty days after giving birth to
gain weight. This is no longer the case, as women strive to achieve slender, "fashion conscious"
figures in order to stay "attractive" to their men and avoid them being snatched away by a
"beautiful" woman. (Domi, 2010), (Adjin-Tettey & Bempah , 2015).
Traditional ideals of beauty are clearly contradicted by media projections of beauty. With the
exception of some shows geared to include the chubby traditional Ghanaian lady, beauty contests
and other television shows do not highlight the chubby, full-figured lady who is a regular feature
in traditional Ghanaian society. Rather, the media portrays a thin form as the ideal depiction of
what it means to be a beautiful woman. New fashion trends are frequently publicised through the
media, such as social media, television, radio, billboards, and publications.
Aside from utilising models that are represented as "ideal," some commercials are genuinely
intended to market things that are believed to give the viewers the "ideal" physical form and size.
A recent advertisement on both analogue and digital television channels in Ghana for a body
sculpting centre and another for a medicine called Calorad created a stir among women, sparking
conversations about these items and treatments on social media (Adjin-Tettey & Theodora, 2015)
The blogosphere comparatively is much more diverse with respect to ethnicity and race, than
what is shown according to current research and studies, and New research has discovered that
bloggers are less likely to be white than the other internet crowd. People from any race, colour,
ethnicity, gender or body type have access to the internet, which is not the case with the majority
of the fashion magazines and mainstream media. Since there is clearly a limit to who enters the
fashion industry, the internet is a medium open for all and provides a platform for anyone to
blog, promote on social media or vlog their styles, designs or any such skills to a larger audience.
(Pham, 2011). "Despite the relatively small number of fashion-themed blogs in the blogosphere,
their impact on the fashion media complex and the larger fashion world is undeniable" (Pham,
2011).
Through a magazine survey analysis on body diversity, it was revealed that only one magazine,
Seventeen, used images of everyday females or “curvy” or plus sized models, larger than size 8.
The other three magazines in the survey did not have any such images. Whereas, website blog
analysis showed that 17.8% of the bloggers were considered to be above size 8, curvy or plus
sized. Similarly, vlogs or video blogs also had a representation of 13.33% of bloggers under the
above size 8 category or curvy category. Speaking of ethnic diversity, white models dominated
all magazines, blogs and even vlogs, but the number of white models in magazines were fairly
more than the ones in blogs and vlogs. The largest coloured representation of black or african
american models was in blogs while hispanic and asian/Indian representation was found in vlogs.
Style blogs, or vlogs were found to be bodily, racially and ethnically diverse.
This survey highlights the greater amount of body diversity in the blogosphere since they had
more models or stylists/bloggers above the size 8, curvy and plus sized. This is still the talk of
extremes and without taking into account the “average” body image representation in the blogs
and vlogs, which is still greater than those of magazine models. This survey was irrespective of
height.
After looking at the above survey analysis, and with the efforts around the globe to battle eating
disorders and body dissatisfaction, it is clearly easy to conclude that there is a bias in body image
and ethnicity when talking about representation in Fashion Media. (Rubin, 2015)
Media has always had a huge impact on its audience. The projection of these unrealistic ideals of
slender, light skinned, light eyed standards of beauty is dominating the media as compared to
average women we encounter everyday. While these cannot be completely excluded, more types
can be included. This bias towards that certain type can push the people who do not have the
above mentioned features, to do anything they can to reach that “ideal” which is deemed to be
the best. If these ideals are not of the local culture, it will make the foreign culture and foreign
ideals of beauty surpass the indegenious beauty traits and the distinctive features of the culture
will also be buried under these foreign ideals.[Dame Adjin-Tettey, Theodora. (2015).]
Unless Fashion magazines are more inclusive towards a more wider range of body types and skin
types and ethnically diverse physical differences, then the readers will always be at the risk of
dissatisfaction and of having the mindset of not matching up to certain narrowed down beauty
standards which are not possible to achieve for every woman, and not healthy for all either.
[Boyd, Kayla C.(2016).]
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
The papers were filtered based on their topic coverage. The chosen papers have very narrowed
down topics which are relevant to the media and its influence. Some of the papers are older,
accentuating the existence of partial media representation even in the 80’s and the 90’s. These
papers also discuss the exclusion of different ethnicities from the media and the adverse effects
of the same on the cultural practices of these ethnic groups. They were included in this study due
to their relevance to consumer behaviour towards media based on interviews and surveys. The
recent papers focus more on the digital media and how it is differentiated from the printed media.
These were filtered on the basis of the type of research and relevant interviews which focus on
the everyday influence of the “ideal” portrayed by the media on the consumers and the consumer
attitude towards consumption of such media content. These papers were collected through open
access journals and google scholar.
CONCLUSION
The conventional Fashion Media is less ethnically, racially and body size diverse as compared to
the Fashion blogs and webzines as these sources aren’t controlled by the ‘ideal’ requirements for
beauty. These blogs, vlogs and webzines are by the common and ‘average’ people and for the
common and ‘average’ people. More people can relate to these sources more than the
conventional ones because of their consideration towards everyone and the absence of
discrimination. The Fashion industry, though less than in the beginning of print media, is still
very biased and narrow minded with its approach, only showing the beauty that it deems fit of
existing leading to a plethora of psychological and social issues. The focus point that the media
industry fails to understand is that people only lean towards what they can relate to and anything
else only succeeds in the spread of inferiority complexes and disinterest.
The portrayal of the fashion Industry i.e. the fashion media is equally to blame as the industry
itself for promotion of such unrealistic and stereotypical beauty standards. The effect of this can
be seen usually in the western countries as they are the only countries where majority of the
ethnic groups actually relate to the media, which is again another shortcoming of the
conventional media which has conveniently excluded the middle-eastern, Indian subcontinent,
African and Asian based fashion industry, basically the fashion based out of countries with the
highest numbers of ethnically diverse and coloured people.
Conventional media, like magazines and Fashion week coverages, need to be checked so that any
further influence is nothing but positive for everyone and the way to erase these beauty standards
is long and difficult but extremely necessary with the increasing popularity of Trickling down of
Fashion for all.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Ms. Lokhande is a second-year student in the Department of Fashion Communication, NIFT
Bhubaneswar. An avid reader/film enthusiast, Sakshi is interested in studying about the impact of
Fashion on society. She is currently interning at a digital Fashion Magazine as a Fashion
Journalism intern and is keen on contributing more towards inclusivity of media.
Ms. Srivastav has an experience of 7 years in teaching and research. Prior to academics, she
has worked as an industry professional on various stages of film and TV production.
Currently she is pursuing her Ph.D in Internet Narratology and Market Dynamics in India and
teaching Research, Photography and Semiotics in the Fashion Communication Department at
NIFT, Bhubaneswar.
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