Why Doesn’t Kerry Washington Ever Look Like Herself on Magazine Covers?
Kerry Washington never looks like herself on the cover of magazines. InStyle and Lucky have both gotten it wrong, causing outcry over the fact that major publications are incapable of properly featuring a woman of color. But after many failed attempts to capture the Scandal actress correctly, Marie Claire has finally gotten it right.
What previous editorials have gotten wrong — lightened her skin , or altered her identifiable characteristics too much — Marie Claire makes up for. Her skin seems the same as it does in unretouched red carpet images or on screen in television and movies. But what Marie Claire did well, others messed up.
Take, for example, InStyle’s March issue. Everyone knows that Washington’s gorgeous. But put her on a magazine cover, and the Internet’s immediately up in arms. Social media immediately exploded with reactions:
Photo: @tomandlorenzo/Twitter
Photo: @kiaspeaks/Twitter
Photo :@MelanieCoMcCoy/Twitter
While Washington fans also voiced their opinions on her Instagram page when she posted the picture earlier this morning:
Photo: @kerrywashington/Instagram
By Thursday afternoon, InStyle released a statement: ”We have heard from those who have spoken out about our newsstand cover photograph, concerned that Kerry’s skin tone was lightened. While we did not digitally lighten Kerry’s skin tone, our cover lighting has likely contributed to this concern. We understand that this has resulted in disappointment and hurt. We are listening, and the feedback has been valuable.” Washington replied almost immediately. She tweeted, “Beautiful statement. Thank u 4 opening this convo. Its an important 1 that needs to be had.”
Lucky magazine’s December 2013 cover.
But why does this keep happening? n December of 2013, when Lucky editor in chief Eva Chen posted an image of the Kerry Washington cover on her Instagram page, commenters immediately expressed their dislike, leaving comments like, “Yikes, this is bad. And obvious to all,” and more humorous ones like “Oprah looks great here!” Washington looked washed out, her eyes changed shape, and she looked more like Jennifer Hudson than herself and the cover went viral.
Washington’s universally beloved and has very distinguished features that can easily go haywire as soon as you begin to retouch. Her nose and her lips are some of the most recognizable features on her face and as soon as you start to tinker with them, she looks dramatically different. One editor was quickly able to identify everything that potentially contributed to this cover gone awry. “I’d say the biggest thing I notice is the nose,” our source says. “It’s too perfectly straight on to go with the off-kilter smirk on her face. It looks like they cut it in half and flipped it so it could be identical on both sides.”
Possible reasons why Washington’s cover looks a little “off,” according to our expert.
Washington’s forehead is also one of her prominent features, and by reducing its size they reduce her whole face. It looks like the retouchers might have also gone “overboard with the lighting”—the dual highlights under her cheeks are major issues. It’s also possible that the industry’s still figuring out how to properly light and shoot women of color. After all many models of color often complain about the fact that makeup artists and hair stylists don’t always know how to work with their hair texture or skin tone, so it makes sense that this ignorance would extend to the more technical aspects of photography. Because there’s still so much rampant discrimination in the culture, whether it is towards women with darker skin or women who chose to wear their hair natural, the African-American community is especially sensitive to accurate depictions of their visible role models, especially when it comes to skin color, which seems to be the first thing that gets “retouched” in photo shoots, and noses, which inevitable get “thinned-out.” In other words, they know the industry’s tendency on white-washing women of color, and they’re ready to call out whoever is necessary. Maybe that’s one of the reasons Washington’s had the same hair stylist for the last fifteen years.
Like Washington said, we’re just glad the conversation’s started.
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