Sep. 4–An InStyle magazine cover photo of Jennifer Aniston looking very dark and very airbrushed was drawing a lot of criticism after it was posted to Instagram on Wednesday.
The magazine posted five covers, all featuring Aniston, billed as a “babe eternal, ” to promote its October beauty issue.
The image showing the actress in a black strapless bra and hair-encircling necklace was drawing many more comments than the others.
“When we asked for south Asian representation in the media this isn’t what we meant, ” said one commenter. Others left brief thoughts: “Very brown.” “Blackface.” “I didn’t know she was a person of color.” “That’s a wax figure. Where’s Jennifer ?”
“She is gorgeous n has natural beauty. What u did to her on this cover is insulting to her, ” said another.
“Congrats on making her look nothing like herself, ” said a third.
“I get that these covers are supposed to be channeling the glamour of yesteryear but that ‘glamour’ routinely marginalized women of color for white women (whether made tan or otherwise). Seeing Jennifer Aniston several shades darker than normal reminds me of that legacy. In 2019, if you want a brown-skinned woman on your cover, put a brown-skinned woman on your cover, ” a commenter said.
