Oscar award winner Lupita Nyong’o has blasted a UK magazine that altered her looks to allegedly give her a European appearance. The Kenyan actress called out Glazia Daily UK claiming that the magazine had “edited out” and “smoothed” her hair.
Disappointed that @GraziaUK edited out & smoothed my hair to fit a more Eurocentric notion of what beautiful hair looks like. #dtmh pic.twitter.com/10UUScS7Xo
— Lupita Nyong’o (@Lupita_Nyongo) November 10, 2017
Lupita attached three images from the photo shoot with two depicting her with long curly hair and another with short hair.
She was even blunter on Instagram.
“As I have made clear so often in the past with every fiber of my being, I embrace my natural heritage and despite having grown up thinking light skin and straight, silky hair were the standards of beauty, I now know that my dark skin and kinky, coily hair are beautiful too,” charged Lupita.
“Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are. I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like.”
NATIVE HERITAGE
She explained that had she been consulted, she would have explained that she “cannot support or condone the omission of what is my native heritage with the intention that they appreciate that there is still a very long way to go to combat the unconscious prejudice against black women’s complexion, hairstyle and texture”.
Ironically, Lupita told the magazine that days, when she wished she could change how she looked, are long gone. “There’s room in this world for beauty to be diverse,” she said.
She adds that she uses make-up to celebrate her skin tone, rather than to hide it.
By Eddy Kagera
Source: Kenya: Lupita Blasts UK Magazine for Photoshopping Her Hair
