The image of a beautiful face must not be used to exploit our Mother Africa or the seed of the African Diaspora. Capitalism has devalued womanhood by distorting images that symbolize femininity. Women must be mindful that they can become transfixed with the garments they don for mass consumption. The purchase of fashionable clothing can diminish the underpinning of her self-esteem.
It is during fashion week where conversations about the women of Haiti and those who fall victim to bondage, trafficking for prostitution and other abuses are too often omitted from the discussion. We need to talk more frequently about the perils women across the world face. Watching these statuesque models traipsing down catwalks should compel us to dialogue about the often hushed issue of domestic violence against our sisters. Nearly 600 African American women were killed by intimate partners in 2009 and scores more fell prey to what some consider fashionable i.e., gangsta rap, demeaning language and outright violence.
These wrongs are escalating at an alarming rate. Women who aren’t fortunate enough to walk the runways and the catwalks, sashay through life, wearing a cloak–hiding that they are victims of incessant abuse. The abuses along their common path in life — the streets and alleys of our communities — are all too prevalent. The women who must feed their babies and seek refuge in communities need us to build a respectable runway to showcase them in the proper light.
Women who are typically treated as second class citizens in most societies are allowed to take center stage and bask in the spotlight, the haze that is called Fashion Week. We must view women in a new light. They are the queens of our families, the mothers and nurturers of our children. They are the lifeblood of a well-balanced existence and the life force that keeps the world turning on it’s axis. Oprah, Tyra Banks, first lady Michelle Obama, and Beyoncé are role models who have touched women in meaningful ways. They serve as examples so women don’t have to make or repeat mistakes. Jay-Z had to put a ring on the finger of the most powerful woman in pop culture. If he didn’t marry the pop princess, a king from another country would have been glad to.
A mutated seed is all it takes to upset the balance of Mother Nature, and the same is true of the balance of the women in our lives. Tread carefully. Fashion forward, fashion friendly and fashion a new idea of the women in our lives during this much lauded fashion week. –munson steed
