Kenyan Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o has taken a swipe a UK magazine for allegedly altering her physical looks in order to give her an European appearance.
In a post on her Twitter handle, the Oscars Award winner hit out at Glazia Daily UK, accusing it of “editing out” and “smoothening” her hair to make her have a “eurocentric notion.”
“Disappointed that @GraziaUK edited out & smoothed my hair to fit a more Eurocentric notion of what beautiful hair looks like,” she captioned the original images from the UK magazine on her Twitter handle.
She added on Instagram: “As I have made clear so often in the past with every fibre 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.”
“Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfill 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.”
Although the Kenyan-Mexican actress confessed she once wished she could change her looks, she said those days are long gone and that she uses make-up to enhance her skin tone, not to hide it.
“There’s room in this world for beauty to be diverse,” she said in an earlier interview.
“For me, make-up is not a necessity. Make-up is not a mask, it’s an adornment, an accessory,” she adds.
In an interview with Essence magazine’s Black Women at a Hollywood event in 2014, the “12 Years A Slave” movie starlet confessed there was a time she felt “unbeautiful”.
“I put on the TV and only saw pale skin. I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned,” she told Essence.
‘…black don’t crack…’ …
‘…black don’t crack…’ …..black skin is more beautiful, I say! Look at the elegance on that first photo…the neck, the well-defined features, oh!
Next time read the contract…
Next time read the contract before signing the dotted line. Photoshop comes with the territory. Most of the world knows the bald Lupita. Grazia wanted to make sure readers knew it was Lupita on their cover and not a random African lady. There is nothing European about your look on that cover IMO.
Good point. Beauty is divers…
Good point. Beauty is divers. I also know that standards of beauty change as society is influenced by other cultures,and commercials. But would like some of our social scientists to do some research,that is if they havent on what africans considered beautiful. I ask this mindful that africa is not monolithic.
@Maxiley. African beauty is…
@Maxiley. African beauty is different from the west. Africans like a woman/ladies with big butt & fat legs in other words well fed. That shows hakuna matata ya chakula where she comes from
If you have been a…
If you have been a Mwakilishi reader for at least 3 years you will remember an article on this forum stating that 70 % of Nigerians use skin lighteners.(eurocentric beauty)Since you said africans from the west,I guess it could be other countries like Ghana, senegal…
In any event, I believe that what you said does not carry much support anymore, generally speaking;for the reasons I mentioned above.Apparently when mzungu says jump we say how high.And when we ask mzungu to just he says ” are you out of your mind…”
When are we going to start being proud of your heritage as mzungu is with his?
some have said mzungu does not like his skin,and that’s why he suntans.Sun tan is very temporary,and the suntanner just want to look different for a few days without changing his overall self,and look”black”.Where as some light skinned “negros” have been very proud to be rated close to whites.
@Maxiley. I meant the West…
@Maxiley. I meant the West not west Africa. Enda huko ingo dada akiwa na madiaba na miguu minono makes men turn their head.
Lupita you are beautiful…
Lupita you are beautiful inside and out and very intelligent. Fanya hivi, enda Kisumu umwambie baba yako aache upuzi. Umwambie ambie Baba RAO arudi Bondo.
The girl has demons of…
The girl has demons of Omieri the snake from Nyalgunga. Hollywood ni ya shetani and kwa biashara ya shetani hakuna faida. I am surprised people call her a celebrity. She has been initiated into the kingdom of darkness. She needs deliverance