Twitter Skewers Los Angeles Times — And Stars — For All-White Actress Cover
The Los Angeles Times has some explaining to do after a cover story about empowering actresses included only white women, bitter Twitter users complained.
It shouldn’t be necessary to point out the obvious, but clearly it’s necessary to point out the obvious. pic.twitter.com/FQjLkBiaMy
— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) December 22, 2017
no editor on that entire staff said "oh, huh, wait a sec?" Not in discussions about the photo, not in booking the photo, not the day of the photo shoot, not looking at proofs, not sending it over for a final look before publication? Dozens of places to stop and reconsider.
— Laura Lorson (@prairielaura) December 22, 2017
The cover story of The Envelope section, which examines the awards season, is titled “A Shift in Focus: Actresses Call for a Change in the Way Many Stories Are Told.”
The roundtable discussion of “top actresses,” each one of them white — was about working in Hollywood and the treatment of women on screen. Posing on the cover of the Thursday section was Jessica Chastain (“Mollie’s Game”), Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”), Diane Kruger (“In the Fade”), Saoirse Ronan (“Lady Bird”), Annette Bening (“Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool”) and Kate Winslet (“Wonder Wheel”). All but Kruger are considered to be in the running for lead actress Oscar nominations for 2018. Except for Chastain, all are blond.
Fordham English professor Scott Poulson-Bryant suggested that the Times look up the word “irony.” He quipped that Chastain, with her red hair, must have been the “diversity offering.”
i guess the redhead is the diversity offering?
hey, @LATimes, i can think of one way that we can "change the way many stories are told"...look up irony in the dictionary before you write your cover lines. pic.twitter.com/X2b7uTvzUn— scott poulson-bryant (@SPBPHD) December 21, 2017
There are lots of other “top actresses” the newspaper could have included. Even If the Times was just focusing on award contenders, there were several options. Chilean transgender actress Daniela Vega (“A Fantastic Woman”) and Salma Hayek (“Beatriz at Dinner”) are also both considered contenders for lead actress Oscar nominations. And supporting actress contenders include Octavia Spencer (“The Shape of Water”), Hong Chau (“Downsizing”), Mary J. Blige (“Mudbound”) and Tiffany Haddish (“Girls Trip”), all of whom could have added some color contrast.
Four of the last 8 winners of Best Actress in a "Supporting" role are African American. Viola, Lupita, Octavia & Monique.
— Norma Wine (@NormaWine1) December 22, 2017
But Twitter users weren’t upset just with the newspaper; they were especially upset with the women who posed for the cover shoot for not speaking up.
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It is almost 2018. If you're a white woman and someone asks you to pose for a group picture, for a magazine cover, with only other white women, YOU SAY NO. https://t.co/XYn1xq9j96
— Kate Harding (@KateHarding) December 22, 2017
You mean other white actresses? It's time white actresses speak up when their WOC colleagues are ignored. #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen
— Small Screen Girl (@KiraJW) December 22, 2017
What is wrong with people? Not ONE of these talented and smart women stood up and said, 'hey, something's missing in this photo?' Really?
— rebekah sager (@Rebekah_Sager) December 22, 2017
Writer and WNYC radio producer Rebecca Carroll called out Chastain, who has spoken up for the rights of minority women. “Honestly @jes_chastain as an outspoken voice for equality how do you pose for a photo like this and not feel absolutely mortified by the blatant exclusion?”
Honestly @jes_chastain as an outspoken voice for equality how do you pose for a photo like this and not feel absolutely mortified by the blatant exclusion? How is it possible to not understand the msg this photo sends? pic.twitter.com/nb8caRfVL6
— Rebecca Carroll (@rebel19) December 22, 2017
Carroll called the purported “shift in focus” touted by the Times actually the “antithesis of a shift in focus — this is literally The Same Focus on White Women in Hollywood.” She also scoffed at calling this group of actresses the “agent for change,” when it was black women who defeated Roy Moore in the Alabama special Senate election.
It is literally the antithesis of "a shift in focus" -- this is literally The Same Focus on White Women in Hollywood.
— Rebecca Carroll (@rebel19) December 22, 2017
To present these women collectively worth millions of dollars as change agents when black women with like regular jobs just saved an entire Southern state from a racist pedophile getting seat in the US senate is just beyond.
— Rebecca Carroll (@rebel19) December 22, 2017
Chastain hasn’t responded to Carroll’s criticism. Ironically, one of the actress’s recent tweets refers to a New York Times story on “forgotten” women, many of them minorities, who continue to be sexually harassed at Ford Motor plants.
A lot of attention is on actresses but what about the unseen women?#whataboutthem #whataboutus https://t.co/NRDN5QX12K
— Jessica Chastain (@jes_chastain) December 21, 2017
Also on HuffPost
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.