Twitter erupted after a Cosmopolitan article titled “21 Beauty Trends That Need to Die in 2015” resurfaced. The online article was published in January, but caught the attention of social media users yesterday and today, stirring a heated conversation.
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The article pictures side-by-side photos of various celebrities and models wearing similar hair and makeup trends. The left photo, however, depicts a dated version of the style captioned “R.I.P.”, and the right photo shows what Cosmo considers to be the winning version of the look with the caption “HELLO, GORGEOUS.”
Articles of the style-fail, style-win variety are quite common among lifestyle publications, but the controversy surrounding “21 Beauty Trends That Need to Die in 2015” is that women of color were only used to illustrate the “R.I.P.” trends, or trends that needed to die for the season. For the “HELLO, GORGEOUS.” trends, only white celebrities were used.
Tweeters lashed out and accused the publication of racism, and even threatened to boycott the magazine. See some of the Tweets below:
So This Happened: Cosmo Uses Black Models For Trends That Need To “Die†http://t.co/6ui1nCfrsB #FeedHubb Via #GLOBALGRIND
— HIP-HOP Feed Hub (@feedhubb) April 2, 2015
hate cosmo "@KillioussBey: Boycott @Cosmopolitan this is downright disgusting. pic.twitter.com/zXtDJDnkfc"
— crybaby (@surcacirvive) April 2, 2015
GET IT TOGETHER COSMO!!!! Cosmopolitan Gets Dragged on Twitter For ‘Racist’ Beauty Guide http://t.co/ipOtMhXKgR by @clutchmagazine
— Damacia Johnson (@skylerzane) April 2, 2015
What are your thoughts? Share if you think it was an innocent article or not below or on Twitter, @BlackEnterprise, using the hash tag, #SoundOff.