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Oscar Nomination Congrats to Monique and Gaby Sidibe; Vanity Fair's Lack of Color Mention from Jezabel.com

Oscar Nomination Congrats to Monique and Gaby Sidibe; Vanity Fair's Lack of Color Mention from Jezabel.com
Written by Maricella H.
February 2nd, 2010
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Congratulations are in order for actresses, Mo’nique, who grabbed a nomination for best supporting actress (along with actress Penélope Cruz), and Gabourey Sidibe, who was nominated for best actress both for the movie Precious. During the morning of Tuesday, February 02, 2010 nominations were announced with  Avatar ( co-starring Zoe Saldaña ) and The Hurt Locker (co-starring Anthony Mackie) leading the  race with 9 oscar nods. Lee Daniels, producer and director of the movie Precious, is nominated for best director, and Morgan Freeman is nominated for best actor.  Good news all around Hollywood!  Check out Latino Film Chatter for the complete list of the nominees.

In other news, Jezebel.com mentions the lack of ethnic Hollywood actresses on the cover of the “Young Hollywood” Vanity Fair issue.

VF’s “Young Hollywood” is much like the golden age of Hollywood: There was a fetishization of the lithe, gorgeous, virginal ingenue, whose virtues and ambitions were pure, and therefore desirable. You either wanted to be her or sleep with her. She was the photographed wearing white, and her “All-American” good looks meant that she was a WASP or a fresh-faced farmgirl. Certainly not black, definitely not fat, and never both. Looking at the March 2010 issue, has anything changed? Even Evgenia Peretz’s descriptions of the actresses — “Ivory-soap-girl features,” “patrician looks” “dewy, wide-eyed loveliness” — reinforce the idea that a successful actress is a pretty, aristocratic-looking (read: white) actress.

Almost 100 years later, and Actors/Actresses of color are still not getting the love they deserve in Hollywood. Unfortunately, it still looks like some institutions are forcing their ideals of what beauty is, down our throats. It is up to us (you and me), to celebrate the up and coming and established Hollywood Players that are of color and embrace them. We need to push folks to go behind the scenes, and take creative control of what is put out there that represents Asians, Latinos, and Blacks. Let us continue to not let others define the standard beauty in America, and indulge and nurture the beauty within us that makes us unique and beautiful no matter what race and color we are.