Michelle Obama depicted as nude slave on magazine cover

[Stu]

my reaction is to the photo, not that she is topless, or seductive, but that she is portrayed as a sex slave. I find that offensive. I would be interested in hearing from any African American woman on how they feel about this part of your statement.....

it is not insulting toward Michelle Obama

.....

 

[Soulful]

Brief backgrond about the original painting from Wikipedia:

Portrait d'une négresse est un tableau du peintre français Marie-Guillemine Benoist réalisée en 1800 par cette artiste. Cette huile sur toile est un portrait d'une jeune femme noire considéré comme une célébration de l'abolition de l'esclavage dans les colonies par la Révolution française. Elle est conservée au Musée du Louvre, à Paris.

Someone correct me if I am mistaken, but this is what I got:

Portrait of Negro Woman is a picture by French painter Marie-Guillemine Benoist, created in 1800. The oil canvas is a portrait of a young black woman (and is) considered to be a celebration of the abolition of slavery in the colonies during the French Revolution. It is kept at the Louvre in Paris.

Does this change or add anything to the arguments?

 

[this is only temporary]

Brief backgrond about the original painting from Wikipedia:

Someone correct me if I am mistaken, but this is what I got:

Does this change or add anything to the arguments?

I thought it was interesting how some people got "sex slave" out of that painting; I didn't find it particularly sexual at all.

The Wikipedia interpretation does help put it into context, actually.

If you put Obama into The Last Supper sitting in Jesus' seat (which some clever person may do) it would take on a completely different meaning if you did not know the biblical/historical context about him getting crucified. If you didn't know that, you might think he was just having dinner with friends and it would have a totally different tone. So knowing the context does somewhat affect the interpretation.

My overall opinion is that you shouldn't use photoshop to make someone look nude without their explicit written permission.

 

[Soulful]

My overall opinion is that you shouldn't use photoshop to make someone look nude without their explicit written permission.

Hahaha, ftw.

 

[Stu]

Portraying the African American wife of the First Black US President as a partially clothed, slightly reclined 18th century African woman in servant's attire evokes different things for different people but I would venture a guess that anyone with any knowledge of the condition of black women in slavery in the United States would not be off base it associating the image with subjugation and sexual exploitation.

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/Slavery-is-a-Woman.html

[SIZE=-1]It has been suggested that the Portrait d'une négresse was not commissioned but was painted on the artist's own initiative, and was modeled after a black slave brought back to France by Benoist's brother-in-law, a civil servant and ship's purser who had returned from the French island of Guadeloupe in 1800.10 Africans and colonial blacks were frequently brought to Europe to work in upper class and middle class households and often appear in paintings "as part of a complex ritual of display of . . . the ostentatious wealth the bourgeoisie (and upper classes) accumulated through African slave labor on Caribbean plantations."11 During the time in which Benoist's portrait was painted, planters were allowed to bring slaves onto the French mainland where, legally, slavery had been forbidden since the Middle Ages. French law dictated that once transported onto continental French soil, a slave's status had to be legally changed to that of servant or attendant and registered with the French authorities.12 In all likelihood, therefore, Benoist's sitter was a slave-turned-servant who had no say in the way her body was presented.[/SIZE]

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/Slavery-is-a-Woman.html

 

[detectivepope]

my only thought is how awful a photoshop it is, they could have at least done a painting effect.

 

[Cornerstone]

[MENTION=1939]Stu[/MENTION]

Yeah, I didn't get the sex-slave vibe at all...but I see what you mean were it to be taken that way.

To me, a bare breast doesn't indicate sex. It does nowadays but I was thinking in the context of when the original was painted. It's not a sexual image to me.

Also, mention or quote me if you want to reply or I don't know and have to make an effort to follow the thread.

 

[Rcs6r]

Besides the terrible photo shopping, I couldn't care less really.

"Plenty of absurd things are 'artsy,' like crafting Jesus on the cross out of elephant feces or giving birth inside an art gallery as a live-action installation. But a drawing of Michelle Obama topless on the cover of Fuera de Serie is plain old tasteless," wrote Jessica Wakeman.

HAH.