Member-only story
Megan Thee Stallion Doesn’t Have to Glam Up to Look Amazing
Addressing the Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot backlash
No one can deny that Megan Thee Stallion is a hardworking artist. She continued to release content throughout the pandemic, and this past summer, she stirred the pot by co-releasing “WAP” with Cardi B; their record went platinum. With her beautiful curvy body and bold lyrics, the Houstonian rapper is a clear showstopper.
Fans can easily find photographs of the self-proclaimed “hot ebony” on social media and in any major search engine. Yet not everyone loves her newest photos. Her latest photo shoot in Harper’s Bazaar has some of her fans fuming. They insisted that Collier Schorr’s images missed the mark and failed to capture her in the best light. And while it’s essential to speak about how the White-dominated beauty industry mismanages Black models and actresses, this scenario does not apply for one key reason: Megan Thee Stallion took an active role in reviewing, editing, and approving the photos.
She apparently reviewed and helped edit the photos, Collier Schorr, the photographer who shot them, revealed not long after the images lit up social media. (Saad, 2021)
Here is the real problem at the heart of their critiques — Megan decided to go for a more natural look. And people using the terms “bland” or “washed out” either intentionally or unintentionally took some jabs at her makeup-free face. To be clear, Megan Thee Stallion does not need to glam up to look amazing.
One Twitter user wrote that the magazine should be “ashamed” for making “a young vibrant woman look all washed out” and accused the professional photographer of shooting images that were worse than selfies. Others called for Schorr to be fired. (Saad, 2021)
Calling someone’s look washed out is a jab at their natural beauty, not just the photographs at hand. However, Black women often catch that sort of critique when they opt out of traditional makeup routines. This standard is especially true for celebrities. For example, the paparazzi initially went wild for Alicia Keys’ makeup-free face. And while she did receive a lot of compliments, many speculated about her unconventional beauty routine.
“I realized I became addicted…
