You’ve all seen American Apparel ads, haven’t you? The ones with the skimpy girls lolling about because they haven’t eaten in days and expended the last of their energy shaving their pits and pubes? The company owned by the guy with questionable morals and crappy attitudes about women (explanation [PDF])? Yeah, that’s the one. Anyway, the fashion industry adores them, apparently. Some outlets have taken the AA aesthetic to the next level. Take a look (click to read the text):

Jaw not on the floor? Don’t see what’s so wrong with this image? Well, let me break it down for you.

This is an image from a popular contemporary cartoon called Drawn Together:

It depicts the character Foxxy Love as a minstrel show mammy caricature (explanation). The episode features several parodies of black cartoon stereotypes, like so:

But where exactly did the creators of this show come up with this image? Perhaps you’re not familiar with this:

Or this:

Those are images from one of the banned Merrie Melodie cartoons from the 30’s. Notice the dark skin and big pink lips? Let’s take another look at that i-D Magazine photo:

She’s looking an awful lot like another racist image:

So, my basic question is: What the Hell Fuck is Wrong with i-D Magazine? My second question is: What the hell is wrong with American Apparel that they didn’t object to this image (they are quite proud of their spread as they have a copy of it on their website). Third question: What the hell are we going to do about it?

Want to be even more pissed off? Join the discussion about this post on Reddit!

American Apparel, i-D Magazine, Dov Charney, sexual harassment, sexploitation, minstrel show, mammy, stereotype, Aunt Jemima
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