Willis
Alicia Roache, Staff Reporter
JAMAICAN WOMEN are receiving novel exposure in the pages of fashion and beauty magazines. The pages of at least two relatively new magazines unfold to reveal the Jamaican woman in all her 'sexiness'.
In the recent edition of Smooth Girl: The Official Magazine of The World's Most Beautiful Women, Jamaican women feature prominently. In a departure from the tendency of magazines which typically claim to show 'beautiful Jamaican women' to concentrate on those deemed glamorous, the women featured are everyday Jamaican women.
They are not models or beauty queens, but girls who one may find working at a desk next to you in the office. While the magazine also features American women (two are on the cover) eight of the 12 women featured in the magazine are Jamaican, one of whom is Jamaican-born but lives in the United States. The magazine, which features predominantly black women and Jamaican women, goes against mainstream standards of 'beauty'.
Sandra Vasceannie, publisher and CEO of Smooth Girl, speaking from New York, says that the objective is to highlight the entire spectrum of beautiful women, the "different shades, sizes and colours".
"People have become used to the 'skinny white chick' on the covers of magazines... Black women are beautiful. We are just bringing life to that to show that black women are beautiful," she said.
WELL-ENDOWED WOMAN
However, black women are not the only ones featured in the magazine. In the current issue, dubbed 'Live From Jamaica', there are women of obvious 'mixed' parentage as well as one white girl. Nonetheless, the two cover models, Ki Toy 'The body' Johnson, a regular in OutKast's videos, and Esther 'Ms Freek-a-Leak' Baxter, another video vixen, are both well-endowed black women a far cry from the rail thin supermodels and slim beauty queens who typically grace magazine covers.
"Where else are you going to see a pretty black girl on the cover of a major magazine unless it's owned by a black person?" stated Vasceannie. "You are not going to see it unless she is an 'A' list celebrity," she said, mentioning Halle Berry as an example.
Vasceannie, a Jamaican by birth and relation, started Smooth Mag, a fashion and lifestyle magazine, in 2001. Smooth Girl, described by Sean Cummings, the magazine's editorial director as the 'pictorial offshoot' of the first magazine, was initially published in 2003. Three issues of the pictorial, dubbed 'Over 100 Pages of Perfection', are published each year.
Vasceannie and Cummings' connection to Jamaica has informed their choice of subjects for the magazine.
Diana, one of the darker-hued women, and Gemini are two of the women she mentioned who she just "fell in love with" and shot for the magazine.
"These are girls who walk the streets in Jamaica every day," Vasceannie said. Diana Johnson, a 23-year-old entertainment co-ordinator at Breezes Runaway Bay Resort in St. Ann, was pleased with her inclusion in the magazine.
"It's really nice, especially since I'm really dark-skinned," she said. "It's good, because I'm not 120 lb with a 36-24-38 figure, the stereotype that you have in these magazines."
In her Smooth Girl picture Diana sports short-cropped, curly hair, her features are African, her eyes and lips prominent. She also has the type of body that many Jamaican men typically appreciate. She is 5' 8 1/2" and weighs 150 lb, with body proportions 36" 28" 42".
Ironically, Diana has made it on a list of 'The World's Most Beautiful Women'. Her inclusion in the magazine may not only be a vindication for Diana but, she believes, also to a good public relations tool for the country: "It definitely helps to bring people here. That magazine is for the guys. If they see that there are pretty girls here they will definitely want to come more."
That sentiment is shared by Vasceannie and Cummings. "Each year we want to have a 'live from Jamaica' issue," said Cummings. "Our goal is to work closely with the Government and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB). We want to move off the property (Hedonism and Breezes) and show the beautiful locales that Jamaica has. That is a 100-page ad on Jamaica."
NADINE WILLIS
Another person 'blowing up' her country is Pulse model Nadine Willis. The model, who went from 'ghetto to Gucci', according to Fashion TV, is now also being dubbed as one of the '101 Sexiest Women', according to Black Men's magazine.
Nadine appears as one of the 'sexiest women' in their Special Edition Yearbook: Swimsuit Extra fall 2004 edition. Nadine is in the company of other models, actresses and media celebrities, including Beyonce, Halle Berry, Alicia Keys, Serena Williams, Eva Mendes and Janet Jackson.
While the women are not numbered, Nadine appears on the seventh page, following the order listed above, ahead of supermodel Tyra Banks. Also on the list are Vivica Fox, Lil Kim, Trina, LisaRaye and Mya.
Nadine, who recently completed a MAC Cosmetics in-store campaign, a Rimmel Cosmetics campaign in London and the Saks fall 2004 catalogue, was surprised at her inclusion in Black Men's.
"It's a surprise. I didn't know about it", she said laughing. "I really feel good to be included in the same list with Beyonce and all of those wonderful girls."
In the feature, Nadine lounges in a honey chiffon tiered Plisse dress, a gold stiletto and a faux mink biker hat. The outfit is the same as one she wears in the September-October 2004 issue of Today's Black Woman magazine.
Nadine, like Diana, believes her feature in the magazine is an indication that there may be a new focus on women who do not look like the typical beauty queen. Interestingly, none of Jamaica's beauty queens, past or present, is featured in the pages of the magazines mentioned.
"I think it's a stepping stone for a lot of young girls out there," says Nadine. "A lot of people used to look at me and say 'you're not sexy' and so on. This show people that black girls from the ghetto can look good. You don't have to be a beauty queen to look good, you don't have to come from money to look good."
But the recognition of Jamaican women as more than just sex symbols is not something that has been widely done, admits Nadine. "I think they don't get enough recognition. Most men look at Jamaican women as if 'she is only perfect enough to lie down in my bed' and that's how they look at Jamaican women nowadays. It's a thing that needs to change in Jamaica," she says.
This objectification may be something that the recent exposure of Jamaican women in magazines may either heighten or change. Many of the women featured in both magazines have careers that transcend being a 'cover girl' and/or an enviable list of achievements.
