Does the gossip industry promote a white ideal? | Bonnie Fuller

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Transcript

Question: Does the gossip industry promote a white ideal?

Fuller: Absolutely not. I think that’s why women love celebrity magazines, and why we do a lot of fashion and beauty coverage. I think that they . . . why they turn to them in large part away from traditional women’s fashion and beauty magazines is because celebrities come in all shapes, sizes, ethnic backgrounds, skin tones, heights, weights, and now months of pregnancy. And women . . . And so that women can find, you know, such a variety . . . a diversity of role models for themselves – glamorous fashion and beauty role models and life models; and you know a far more diverse range than they ever could see on the cover of traditional fashion and beauty magazines. And so I think it’s part of the attraction, because I mean we cover everybody. We cover all those . . . all different women. And I think sort of the latest thing is that pregnant celebrities, our readers have always been really interested in following their pregnancies; you know watching their bumps grow; then hearing all the details about the birth and seeing the babies. But I actually did a blog for ___________, and I wrote a posting a couple weeks ago that a new line has . . . a new area I think has been opened up for women . . . for pregnant female celebrities, because Halle Berry is on the cover of In Style this month. And in the past if you saw a pregnant woman ever on a traditional magazine, it usually was because she was naked and it was a shock value cover. Christina Aguilera was recently on the cover, again, baring her naked bump. But Halle just looked beautiful and was just in a beautiful designer dress. She had her hands on her stomach. There was no mentioning even on the cover of the fact that she was pregnant. And so it was just like total acceptance of the fact that a woman can be beautiful and pregnant and steal a fashion magazine. That never would have happened without celebrity newsweeklies covering these women and putting them on their covers. And so I think that we’ve really opened the doors to great diversity, and that’s why we’re popular. Recorded On: 1/30/08