Magazines are one of humanity’s greatest creative/business projects.

My mom used to work at a bank inside of a grocery store. As a girl, I’d grab all the house and home magazines off the shelves to pass the time until she got off work.

Then, in high school I discovered black hair magazines and Essence. I can honestly say that these magazines helped shape my ideas of the world and of myself. It began with the typical impulse to collect pictures and stories of my favorite celebrities at the time, but it soon grew into something more. I came to view magazines differently, and they served a deeper purpose than mere entertainment.

Somewhere along the way I began selecting magazines with images and messages that affirmed the woman I was becoming. I sought hair magazines that featured natural hair styles and actually started reading magazines like Essence cover to cover. I’d cut out meaningful passages and hang them on my walls, create collages of women and men with locs, and even made a photo book with magazine cutouts and the lyrics to “Black Butterfly.”

I guess what I grew to understand is that we don’t have to accept whatever’s given to us. We can reject, protest, question, or repurpose it to suit our needs.

Fighting colorism demands that we are intentional and proactive with our words and actions every day. It means doing everyday things in a new way–everyday things like tweeting, watching television, listening to music, posting selfies, and reading magazines.

One of the biggest shifts we can make is in media literacy, especially among youth. With this change, we’ll start to see a difference in how the media affects our beliefs about skin color, hair, and facial features.

The benefit to using media literacy to fight colorism is that we can make a difference even if the media doesn’t change. Of course we want to continue pushing for change in the media, but we don’t have to wait for others to act. We can make progress by teaching young people not to be passive viewers, listeners, and readers.

What is Media Literacy?

According to the Media Literacy Project, “Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. Media literate youth and adults are better able to understand the complex messages we receive” through various forms of media.

Media literacy gives us increased knowledge and skills to make more informed interpretations and judgments about what’s in the media. This will help us stop accepting and internalizing messages in the media that reinforce colorism.

Media literacy also gives people the knowledge and skills to find and create alternative media, which can be used to spread a different message.

Fighting Colorism while Reading Magazines

Magazines are notorious for their lack of diversity. This isn’t surprising since many magazines are part of the fashion industry, and the fashion industry is tragically monochromatic. (See here, here, and here.)

As a girl, I quickly noticed the biased pattern in magazines that favored light skin and straight hair. No one had to point it out to me. It was obvious.

But whether we like them or not, magazines are part of everyday life for many people. We see them in lobbies, waiting rooms, grocery store checkout lines, and even the backs of airline seats.

Since getting completely away from magazines is tough to do, we should start to look at them differently. We can engage with them on another level. We can be active rather than passive consumers.

So, I have compiled a few basic ideas that can help us start to look at magazines differently. Although these work for people of any age, I especially want you to share this with the children and young adults in your life.

1) Most popular magazines depict fantasy, not reality.

Why would we open a magazine if it only showed us what we already have and see every day? It’s the fact that magazines allow us to escape into the kind of life we often dream about that continues to make them so appealing.

The typical magazine is in the business of depicting fantasy, not reality; that includes everything from the immaculate kitchens in Better Homes and Gardens, to the splendid dishes in Food & Wine, or the ripped abs in Fitness Magazine.

Every image is staged before, during, and after it’s created. (Watch this.)

But what if we revealed the man behind the curtain, exposed the smoke and mirrors, and told people (especially children and teens) that images in magazines usually don’t show a person as they naturally are? What if we explained the highly involved process of what it takes to get a model or celebrity out of bed in the morning and onto the cover of a magazine? I think that’s a strategy that could reduce the influence of magazine images.

Going back to “that man behind the curtain” (Wizard of Oz reference) we see that people were ruled by the wizard. They worshiped and feared the wizard until they realized that there was no wizard. The would-be wizard was a regular person just like everybody else. And once the people learned this, they were no longer ruled by him; they no longer worshiped or feared him.

When people learn that the images in magazines are mainly illusions, those images lose some of their power. Now, this doesn’t let magazines off the hook. And it certainly won’t fix the problem of unrealistic beauty standards in the media. It just makes us less vulnerable to potentially harmful messages.

2) When we read the text, the images often fade into the background.

I often hear the expression: “looking at a magazine.” Too many people “look at” magazines rather than read them.

If we really want to make a difference in how we’re influenced or not by magazines, we must commit to actually reading every magazine that we open, and only opening those that we intend to read.

Here are the benefits to paying more attention to reading magazines rather than just flipping through them to look at pictures:

improving basic reading skills (especially in children and young adults)
shifting focus (literally) away from the images
gaining useful knowledge or inspiration
valuing substance over shallow imagery
learning that what we see never reveals the whole story

Obviously, reading the entire magazine every time isn’t practical. But maybe there’s at least one article or story that sparks enough interest to read. If it’s the image of a celebrity that sparks interest, then go ahead and enjoy looking at the photo spread, but also read the interview or feature on that person.

3) Have a conversation about the magazine.

Especially if you’re reading a magazine with a young person, it’s important to encourage them to express what they think about the magazine. You can probably come up with good questions that are most appropriate for your specific child, magazine, and situation, but here are a few to get you started.

Why did you choose to read this magazine?
Do you know anyone else who might enjoy the magazine? Why do you think they would enjoy it?
What was your favorite story/article? Why did you like it? What did you learn from it?
Do you think the editors did a good job choosing pictures for the magazine? Why or why not?
What kind of people are shown and not shown in this magazine? Why do you think the magazine editors decided to show these people rather than others?
If you could create a magazine, how would it be similar to, or different from this one?

To make it a real conversation and not a one-sided interview, be sure to share your own thoughts and allow others to ask their own questions.

4) Diversify your magazine selection and go beyond what you can buy at supermarkets.

If you’re into the idea of fighting colorism while reading magazines, you’ll have to invest in a diverse range of magazines and go beyond what’s easily accessible in local stores. I urge you to try these titles that are probably missing from the racks and shelves at your local retailers. Also, continue to discover new and different magazines on your own.

Now you tell us: Do you think magazines are useful in fighting colorism?