Se eu não me vejo, quem vai me ver? A representação da mulher negra na revista vogue brasil

Abstract

This study investigates the representation of black women in fashion advertising, focusing on the Vogue Brasil magazine covers published in 2024. It is based on the understanding that fashion is a cultural and political phenomenon, whose visual language contributes to the construction of social imaginaries, particularly regarding race, gender, and aesthetics. The research is grounded in an intersectional and decolonial approach, articulating concepts such as whitening, blackness, silencing, representation, and black aesthetics. The methodology combines bibliographic, documentary, and case study research, centering on the visual and discursive analysis of the March, May, and October covers, as well as the absence of black representation on the November issue, released during Brazil’s National Black Consciousness Month. The data were interpreted through the theoretical lenses of authors such as Grada Kilomba, bell hooks, Lélia Gonzalez, Giovana Xavier, Sueli Carneiro, Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, and Frantz Fanon. The results indicate that, although there have been advances in the inclusion of black models, their presence remains sporadic, symbolic, and conditioned by editorial and phenotypic criteria. The analysis reveals that black bodies, especially female ones, are often represented through aesthetic filters aimed at adapting them to whiteness standards, thus limiting their empowering potential. Furthermore, the absence of a black woman on the November cover, despite the nationalization of Black Consciousness Day, reveals the persistence of exclusionary logic in the magazine’s editorial practices. The study concludes that fashion advertising still operates within racist structures and that black representation, to be effective, must be accompanied by narratives that acknowledge the subjectivity, agency, and history of black women.