Dune: Part Two star Zendaya’s photos from South Korea have left the internet miffed. Netizens believe that the Korean media edited her pictures from a promotional event to make her skin look lighter. More details inside!
Zendaya ‘Whitewashed’ By Korean Media, Netizens Slam ‘Toxic Beauty Standard’
Actress Zendaya, who has been busy promoting her highly-anticipated film Dune: Part Two, was recently in South Korea with co-star Timothee Chalamet and others. Her photos from the promotional campaign there have left netizens fuming. Read on to know why!
Zendaya ‘whitewashed’ by Korean media
A string of photos and videos of Zendaya made it to the internet. While the clips of her interacting with South Korean fans were all things cute, her pictures left netizens rather shocked.
Zendaya looked visibly ‘whitewashed’ in the photos. Her skin appeared to be lighter than usual and this raised many eyebrows.
After the photos went viral, netizens lashed out at the Korean media for allegedly editing the photos to make her look fairer.
Zendaya’s photos spark outrage
Reacting to it, a netizen wrote, “Koreans have the most toxic beauty standard. They just want whitewashed skinny bodies.”
Another tweeted, “Concerning. South Korea has bizarre beauty standards. No need to wonder why.”
An angry fan penned, “SK is so rac!st that they whitewashed Zendaya, smh. They can’t even treat their guest properly so what makes you think they’ll treat foreigners working for their industry any better.”
“Koreans are so obsessed with white skin and they whitewashed Zendaya,” wrote another.
Netizens slam ‘toxic beauty standard’
Check out some reactions here:
The Euphoria actress has always been very vocal about the representation of women of colour in Hollywood. At the age of 21, Zendaya had spoken about being the industry’s “acceptable version of a black girl.” Talking about colourism in showbiz, she had said at the Beautycon Festival, “As a light-skinned black woman it’s important that I’m using my privilege, my platform, to show you how much beauty there is in the African-American community.
“Unfortunately, I have a bit of a privilege compared to my darker sisters and brother.”
Notably, it’s not the first time she has become a victim of unpleasant altered images. In 2015, she had called out a magazine for editing her body. “Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19-year-old hips and torso quite manipulated,” read her Instagram post.
