"My Ongoing Issues with The Oprah Dress(es) in 2014"

• In November of 2013, Peggy Noland and Sally Thurer were fully aware of what they were doing. They released "The Oprah Dress". In a short amount of time, the dress sparked controversy. Let's be real, it's obvious that in order to receive the utmost attention and reactions from the media, something deemed as "attention worthy" must be done. Celebrity bashing or social network drama among well-known public figures, sex scandals, plastic surgeries, substance/alcohol abuse...the basic idea is covered. Noland's choice: using the head of Oprah- a wealthy, well-known, and admired woman(with limited haters) -and selecting a few frames (that don't offer a valid image of figure variation for all women) to attach to the Oprah head, and smack it on a dress. Unfortunately, subjects like these have rerouted the minds of individuals from what is actually important versus what is made important because of materialistic items. Not to mention that media coverage is not absolute coverage, but who am I? Credits to Noland for playing the game. It's apart of the industry and nearly an important aspect for anyone desiring to get noticed: doing something to get the mouths and fingers moving and persons to either become enraged, ecstatic, and engaged.
• Sure, this occurred last year, but I'm not letting go of it because of my decision to address my issues with the dress. I could stay put and lead the distaste for the dress from the racial perspective: the idea of Black women being identified only as sexual objects being reiterated on this dress, the idea of subliminal messages being made about Black women and our struggle with obesity, the correlation the nude figure has with slavery, and the KISS face that could be referenced to some form of a reverse "Sambo face"/"Black Face". Although the racial perspective can be argued, I'm not focused on that at all. Not only because it's already expected of me to focus only on the racial complications with this dress as a woman that can identify with the race displayed, but because my interest towards the dress is targeted towards the facial expressions of the "Oprah head", the sizes of the bodies, and to whom they belong. I read two online articles discussing Noland's dress and studied the responses from the articles. I stared at the words and tried to understand her responses from my perspective as well as someone else's who was in favor of the dress.  Noland selected Oprah for the dress -according to http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/11/oprah-skinny-naked-screaming-on-your-dress.html- because of Oprah's experience with  her challenges in reference to weight. It seems her decision to limit the clothing or completely expose the body of the figure on the dress stems from someone else's artwork. Although Noland played the game, people are still displeased. I shared the image of the dress with some of my fellow friends to seek their reactions. Some were enraged and upset because of the skin color of the figures on the dresses, others were displeased because of the race and size of the woman modeling the dresses, and few were livid because of the lack of attraction they shared for the dress as well as the shoes of the woman wearing the dresses altogether.
• In reality, there's no valid reasoning for choosing to design the figure on the dress without clothing. Despite the suggested responses from Noland in the interview given in the link above, it still lacks legitimacy-ridiculously. Despite Oprah's weight challenges, she is not the only celebrity (or person in the world for that matter) to have endured these type of challenges nor did she pose similar to the posture of the figures on the dresses. Also, in argument against the t-shirts displaying figures in bathing suits (excluding a head) which Noland made reference to in an interview, a majority of those clothing items have the breast and private parts covered up with swimwear. My next observation was the facial expressions of the face of the woman-that is supposed to be Oprah-and how it can be related to the figures on the dresses.There are two facial expressions that favor in possessing a small smile. Both facial expressions are situated on two of the body frames: one for the thinner, socially accepted figure, and the other on the nude figure. Why is the Oprah head happiest on the thinnest figure? Possible reiteration of society's preference of the thinner woman? Is the other smiling Oprah head on the nude figure to show love for the nude self? For the dress with the larger figure, the Oprah head is no longer smiling. Her facial expression offers the suggestions of shock, disgust, and possible fear. Is her facial expression used to express discontent  because the figure steps outside of the ideals for a woman's physical make-up? What about expressing concern for obesity? It doesn't make sense to me at all. Why wasn't she smiling like the rest of the Oprah heads? As for the Oprah head covered with the "Kiss face"(which isn't really the Kiss face because her tongue would be sticking out), is this really a form of humor towards the decisions made in the fashion industry? I doubt this selection was the only possible selection that could have displayed humor that would be more visible to everyone.
•  I sent a letter to Mrs./Ms. Noland to seek possible answers to my inquiries to her choices for the dress, but she never responded-as I'm certain she's too busy working on her next projects- and that's okay. I do wonder though, if weight has been an issue for a multitude of people-mainly women-wouldn't it have made more sense to include figures of different skin shades and sizes of celebrities to acknowledge the idea of weight challenges for all people? Then again, her main focus was on Oprah...a nude Oprah...that actually didn't really look like Oprah. This design is a design that can be viewed as some form of art-as almost anything can be-but it may not be the most impressive. For those who have been infuriated by this dress, and the many opinions that have soared after seeing this dress, I get it. A woman of the opposite race than the figure on a dress she made; her selection of words used such as "white trash"; the poor responses to inquiries about the figures on the dresses; her choice of person to go on the dresses; the feeling of not knowing the exact reasons for the dress...I understand. Conflicts. And for those that may view it as irrelevant, maybe it's not something you're interested in, and that happens, but it was and is still an issue...and it still isn't okay.
• Again, it's part of the game. Thank goodness Oprah didn't respond to Noland how Sophia did to Harpo...
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• With Realness, 
• Bee Elae
• 1/10/2014