Browsing by Author "Benjamin, Khalil A."

This thesis places the fashion industry under the microscope, illustrating its role in the construction, restriction, and commodification of Black identity. More broadly, I investigate the entertainment industry's reliance on distorted depictions of Black masculinity. In investigating the modeling industry as a space of aesthetic creation, I uncover a site of racialized meaning-making that upholds Eurocentric ideals. Through my ethnographic fieldwork, I center the lived experience of Black male models, revealing structural inequalities that challenge narratives of progress and inclusion. Ultimately, I question who gets to be represented, how, and by whom, calling us to reimagine modes of representation outside of the limitations of controlled-inclusion.