备战六级阅读练习：裸色-时尚也是种族主义者吗？

　　【今日阅读推荐】本篇阅读材料裸色：时尚也是种族主义者吗?选自《卫报》(原文标题：Nude: is the hot fashion colour racist? 2010.5.20)。如果大家觉得比较简单，就当作泛读材料了解了解，认识几个新单词或新表达方式也不错。如果大家觉得这些材料理解上有难度，不妨当做挑战自己的拔高训练，希望大家都有进步^^

　　Nude is the fashion colour du jour. But its only nude if youre white, not if youre black.

　　Michelle Obama must be used to causing a stir with her frocks. But she could not have known when she chose a floorlength gown in a lovely shade of well, lets just pass over that for the moment to meet the Indian prime minister last November, the furore that would follow. The dress was described by its designer Naeem Khan as a sterling-silver sequin, abstract floral, nude strapless gown. Associated Press said it was flesh-coloured, the colour of Obamas own flesh notwithstanding. Now AP appears to have revised that description to champagne, an act that has triggered debate about fashions use of the word nude. Nude? For whom? asks Jezebel magazine.

　　To anyone who reads fashion magazines these terms will be familiar. Nude shades are everywhere this season, having dominated the spring/summer 2010 catwalks, from off-white through pale rose to gold . InStyle magazine goes as far as to say that nude is the new black: just about the surest way to exclude black-skinned women from adopting the trend, since its apparently not acceptable to wear black as black, nor black as nude.

　　Over at Elle magazine, where the May issue sees the word nude repeated nine times on a single page, nude is the colour for spring/summer. Editor Lorraine Candy says there is nothing wrong with this. Nude is a defined colour. Its white nude, not black nude, but its not the colour of my skin either. Im see-through white. With someone as powerful and amazing as Michelle Obama, I think its the wrong thing to get worked up about.

　　The problem is that the language of fashion has form in this regard. Beading, fringing and animal prints are routinely offered as evidence of a tribal trend . Last October, a month before Obama stepped out in her dress, model Lara Stone appeared blacked up in French Vogue. Black models, meanwhile, are few and far between on catwalks and covers. And even when fashion editors find synonyms for nude they are conventionally honey, rose, blush, ivory, words commonly used to make an English rose complexion seem aspirational. There is nothing new in all this, of course: remember American Tan tights, and their promise to bring a healthy glow to all those American legs?

　　For me, nude would be if I wore brown, says Dodai Stewart, deputy editor of Jezebel. I do think that it really is exclusionary not to realise that this is not nude for everyone.

　　But it isnt just the description of a colour that is potentially offensive here, its also the way the look is styled, the conception of the entire trend. On the cover of Mays InStyle, actor Gemma Arterton appears in a frock so close to her skin tone that it seems to seep into her chest and shoulders, the two adjacent pallors of flesh and dress somehow bleaching each other out, lightening further the overall look. On the catwalks in Paris, Milan, London and New York, these pale shades were presented almost uniformly on pale skins. Its a look thats all about white skin.

　　Obama looks amazing, says Reina Lewis, professor of cultural studies at the London College of Fashion. Its a fabulous dress. But on her skin nude is revealed as a colour rather than neutral.

　　Indeed it seems misplaced to think of these shades as neutral, when the debate makes clear that this trend is anything but. Pantone, the world-renowned authority on colour, may have a nude shade, thereby conferring a certain official acceptability on all those magazines usage of the term. But then another N-word was once commonly used in clothes catalogues to describe a chocolatey shade of brown. Will nude one day strike us as equally horrifying?

　　du jour 当今的;今日特色的

　　cause a stir 引起轰动;引发骚动

　　frock n. 女装;连衣裙

　　pass over 越过;忽略;回避;不注意

　　furore n. 勃然大怒;公众骚动

　　see-through adj. 透明的;穿透的

　　get worked up 特别生气;不开心

　　in this regard 就这一点而言

　　cross out 删去;注销

　　black up 把弄黑

　　few and far between 稀少;彼此相距很远;不常发生

　　complexion n. 肤色;面色

　　deputy editor 副主编

　　exclusionary adj. 排他的

　　seep into 渗入;流入;影响到

　　bleach out 漂白;褪色

　　is anything but 绝对不是

　　confer on 授予;授给

　　Question time:

　　1. Why did Michelle Obamas frock caused controversy?

　　2. Is nude proper according to the authors opinion? Why?