A few days ago while roaming about, the radio in the car was tuned to NPR and I got to listen to some confusing ramble about modern fashion. Normally this would result in “lets change the channel to static to listen to what the cosmic background radiation has to say today,” but it was so bizarre that I hung on for a few minutes. The topic was “Vanilla Girl Aesthetic,” which is all about wearing all white. Fine, who cares. But there’s an important problem, because of course there is: most of the “influencers” showing this off are white and thin. This article kinda covers it:

Here’s The Big Problem With TikTok’s ‘Vanilla Girl’

Vanilla girl beauty seems to be exclusively for white women. As a beauty content creator with a deeper complexion, I’ve found that when you look up most beauty trends on TikTok, countless white faces are shown first. With the vanilla girl in particular, diversity is seriously lacking.

Umm… yeah, and? I’m no fashion expert, but it seems not unreasonable to me that fashions based on colors might go better with one skin tone or another. Am I wrong? So, here’s one that might not look so great on you. Big whoop. Trust me, you don’t want to see *me* as a Speedo model, and I’m perfectly happy to not inflict that reality on anyone (myself included). Not every thing looks great on every body.

But here’s where I get *really* curious: how many of the people complaining that “Vanilla Girl” isn’t sufficiently inclusive will *also* get angry if they see a white person with dreads or cornrows? There, it’s not just that such hair fashions don’t look good on white people, it’s that white people (and, I assume, Asians, Indians, Polynesians and anybody else) aren’t *allowed* to wear them.

Fashion ain’t that important.