white breasts and poor brown backdrops

The racism inherent in photography still  runs deep. Especially in Popular Culture.  Calendar art this time.  White women with barely concealed breasts  are given  brown , ethnic  backgrounds. Sex sells and so does poverty. The latter speaks of backward cultures even as it it foregrounds the the superior whites.
Photographic stereotypes  are perpetuated to sell more than just sports and  swimsuits.


The comments that follow make for very interesting reading.  Do read them .

People - Especially Brown, Poor and Exotic - As Props

by Abby Zimet

Perpetuating as many racial, cultural and class stereotypes as possible in one fell crass swoop, this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue features half-naked models in teeny "swim" wear posing in seven different continents with picturesque, sometimes spear-carrying natives as furniture-like props. Because nothing says China - the world's largest exporter and fastest growing industrial economy - like an elderly man in a cone hat poling a wooden raft down a river for a semi-naked white lady.

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2013/02/15-5