Brisbane model Sophie Applegarth is one of three young Queensland woman who are getting absolutely shredded online after posting pictures of themselves dressed as the Williams sisters, complete with astonishingly racist facepaint and the kind of not-a-care-in-the-world attitude we’ve come to expect from lovers of blackface the world over.
https://twitter.com/laureningram/status/946595480502276101
The pics, which have since been taken down, appear to show Applegarth and mates Julia Iovenitti and Sally Coburn in full racist party-mode, posing with one another by a swimming pool. Applegarth and Iovenitti are attending the “sports stars”-themed party dressed as the Williams sisters (supposedly), and Coburn is purporting to be Kobe Bryant – as evidenced by the caption, “Bryant and his bitches“.
It’s grim stuff, mates!
Applegarth is reportedly signed to prestigious modelling agency Chic Management, but in the wake of the substantial backlash to her extremely gross costume, they appear to have quietly cut ties. While her name still appears in Google search results:
…clicking on the link leads to a 404 page. She’s also been removed from the list of models on the Chic website, but they haven’t responded to calls for comment from the press or the public.
@Chic_Management are you going to comment re Sophie Applegarth’s future with your agency or has she only been temporarily removed from your website until this dies down? pic.twitter.com/ES7eS3ePv7
— nebuchadnezzar (@madexaden) December 29, 2017
Applegarth, who has about 15k Insta followers, has both made her account private and posted a retort to the accusations of racism she’s been fielding. According to the ABC, the statement (posted on Instagram) reads:
Disclaimer — I had no ‘racist’ or malicious intent by the photos I just uploaded. We were praising our fav sports stars Serena and Venus Williams. Did not mean to offend.
Ahh, that old chestnut.
Meanwhile, on a public Facebook post by one of Applegarth’s old classmates, there is this image, which is reportedly what Iovenitti sent in response to being called out for perpetuating racist bullshit:
Other responses allegedly include Iovenitti threatening to get her lawyer involved thanks to “unreasonable harassment“.
There you have it, folks. Blackface, a form of makeup that has never not been used to mock and subjugate people of a certain race, is actually just backing your favourite sportswomen. And telling someone they’re being racist? Harassment.
Bring on 2018, please. I’m quite done with this year.
