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In reply to the discussion: Mystery of Mitt Romney’s ‘fake tan’ solved by Univision News team [View all]regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)Because it was makeup rather than spray tan? I always thought it was makeup -- I've done enough acting and directing to tell what it looks like, and thought that the assumption that Romney was, specifically, using spray-on tanning product was incorrect.
However, it doesn't change the situation. Darker pancake makeup has been used for decades to make someone's skin look like that of a different race, all the way from the "blackface" minstrel shows to WWII movies where white actors were made to look "Japanese."
The question isn't "what material was used," but "was it done with the intent to darken Romney's appearance?" And I can't see how the answer can be other than affirmative. Makeup artists, even at the lowest level, are trained to always use a shade closest to the subject's skin, when the makeup is being used to cover flaws rather than as a "special effect." If this is true for volunteers for community-theater groups, it is many times more true for skilled professionals at international television networks. To put it bluntly, to have used that much darker a pancake on Romney, a shade that clearly didn't match his skin color, the makeup artist must have either been unbelievably, grossly incompetent, or deliberately trying for the effect of making Romney look darker (under instructions from the campaign?).
The question here is: was an artificial method used to darken Romney's skin? The self-evident answer: yes. Trying to sidetrack it into "what method was used to darken his skin?" and dismissing the charges as "conspiracy theory" if it doesn't turn out to be one specific method out of several that can accomplish the task is disingenuous B.S., in my opinion.