There's been a lot of bruhaha about this cover of Vogue recently, from a photo essay purporting to pair the world's "best bodies" - top athletes with top models
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You are spot on, I am very annoyed there is no armani suit on a male model and female athlete. Why are they not worried about the men flinging women around in general instead of the colour? And why is there no outcry on the colour of the models, all white? Also where are the other races while we are talking about it? Especaily mixed race and Asian (South East), both very notable in their absence. And I am sorry but skateboarding as the worlds best athletic bodies? Ummmm, errrr, no!
The cover definitely invokes the image of King Kong and Fay ray, I think that was done on purpose. I don't think it's offensive, though. If she looked scared maybe, but instead she looks like some sort of Greek goddess blessed with her own secret wind while he is frozen in time. And I've heard this is the face he makes when he is running down the court, not some fictional emotion he was asked to portray in order to parody the beast.
I agree that it is easier for us Americans to jump on racial issues than gender issues, I don't think this is so much because it's taboo as because we don't know how to do it anymore. Gender issues have been reserved for gays, homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, etc, etc, etc. and just being a woman without one of those sexual choices affixed before the title means you've got no right to stomp your feet and complain. You can be black, asian, hispanic and just be. You must be a bisexual woman, a lesbian woman, a transgender woman....
Agreed; but the point still stands, doesn't it? Being a woman in and of itself is not considered to be identity forming. I've read somewhere else that black women don't feel a sense of sisterhood with white women due to a lack of "shared experience". WTF?
Oh, absolutely. (I have a tendency to keep quiet if I agree with something, instead of AOLing: hence my lack of comment on your post, and on the rest of guaharibo's.)
I wonder how this came about? Or more precisely, I wonder how the situation has come to be less awful in the UK? Although sexism and misogyny are endemic here, I still feel strongly that women identify with each other purely on the basis of gender. I'd be happier if that sense of solidarity could be used more productively, mind: often it seems to end in commiseration more than anything.
Are you really spending all those marketing dollars just to tell women that their bodies are best when they just are?
I would change that to "when they just are...hardly there." I had to laugh at the photo spread's attempts to define the model's bodies as sporty and what-have-you when they all looked the same, i.e., delicate and skinny, like models. I'm sorry...a swimmer's body is all muscle. The body of the model shown with the swimmer? I'd describe it as "breakable."
Not that there's anything wrong with being skinny, but don't try to equate skinny with athleticism, you silly magazine!
What about using male and female athletes, regardless of color. The old East German Trackter Maiden stereotype really doesn't apply --- in fact East German Katerina Witt is proof of that.
If what you're saying is that it's OK to put the hot female athletes in a magazine, tehn fuck that with a banana, dude. None of the athletes in this article were chosen for their looks - they're there because they're the best at what they do. Why shouldn't the same criterion apply to women?
Women keep being referred to as a minority - surely females are still the majority by almost 2%? I thought that was consistent for generations.
But yes, racism still exists and needs to be fought, and has lots of men fighting it. Sexism still exists and needs to be fought, but most of the fighters are women. Which gets bigger press?
There's a lot of confusion about the use of the term minority. Most people tend to think of it in terms borrowed from voting terminology, where, once the votes have been counted, you have the majority and the minority and nothing else. Mathematically as well, a minority portion is something that needs to exist as half of a whole that includes a majority
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Also where are the other races while we are talking about it? Especaily mixed race and Asian (South East), both very notable in their absence.
And I am sorry but skateboarding as the worlds best athletic bodies? Ummmm, errrr, no!
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I agree that it is easier for us Americans to jump on racial issues than gender issues, I don't think this is so much because it's taboo as because we don't know how to do it anymore. Gender issues have been reserved for gays, homosexuals, lesbians, transgenders, etc, etc, etc. and just being a woman without one of those sexual choices affixed before the title means you've got no right to stomp your feet and complain. You can be black, asian, hispanic and just be. You must be a bisexual woman, a lesbian woman, a transgender woman....
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I wonder how this came about? Or more precisely, I wonder how the situation has come to be less awful in the UK? Although sexism and misogyny are endemic here, I still feel strongly that women identify with each other purely on the basis of gender. I'd be happier if that sense of solidarity could be used more productively, mind: often it seems to end in commiseration more than anything.
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I would change that to "when they just are...hardly there." I had to laugh at the photo spread's attempts to define the model's bodies as sporty and what-have-you when they all looked the same, i.e., delicate and skinny, like models. I'm sorry...a swimmer's body is all muscle. The body of the model shown with the swimmer? I'd describe it as "breakable."
Not that there's anything wrong with being skinny, but don't try to equate skinny with athleticism, you silly magazine!
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Skinny = best makes my blood pressure go up.
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But yes, racism still exists and needs to be fought, and has lots of men fighting it. Sexism still exists and needs to be fought, but most of the fighters are women. Which gets bigger press?
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