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Is Vogue's LeBron Cover Offensive?
March 19, 2008 12:02 AM
LeBron James has stirred up almost as much commotion on the cover of Vogue as he does on the court.
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ superstar is on the magazine’s April 2008 “shape” issue, mouth gaping, face twisted in a grimace, muscles bulging and arm slung around supermodel Gisele Bundchen.
They’re two of the most beautiful people on earth. But some say the Vogue photograph, shot by Annie Leibovitz, isn’t attractive at all because of the racial stereotype it purportedly evokes -- black beast clutching a white damsel in distress, reflected in French sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet’s 1887 statue “Gorilla Carrying Off a Woman,” and later, in the many incarnations of “King Kong.”
“Here you have an image of a black male athlete in an exceptionally aggressive stance, wide footed, bending over, clutching her with his arm,” said Jason Rosenfeld, professor of art history at Marymount Manhattan College. “It’s one thing to have an athlete in that kind of pose and with that kind of expression on a court after he or she has done something miraculous. It’s another thing to couple it with someone who is of an entirely different ilk and gender. That turns it into a racially charged image.”
Why the scrutiny? LeBron is the first black man, and only the third man in Vogue’s 115-year history, to grace the high fashion mag’s cover.
“When you’re for the first time putting a black man on the cover, and this is the way you’re depicting him, it means that you’re going nowhere,” Rosenfeld said. “Pose LeBron in the pose of a Greek God and pose her as a Venus -- then you’re upping the conversation.”
Rosenfeld, in case you’re wondering, is white. Robin Givhan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion editor of the Washington Post and a former associate editor at Vogue, is black. And she doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.
“It’s so exhausting that every time people see an image of a black person they work themselves into a tizzy that somehow it doesn’t adhere to the way in which they think a black person should be presented,” she said.
“I find it hard to say that Gisele looks like a damsel in distress. She’s 5’11 and quite sturdy,” she continued. “My initial reaction was, maybe the photograph is trying to capture his personality. Would Michael Jordan, James Blake or Tiger Woods have been photographed in the same way?”
True, it’s hard to picture cool and calm Tiger posing like anything reminiscent of his namesake. And Vogue, asked to react to the backlash, said it chose the louder LeBron photo (as opposed to calmer pictorials inside the mag) because it’s “expressive, fun and upbeat.”
“Needless to say, the intention from the beginning was only to depict LeBron and Gisele as superstars at the top of their game,” Vogue spokesperson Patrick O’Connell said. “The point about the entire issue is that it celebrates diversity. And I think that people need to look at the entire issue.”
But Givhan said the “entire issue” is the fact that Vogue depicts so little diversity on its covers. In November, Portfolio magazine pointed out that when Jennifer Hudson was on the magazine’s cover in March 2007, she was only the third black celebrity to appear there.
“The whole LeBron thing really comes down to … maybe Vogue should have more people of color on their cover, male and female,” she said. “Maybe then they won’t be so scrutinized when they do put a person of color on their cover.”
Sheila Marikar
March 19, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (358)
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NO, NO AND NO. Seriously ABC you do seem to only want to generate controversies along 'hate' lines. ABC=FOX NEWS= HATE.
Posted by: Emo | Mar 19, 2008 10:36:52 AM
I think that it is ridiculous. I see a man at the top of his game, doing his thing. And a woman at the top of her game doing her thing. I think people are looking for problems where there are none. If they had done a glamour shot, someone else would have looked at it and found a reason to call it racist.
Posted by: Stacy | Mar 19, 2008 10:37:14 AM
stupid.
here's someone else waving the race card. no wonder people have turned a blind eye to true issues of racial discrimination.
Posted by: bree | Mar 19, 2008 10:42:52 AM
I'm sick of everything being turned into a racial debate. Get over it.
Posted by: Kim | Mar 19, 2008 10:52:12 AM
We need many, many more black and white celebrities couples to be seen in the movies and print to help desensitize reactions and opinions that are unnecessarily negative. The more we see this the easier it will be for the public to accept it.
Posted by: 72 old white man, Tucson | Mar 19, 2008 11:04:08 AM
Since Rosenfeld, a white man, must feel so good about himself being the defender all that is black.
LeBron is playing off the agressive athlete taking his woman. If anyone should be offended, it's athletes- black or white.
Posted by: Kim | Mar 19, 2008 11:14:00 AM
Give me a break! Do people have nothing better to do than to complain about this stuff? Attractive people pose for magazine covers all the time --it's POSED! Get it!
Posted by: RUKIDDING? | Mar 19, 2008 11:14:05 AM
Give me a break! Do people have nothing better to do than to complain about this stuff? Attractive people pose for magazine covers all the time --it's POSED! Get it!
Posted by: RUKIDDING? | Mar 19, 2008 11:14:10 AM
It's not offensive. I can't believe people see anything but two perople posing for a magazine. Ridiculous, move on.
Posted by: JoAnn | Mar 19, 2008 11:15:09 AM
It's not offensive. I can't believe people see anything but two perople posing for a magazine. Ridiculous, move on.
Posted by: JoAnn | Mar 19, 2008 11:15:16 AM
Get real, people need to stop being so sensitive when it comes to race. Cover is not offensive.
Posted by: john | Mar 19, 2008 11:20:20 AM
SOO NOT OFFENSIVE!! respect the photographers vision and the fact that the individuals featured approved of it, so obviously, in each of their eyes, there is nothing wrong or offensive about the picture.
Posted by: Devany | Mar 19, 2008 11:21:27 AM
WTF....am i supposed to identify an ape with a basketball player? I saw a strong athlete and a beautiful model end of story....as a black woman i must say i have more relevant things to get offended about. let's move on....
Posted by: barb | Mar 19, 2008 11:21:29 AM
WTF....am i supposed to identify an ape with a basketball player? I saw a strong athlete and a beautiful model end of story....as a black woman i must say i have more relevant things to get offended about. let's move on....
Posted by: barb | Mar 19, 2008 11:21:36 AM
what's the artistic point of this cover? anybody?
Posted by: Malachi | Mar 19, 2008 11:21:50 AM
I see no problem with this picture! NONE AT ALL!!! People, open you eyes and quit picking apart every little thing!
Posted by: Johnnyd777 | Mar 19, 2008 11:23:28 AM
As if Vogue magazine matters to a thinking person. Or the opinion of some starving artist from a college I never heard of.
Posted by: robert041159 | Mar 19, 2008 11:31:51 AM
Are you kidding me?... Is this really something worth the miniscule effort our brains have to put forth to contemplate this garbage?
Posted by: ladybug_tattoo | Mar 19, 2008 11:32:09 AM
No, not at all, please get a life to whomever brought this one up. What, if I eat a green grape vs. a purple grape is it going to show up on ABCNews as me being a racist in some way??????? Get a life folks
Posted by: J | Mar 19, 2008 11:33:22 AM
The only thing offensive about this is the fact a professor of art believes an APE is a depiction of a black man. That speaks to the true "race" issue posed here.
Posted by: hesaidwhat? | Mar 19, 2008 11:34:08 AM
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