Does Vanity Fair Impose a Double Standard?
March 9th, 2009 by Nubby
Back in 2006, Vanity Fair ignited an uproar with its cover featuring the naked duo of Scarlett Johansson and Kiera Knightley getting cozy with a fully clothed Tom Ford, who was about twice their age. Though the photo was beautifully shot by Annie Liebovitz, many were left wondering why Ford got to keep his clothes on.
Now comes word that the infamous cover has been spoofed by Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel and Paul Rudd. Though, it’s not in the way that you would think. The guys are posed provocatively in similar positions as Johansson and Knightley, but they aren’t naked at all. Instead, they’re sporting flesh-toned bodysuits.
These guys are funny and nearly everyone featured on the cover shoot has had scenes featuring some degree of nudity in their films. Though this cover is a spoof, it’s not a very good one. Why do the guys get to stay covered up? Was the magazine afraid to show a few naked overweight men or was it up to the guys to make the decision? Do you think that there’s a double standard?
Tags: magazines, Social Change, spoof
March 10th, 2009 at 7:59 am
It’s pretty easy to see this as a double standard, but I don’t know that it is. The body suits (fortunately) leave much to the imagination. But the important part is the spoof. The flesh-colored body suits are able to capture the aesthetic of the previous cover, the colors, the lines. It seems that a bunch of hairy, lumpy dudes might not just be less appealing to look at, but also break the symmetry between the images.
So it could go either way…it wouldn’t have been difficult to turn Jason to disguise his man-parts and have them all go full monty, which would be a truer spoof, a bit more shocking, more talked about, etc. Or they could maintain the aesthetic but with a bunch of dudes.