Hello.
This is the cover of a recent VOGUE issue. The big guy is LeBron James and the girl is Gisele Bundchen. The photographer is a celebrity at her craft: Annie Leibovitz. If you're a decent person, looking at this picture should provide you with little to no emotional reaction. I say that because I'm a decent person and this picture means nothing to me. And I'm a basketball fan.
Now, some people look at this picture and they think its racist. I don't know why, really. Maybe its because there is the big (obviously) black guy howling animalistically with a tiny white damsel in his grasp. Well, that's not really racist... actually, I think you're racist if thats your reasoning for thinking its racist. Big black athletes have every right to run around with smaller white athletes girlfriends in their grasp. If you don't got game, brother...
So, those were my thoughts. Until I saw this.
.jpg)
This is a World War II propaganda poster. If you're a decent person, you can see the striking similarities between it at the VOGUE cover. You can also surmise that, given its vague reference, the subjects of the VOGUE cover were not privy to the artistic concept of the photo.
So, what we have is a photo that means nothing until you consider the inspiration. The theme of the magazine issue was to draw attention to shape and size, and using a huge ball player and a small (not really) model obviously does the trick. Then you have to consider the fact that they appear as symbolic figures referenced from a very derogatory image.
I'd like to think that this doesn't matter. The other part of me feels like there was an inside joke being played. It takes my mind to other places. I feel sort of cheated. Why couldn't Gisele's breasts be bare like in the original?