Hrag Vartanian

I remember this controversy began when one brave AP writer was willing to stick her neck out to point out that the new cover of a shallow fashion magazine is not only peddling in white female stereotypes but added some black male ones to their visual lexicon. The commenters that day on Huffington Post were predominantly of the “are you seeing race where it doesn’t exist” variety, questioning what they thought was the writer’s overzealous racism barometer.

Now, thanks to the blogosphere we have an answer and the allusion to the famous World War I poster is hard to ignore. I think Vogue, editor Anna Wintour, and the photographer, Annie Leibovitz, have a hellavuh lotta explainin’ to do, specially since Portfolio.com reported:

Vogue has said very little about the photo other than that it celebrates “athleticism,” and Leibovitz hasn’t commented.