Vogue Homme’s Choking Cover Spurs Domestic Violence Protest

by Jada Wong | 1:54 pm, September 18th, 2012

Stephanie Seymour and Marlon Teixeira certainly smolder on the cover of the fall/winter issue of Vogue Hommes International. But does the cover also glamorize domestic abuse, and should the mag be pulled from newsstands? Several advocacy groups certainly think so, and have already taken it upon themselves to write in their demands to the mag’s publisher Condé Nast.

On the Terry Richardson-lensed cover (pictured below), Teixeira is seemingly choking Seymour, fondling her left breast, and caressing his lips in a moment of black-and-white passion. The image gives off a being-choked-is-sexy vibe, but advocacy groups Sanctuary for Families, Safe Horizon, Equality Now, and the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women are claiming that the cover just glamorizes domestic violence.

According to the media blog Romenesko, the groups have called out Condé Nast’s chairman Si Newhouse and editorial director Thomas Wallace in a letter:

Dear Mr. Wallace and Mr. Newhouse:

We write to express our profound opposition to your decision to feature a photo of Stephanie Seymour with Marlon Teixeira’s hand wrapped around her neck on the cover of Vogue Hommes International. This truly disturbing image of a woman being choked sends a dangerous message to anyone who sees this magazine – that choking is a sign of passion rather than of violence.

Choking is a huge predictor of future lethality. A 2008 Journal of Emergency Medicine study of murders of women in 11 cities found that 43% of women who were killed by intimate partners had experienced at least one previous episode of choking before being killed. That is why, in 2010, New York State made choking a violent felony, and advocates, prosecutors, police officers and survivors throughout the State have embraced the law as a way to save women’s lives.

In New York, your magazine appears on numerous newsstands and has enormous reach with young men and women. While this cover was perhaps intended to shock and thrill potential readers, the truly shocking fact is that it glorifies violence against women as an act of love.

Choking is not a fashion statement, and certainly not something that should be used to sell magazines. We are calling on Condé Nast, as a responsible company based in New York, to pull the magazine from the newsstands immediately, and to pledge not to use violent images like this in the future.

The four groups also started an online petition on Change.org to pull the issue off newsstands, which has received 191 signatures at the publishing time of this post.

This is serious stuff, and the groups certainly mean business. See the full cover below, and tell us if you think it should get pulled from newsstands:

[via Coco Perez]

Equality Now fall/winter 2012 magazine covers Marlon Teixeira New York chapter of the National Organization for Women New York NOW Sanctuary for Families Stephanie Seymour Terry Richardson Vogue Hommes International

Anonymous

People need to get a grip. If she had a look of terror in her eyes, there could be a point. Move along special interest groups.
what a joke

First of all, the look on both of their faces screams sensual and passionate and NOT “domestic dispute.” His hands are BARELY around her neck, and it is obviously gentle. I’m seriously blown away that someone would consider that “choking.” While I sympathize with victims of domestic violence, it seems these advocacy groups are wasting their own time. Aren’t there REAL women out there who need their time and help? It sickens me to see these supposed “non-profit” groups using their salaried employees’ hours to write dumb letters and start petitions complaining about magazine covers.
PSG

Agreed. I had commented similarly elsewhere – this is a lustful pose, not one of violence.
http://twitter.com/tacchialtis Tacchis

A storm in a teacup
chill

it’s hot.
little ole me

He’s not choking her. His hands aren’t evening a positioned that way. If you look closely, his thumb is caressing her face. It’s the same touching that occurs when intimately kissing. People need to get a life.
http://twitter.com/Pink_birrd Molly

No, it’s not depicting domestic abuse…It’s kind of shit cover IMHO but I like that a MODEL is on a magazine cover – oh wait it’s a French mag, not American, so no wonder…
I think it depicts two people who might like rough sex…but that’s about it.
LLL

The positioning of his hand evokes extreme violence. The positioning shows that he is choking her. His hand also looks like a gun. Her face has the look of someone who is running out of oxygen (I work in the medical field, I know). It is not dreamy. It is not passionate. It is careless and stupid. It sends a glamorized message to accept violence. “Oh, it’s not that bad” is the attitude of the comments below. It is that bad, AND IT GETS WORSE. Most people are competely igorant of domestic violence, yet it is a very prevalent problem. Woman, once again, portrayed as object. A very, very dangerous position to be in. Violence and killing are ok’ed by assailants/murderers because of their objectification of the victim. “Look at the expression on their faces” people write, but how many times have you seen people hide their true emotions? People smile and have a conversation with you; everything seems great. You find out they tried to kill themselves twice in the last two months. The expression of emotion is NO relay of true emotion. Expression of emotion is taboo. His eyes are closed. He is lost in his own world. What about her world? This cover santions violence. Most people are too ignorant to know how bad it is, and how bad it will become. Complex, Horrible and Inappropriate. After a woman, next is a child.
Casey Gwinn

Vogue should be ashamed of themselves. No man should ever place his hands around a woman’s neck. Thousands of women every year suffer brain damage from non-fatal strangulation. It only takes eight pounds of pressure to occlude the carotid artery and even less to occlude the jugular. The National Strangulation Training Institute and the National Family Justice Center Alliance and our many members and supporters urge Vogue to do a responsible story on violence against women and girls instead of glamorizing abusive behavior to sell magazines.
Muffy

Get a life. Better yet get a sex life! It’s passion, not violence. They look like they’re about to get it on.
Mmm he can visit me anytime

Now that is one sexy photo! Holding her from behind, holding her CHIN to be able to nibble her ear, hand fondling a breast…have the negative paranoid women objecting to this ever had sex before? Is it all missionary, eyes closed, think of England kind of sex? Wow, I do pity you ladies who see violence everywhere you look…save your vitriol for actual acts of violence not what you imagine you see in an ad campaign.
nik

No way is he choking her. It’s passion not violence. OMG everyone is so touchy-touchy.
It doesn’t promote domestic violence. That has a life of its own.
http://www.facebook.com/whitelopaka Rob Ert

The advertisement blurs the line between passion
and violence which sends a message to readers around the world that choking,
which is inherently violent, is acceptable. The passion would be from the man’s
perspective because the woman looks emotionally disconnected from the
experience. She definitely lacks the “passion” of the man choking her from behind
and looks still almost object like.
The
advertisement trivializes sexual violence and sends a message to women to accept
it. The look on the woman’s face is not that of passion, but of emotional disconnect
and passivity. The advertisement is telling women not to “dissent” against
domestic violence and teaches women that it is their role to be passive and accepting
of this violence of passion.

Vogue Homme’s Choking Cover Spurs Domestic Violence Protest

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