Ever since the concept of magazines came into being, the publishers made it a point to make the cover as sexist as possible, as it comes across as ‘appealing’.They call it ‘marketing’ but we call it ‘sexist’. Because people buy a book judging its cover, and hence the cover should be of a woman scantily clad, standing in a seductive pose to attract the male gaze, right?
While most of the magazines, be it the leading ones or the daily shorts, have blatant sexist covers, there are many who did covers that were problematic in other senses. Here are a few of the most distasteful.
1. When they made the “sexy schoolgirl” trope come back on magazine covers.
2. When they equated the “power” of a woman with her standing in a seductive pose, with dumbells to show her ‘strength’.
3. “Age” doesn’t necessarily have to be intertwined with “sexy”, right? Moreover, the exaggerated edit of Rani’s face and jawline to make her look younger when the issue is an ‘ageless’ one, in itself says something.
5. Another distasteful hook line that associates the actor’s body to male desires. This is what they call a pun?
6. I have no clue how this “sexy” picture of Mandira Bedi “wiped off their World Cup tears“.
7. Just an ‘exotic’ scantily clad woman with sexist captions floating around her. Typical.
8. Yeah, FHM is known for its sexist covers, so this time let’s give the caption its due credit.
9. The magazine thought it was totally appropriate to discuss a woman’s age and her ‘ending’ career with “old” age (at 30!?).
10. Calling two women “waif” and “whale” when they are pregnant is another level of misogyny right there.
11. I don’t understand the point of this magazine and its captions and what it stands for, but it just has the capability to make one sick.
12. Why was Kate Middleton dragged into this, and featured with rotten teeth?
13. Diet Prada mentioned how this cover was just racist in every sense.
14. This is another case of subtle sexism against women in power.
15. They associated ‘madness’ with age-old mental institutions to make a problematic point, all for the sake of fashion.
Seems like the world isn’t getting over this blatant female body objectification and problematised representation any time soon.