Beauty Editorial Depicts Beat-Up Women

[emilyj]

Are these editors fucking high? Sure, pain can be a part of beauty, a la waxing or eyebrow plucking...but that's not exactly on the same scale a slitting someone's throat.

Beauty Editorial Depicts Beat-Up Women, Sparks Outrage




An online magazine editorial, portraying female victims of violence, is receiving a huge backlash on the Internet. Online Bulgarian magazine 12‘s latest beauty editorial called Victim of Beauty shows photos of models with a black eye, slit throat, severe burn and torn flesh.

In Bulgarian — a warning for the online photo spread translates: “Recommended Parental Controls: pictures are not recommended for persons under 16 years. And for the faint hearted.” The editorial was shot by photographer Vasil Germanov. Makeup on the six models was by Daniela Avramova.

Angry viewers are taking to the website’s comment section, Twitter and other outlets to voice their dismay with magazine.

One commenter on the website writes, “This is the glorification of violence against women dressed up as ‘art.’ It is demoralizing to women and offensive to anyone who has ever experienced violence. Use the pictures for a campaign against violence against women. Otherwise you must expect to be condemned for trying to cash in on something that is so reprehensible.”

Twitter users have also reached out to the magazine. Many feel the publication is glamorizing violence and sensationalizing abuse against women. Here are some Twitter reactions.

Ramona Singer @ramonasinger
Shame on @twelvemagazine. Glorifying abuse of women is disgusting. 9nl.com/6f9f/ #ENDTHEVIOLENCE

Jenny MacKinnon@jennylmackinnon 14 Jun 12
@twelvemagazine @sirfr We can only see the surface because that's all there is - it's a photograph. It's revolting. #VAW

Francesca Sironi@SirFr @jennylmackinnon I think it's more than #revolting right now because @twelvemagazine continues to answer "we are proud of what we did".

However, the magazine stands by its photo spread showing models in H&M skirts and clothes by Iabel Capasca. Editors in Chief of the magazine Huben Hubenov and Slav Anastasov told Mashable they don’t think the photos promote violence or abusive behavior in any way.

“Quite frankly, we do not think that there is a person, who will see the photographs and automatically assume that violence is okay,” Hubenov and Anastasov wrote in an email.

Though photos show women who are beat up and cut, the magazine editors say they never mention domestic violence or reference to “pain inflicted by men on women.”

“Yes, if someone is hyper-sensitive to trauma, we agree that this shoot may provoke their inner demons, invoke unpleasant memories, and we apologize to anyone who feels offended by it, this was not our intent,” they wrote.

The editors believe the global response to the editorial piece is an “overreaction, adding, “We have to clarify, that even though this shoot is talking about violence in general, and pain as part of beauty, it does not talk exclusively about domestic violence, or pain inflicted by men on women. That being said, the overreaction from the other side of Atlantic surprise us, and frankly – scares us.”

mashable.com/2012/06/15/12-mag-victim-of-beauty/

[copzgirl1171]

Vile.

[Deleted]

That is awful.

[pixy0stix]

So they had no message behind this other than the women were portrayed as being hurt?

[wawa]

Jun 15, 2012 14:44:29 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

So they had no message behind this other than the women were portrayed as being hurt?

That's what I'm getting. And they think that makes it all ok.
We literally didn't mean anything by it, so it's totes cool! We just thought injuried women look interesting.

And then they think people are overreacting. smh

[wrathofkuus]

“We have to clarify, that even though this shoot is talking about violence in general, and pain as part of beauty, it does not talk exclusively about domestic violence, or pain inflicted by men on women. That being said, the overreaction from the other side of Atlantic surprise us, and frankly – scares us.”


Uh, yeah, the fact that it's not about domestic violence but rather about pain as a part of female beauty IS the problem here. Just as bound feet were seen as beautiful on women because of the handicap and limited movement they represented, there's a reason for what we find to be beautiful, and this is kind of the obvious conclusion.

I'd think this was great if it were a sort of image-satire, making a statement about what our standards of beauty say about what we think of women. But... it just doesn't seem like that's the case here.

[housegeek]

It's art. I get it. Its also Bulgarian, which is a completely different mindset of people. Ukrainians are pretty twisted too, anyone seen Boris Mikhailov's "work"?

[pixy0stix]

Jun 15, 2012 14:57:54 GMT -5 wrathofkuus said:

I'd think this was great if it were a sort of image-satire, making a statement about what our standards of beauty say about what we think of women. But... it just doesn't seem like that's the case here.

Agreed. Even if the original intent of the shoot wasn't this, they should have spun it that way as a PR move. They really dropped the ball on this.