in brief: vogue hommes cover sees model choked

The latest cover of Vogue Hommes International is under fire after its lead image depicted actress and model Stephanie Seymour being choked from behind by a man.

The photo, shot by controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson, is another example of glamorous BDSM-inspired imagery to creep into the pages of ‘high fashion’ magazines.

In the image, Seymour has one arm raised above her back, while model Marlon Texeira has a hand around her throat and is cupping her left breast. The cover has been circulated quickly online, with publications from the Huffington Post to The Daily Beast dissecting the implications of the imagery.

New York based domestic violence assistance service Santuary for Families has taken their objection to the imagery right to the magazine’s publisher Conde Nast International. In a petition on Change.org, the group has expressed their concerns about high fashion photography presenting images of domination as passionate rather than dangerous. With 234 signatures at present, the petition expresses:

‘Choking is a huge predictor of future lethality, as a recent study found that 43% of women who were killed by intimate partners had experienced at least one previous episode of choking before being killed.’

The cover image is not the first time fashion magazines have received criticism for images suggestive of sexual or domestic violence, and while the cache of 50 Shades of Grey has been used as an explanation for revival of such images, domestic violence and equality organisations seem keen to assert that such photography is never glamorous.

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