“Goodbye Vancouver Island! Your scenery is hot and you know how to get down with the situation.”
Photo from @Andrej_Pejic
A couple of months ago, FASHION Magazine, a Canadian publication, put androgynous model Andrej Pejic on the cover of their February issue. As an avid reader of FASHION, I was so excited. Andej is one of the world’s top international models, so I thought it was amazing to see him on the cover of a Canadian magazine.
Apparently, not everyone felt the same way. I have to be honest - I was shocked when I read the ‘letters to the editor’ from both the March and April issues. While there were many people applauding FASHION for putting Andrej on the cover, there were also several letters from people claiming that the cover was “offensive.”
Personally, I’m a little confused as to how this cover could be offensive. FASHION, and even Andrej himself, are not attacking anybody. They aren’t making a judgement. They aren’t saying that Christianity is wrong. This was simply a beautiful model in a gorgeous dress.
As a young woman reading this magazine, it’s not like I’m looking at Andrej and comparing myself to him. I never compare myself to models in the first place, because there is no point to that. Fashion is the ultimate fantasy. It’s this outlet in which you can imagine that you are a completely different person. It’s an escape from my otherwise dull and dreary existence. But it’s not reality. So to say that it’s unfair for young women to be comparing themselves to a man dressed as a woman - I question why these women are comparing themselves to any model, male or female, in the first place.
That said, I think that what annoys me the most about this “controversy” is that, if the tables were turned, nobody would even care. What I mean is that, if a female model was on the cover of a magazine supposedly “dressed like a man” in say YSL’s Le Smoking, everyone would think it was so cool. Girl power ~all the way.
Why is it acceptable for women to wear traditionally masculine clothes, yet seeing Andrej Pejic in a dress is supposedly the end of civilization?
In this issue, FASHION presented beautiful images that reflect what’s going on in the fashion world today. Let people be whoever they want to be.
