Vanity Fair has a reputation for pushing the boundary between art and good taste, doesn't it? For the most part, I have sided with artistic expression. For example:

The beautifully pregnant Demi Moore's 1991 cover

I always thought that she embodied so many beautiful sides of femininity in that picture: vulnerability, strength, bearer of life, fierce protector. Of course, I'm looking at that photo with today's sensitivities (read here: calloused can't-shock-me eyes).





Madonna's Green Issue cover (May '08)

Here I see the tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a dominatrix overpowering (or perhaps bearing the weight of?) the world, from someone well known to support environmental issues. I love this: the hidden messages that make it so much more than just a pretty picture.




Miley Cyrus' June '08 spread

I am of two minds here. For one, she is a girl transitioning into womanhood, slipping out of her cocoon with a Lolita-esque depth in her eyes. But here is also my problem, that in her case she is also a teen role model whose squeaky-cleanness is supposed to be her appeal. This photo spread, while artfully beautiful, should have waited a few more years in my opinion.



July 2008 (pictured at top) features the beautiful Angelina Jolie, her story subtitled 'Uncensored'. Surrounding her glorious cleavage and smoky "come hither" gaze are other featured titles, each loaded with innuendo:

~Inventing the Internet: an Oral History
~Abigail Breslin Keeps her Shirt On!
~Man Crushes
~Has Bill Clinton Lost his Mojo?
~Smuggling Cuban Baseball Players
~Exclusive Excerpt from the new James Bond

I don't see a single title that isn't linked to sexuality in one way or another, so maybe they should have called this "The Sex Issue". Then, when you get to reading the article you quickly realize that it has nothing to do with sex (other than that she is beautiful and reveling in her pregnancy) and you have to wonder what the editors were trying to accomplish with the cover.

Should I, as a woman, be offended at the overtly sexualized pregnant Jolie as the ultimate evidence of conjugal bliss? Perhaps as a mother I ought to be peeved at yet another stereotype of perfect womanhood be paraded around for all the swollen-ankled, mood-swinging Mommies-in-waiting to aspire. Is this another blatant example of the sex sells mantra most marketing plebes can't escape? Or maybe it's just a pretty picture...

What do you think?