This is a cover of Vogue featuring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen. Notice the postures: LeBron as the hulking, angry black man, and Gisele as arm candy. Apparently this issue has a whole section on “the World’s Top Models and Star Athletes.” Hmmm, I wonder what the gender breakdown is?
Notice also the way in which the image reproduces the famous King Kong imagery:
Here is a link to an MSNBC segment on the cover.
Thanks to Carmela Z. for sending this image along!
NEW (Jan ’10)! Ruth D’R. and a reader-who-wishes-to-remain-anonymous sent us this (highly photoshopped) photo of Kanye West and Lady Gaga, one of the images in her “Fame Monster” CD liner notes. Some argue that it, too, reproduces the racialized King Kong imagery in which a black man (threatens to) ravage a white woman:
Some may think that this is a reach. But I think her nudity, plus the symbols of primitivity (the plants, the erupting volcano, and even the khakis) clearly invoke animalism.
Comments 12
Anonymous — March 15, 2008
This is totally reminiscent of King Kong and, therefore, totally is in line with our tradition of associating black people with apes. Gross.
John L — March 21, 2008
Jemele Hill of ESPN had an interesting take on this
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/080320&sportCat=nba
peebs1701 — March 30, 2008
Interesting that you make no mention of one of the articles they advertise, "Perfect Fit: Dressing for every shape from size 0 to 16". Size 0 to 16 is hardly "every shape" and serves to further the thin-centric, fat-phobic culture we have developed.
Sociological Images » WHITES, BLACKS, & APES IN THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING — June 18, 2008
[...] I added the T-shirt depicting Obama as Curious George to the original post. And you might want to look here for the recent image where LeBron James and Giselle Bundchen re-do King [...]
Allison — July 20, 2008
Here is another comparison on this one, perhaps even more similar:
http://www.jossip.com/vogues-king-kong-cover-bombed-in-more-than-one-way-20080707/
Michelle R. — January 10, 2010
And I enjoy how the placement of his head under the 'O' and 'G' in the first picture make him look like he has devil horns.
Jonathan — February 1, 2010
But I think her nudity, plus the symbols of primitivity (the plants, the erupting volcano, and even the khakis) clearly invoke animalism.
That, and Kanye is wearing slit-eyed contacts.
Helena — February 2, 2010
No, there's a beautiful story here. She faints, naked in the bath, upon seeing the erupting volcano. He rescues her from certain doom, and she loves him despite his freakish eye deformity.
In return, he forces her to eat occasionally.
They have strangely hair-less children (excepting the upper-lip peach fuzz), with very defined breasts.
Maggie — February 3, 2010
The first impression I get from the Kanye & Gaga picture is actually that he just rescued her from being tossed into the volcano. The khakis look vaguely like fatigues, and the pose has him completely uninterested in her nudity - he isn't looking at her at all, just looking ahead & out of the jungle. Beautiful girl is saved by disaffected ex army dude a la Rambo or something. I really think that was the intent here.
Soede — April 24, 2010
That's not how I interpreted the pic at first glance. My automatic assumption was that he was Rescuing her from the volcano. And look what a good job he did. We can clearly see she's sustained zero burns!
Bijelci, crnci i majmuni u velikom lancu postojanja » Centar za društveno-humanistička istraživanja — January 22, 2012
[...] Obama igračka nije jedini primjer; postoje i majice koje ga prikazuju kao Curious Georgea. Ovdje možete pogledati nedavne slike LeBron Jamesa i Giselle Bundchen gdje imitiraju King [...]
Satiricalifragilistic ! — June 18, 2015
Isn't it literally this one?
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_KPr59U72wU/Tct-MVbDJEI/AAAAAAAAABk/O2K4n8rDIKs/s1600/destroy%2Bthis%2Bmad%2Bbrute.jpg
His arm position, even the color of her dress, the way she has one foot visible, his mouth open--it is literally this WWI poster.