Now for something non-Capitol riot-related:
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her supporters are extremely displeased following the surprise leak of an unflattering mock-up of her upcoming appearance on the cover of Vogue. Certain members of the press are reporting on this dissatisfaction breathlessly, echoing random social media users who say the fashion photo leak is “disrespectful” and even “racist.”
It’s the stupidest controversy since the last stupid controversy, and Harris is not even officially vice president yet.
“Vogue facing criticism for the cover of their latest issues featuring Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris,” ABC News’s Amy Robach said Monday, explaining that the “fashion magazine is getting some backlash over the styling and more.”
Added ABC’s Janai Norman, “When you think of Vogue magazine, you think high-fashion, top-notch styling, and luxury designers. So many were shocked to see the cover with the VP-elect, with the general consensus being that the magazine just missed the mark.”
To be fair, the leaked Vogue cover photo is exactly as awful as advertised. It shows Harris in a pantsuit and Converse sneakers standing on a pile of what looks like pink satin against a pea-green backdrop. It’s hideous. I’d probably be offended, too, were I the senator or one of her fans.
The ABC correspondent continues, explaining in excruciating detail the “backlash” and controversy surrounding the leak of the Vogue cover photo:
Along with the two portraits, readers got a closer glimpse into the former California senator’s private life, with a never-before-seen picture of Harris on her wedding day with husband Doug Emhoff. And anecdotes on how the pair spend their time, from listening to old-school hip-hop, real old-school jazz, the classics like Prince and Stevie Wonder during their morning power walks to Harris giving her husband a lesson or two in the kitchen. … And that photo with the powder blue suit was overwhelmingly preferred to the casual converse shot.
Amazingly, ABC News is not the only network to have dedicated hard news coverage to the Great Kamala Vogue Cover Spread Scandal of 2021.
“Vogue is getting some backlash for its cover photo of Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris in next month’s issue,” CBS News’s Vlad Duthiers said Monday, adding that “critics called this picture of Harris wearing her familiar Converse sneakers unflattering, disrespectful, and some even called it a little racist.”
Oh, come on. It’s going to be a long, long four years, isn’t it?
“The article, the profile was written by an African-American writer, Alexis Okeowo,” said Duthiers. “The cover shoot was Tyler Mitchell, first black photographer. The editor of the shoot is also black.”
CBS co-host Gayle King added, “We should also say that Kamala Harris, they said, styled herself, she picked out her own outfit. I think they were trying to focus on the tennis shoes because that is kind of her look.”
This is all rather hilarious considering how pro-Harris the Vogue cover story is.
“Harris’s natural charisma and relatability lend her a version of what you might call the Obama effect,” writes Okeowo for the fashion magazine. “She, too, has often been the only Black person in the room, the only woman, the only Black and Indian American woman, forced to prove she’s as good as, if not better than, everyone around her.”
Okeowo adds, “My friend Nientara, a psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine, doesn’t agree with some of Harris’s neoliberal views but tells me, ‘As a brown-skinned South Asian woman who has and is making her professional life in primarily white institutions, it was impossible not to see myself in her. Hearing the names Kamala Devi Harris and Shyamala Gopalan Harris read out loud during a presidential press conference was flat-out thrilling.’”
OK, that’s enough of that. You get the picture.
And to think: This is what Vogue published, and it’s still getting heat from Harris and her supporters because, well, the leaked photo spread is ugly.
