US Vanity Fair May 2009 : Gisele Bündchen by Mario Testino

[dior_couture1245]

What a bizarre list.

It's like they asked a bunch of jocky guys off the street who they thought was hot...Bar Refaeli? Halle Berry? Scarlett Johansson? Beyonce? Angelina Jolie?

And then because VF is a respectable magazine, they threw in Cate Blanchett, Natalia Vodianova and Catherine Deneuve...all of whom, I consider beautiful...but the list as a whole is really silly. The only one who I would consider beautiful enough to "start a war"...Natalia.

 

[tigerrouge]

Whatever happened to celebrating beauty? Why does it have to be presented as a competition?

The magazine could present this portfolio of women in a positive way, but instead, Vanity Fair's editorial mindset is = making a competition out of beauty is one way to get through the recession on the newsstand. (If this was really about finding out who's most attractive, we'd be getting the costlier option of multiple covers, rather than a shoddy online poll for cheap publicity purposes.)

So never mind the ascerbic articles on politics and the magazine's condemnation of rich people who get away with murder, this month, Vanity Fair wants me to stop and ask myself: Freida Pinto, HOT OR NOT!

Scuse me, Vanity Fair, at the moment, I have bigger things to consider than Freida's ***. In the good old days, so did you.

Good to know Gisele's on the cover, shame about the slant of the piece. Shame to see the recession making such a difference in a magazine's editorial stance. Cutbacks on costs and outlook.

 

[XavierRaphael]

Loved her last cover, so i'll most likely love this one!

 

[cato.]

Yeah... okay ... no.

 

[|PerfectTonight|]

Sorry but Gisele is far from the world's most beautiful with her horseface. So many, more deserving women!

 

[eternitygoddess]

All the women featured are "celebrities". This is just profiling one very certain type of beauty -> "celebrity" beauty.

Glossy, magazine, edited, styled, airbrushed beauty.

 

[Spike413]

That's their list?

Seriously?? That's the list of names that comes to mind when Vanity Fair thinks of the ultimate in female beauty?

No. There's got to be some kind of mix-up.

 

[vavavinny]

Ummm Kerry Washington? Random addition to the list, non? I can think of much more beautiful women than her. Like, say, Naomi Campbell? Or Nicole Kidman? Or Adriana Lima? Or Asia Argento? Or Nadja Auermann? Or Daria Werbowy? Or 20 other more beautiful actresses or models that I can't think of right now ?

 

[vavavinny]

And why 19? That is such a random and odd number. Couldn't they have done, say, the 50 most beautiful women in the world. Or even 25? It's just silly to me! There is no way that the most beautiful women in the world can be narrowed down to 19. And they didn't even choose the right women. Alls I have to say is that Gisele's edit better be good, because that is the only thing I am looking forward to in this issue.

 

[Iloveyoutoo]

Ummm Kerry Washington? Random addition to the list, non? I can think of much more beautiful women than her. Like, say, Naomi Campbell? Or Nicole Kidman? Or Adriana Lima? Or Asia Argento? Or Nadja Auermann? Or Daria Werbowy? Or 20 other more beautiful actresses or models that I can't think of right now ?

I can't be the only person who has noticed that Kerry and Scarlett are like the same person. Seriously. Look at them. Same face, same body. The only difference is skincolor. They are like chocolate and vanilla versions of one another. Its uncanny. So I'm guessing VF thought that if they were going to put ScarJo in there they might as well put the "brown" version of her there too.

But I agree this list of full of fail. I mean where is Monica Belluci?

 

[á la Balenciaga]

YES! more models need to be on magazine covers! I'm sooo tired of celebs taking their spots.

 

[vavavinny]

^YES! Monica Bellucci is DEFINITELY missing! And what about Du Juan? There needs to be more than one Asian. And Liya Kebede? The list is just pathetic. I'm very unimpressed, considering VF is supposed to be a chic, sophisticated publication lifestyle publication. One would think their taste in "beautiful" women was a bit better. And beauty, like one forum member has already said, is so subjective, that VF shouldn't even be really doing an issue on it. But because they are, they should at least give credit where credit is do!

 

[XavierRaphael]

Marion Cotillard?
January Jones?

 

[Flashbang]

what a desperate way to sell a magazine
thank you VF, another not-neccesary-to-spend-on magazine


what a difference a reccesion made? 24 little hours...

 

[dior_couture1245]

Honestly...the more I look at this list, the more ridiculous it becomes. I mean...Kerry Washington? Are you KIDDING me?

And of course, Angelina has received 70% of the votes from the poll on vanityfair.com...

 

[Spike413]

^ I know right. Who exactly is Vanity Fair's target demographic these days, hetero teenage boys and action movie addicts?

If we're going to talk about who should've been considered, Eva Green is at the top of my list.

 

[SweetFantasy]

A respectable magazine like Vanity Fair should not be holding beauty contests

I totally agree with you there, it's not really helping people with self-image problems, I understand what they're trying to do but it can come across as a bit superficial/degrading towards women.

 

[Mafiosa]

at least none of the gossip girls made the list

some of these women are so boring i doubt they could start wars, but put whole nations to sleep i think that would be possible...

 

[julicalg]

I am soooo excited, I want to see the cover!!!!!

 

[Luxx]

Hmmmm I think the idea of most beautiful woman is something that is interesting but Vanity Fair has seemingly gone about it in a very dim way. Beauty is a very compelling subject - lets be honest for a moment, we wouldn't have websites like tFS if we weren't all in some way interested in beauty, it's surrounding culture and people who are deemed beautiful. I don't think there is anything wrong with the idea of a magazine talking about female beauty in terms of saying such and such actress / model / personality has a face that is indicative of the current cultural perceptions of what is attractive.

However, the problem with the VF list is that it's very middle of the road and almost predictable. You have your completely obvious choices, a few out of touch additions that reek of tokenism and a couple of very bandwagony oh so trendy picks. What would have been more interesting would be if you get an eclectic group of people to talk about what beauty means to them / whose beauty inspires them. Get Woody Allen to wax poetic about Scarlett's allure or have Nicolas Ghesquiere say what makes girls like Jennifer Connelly or Hilary Rhoda so special to him. Get Zadie Smith in to do an essay, have someone who isn't Annie Liebowitz shoot a portfolio of great beauties throughout the ages.

Just do something that isn't Gisele with Testino for the ten millionth time. Angelina for the billionth time. Halle for the zillionth. Are these the only women worth talking about when it comes to phyiscal attractiveness?

The contents better blow the tired Helen of Troy concept out of the water. Ranking beauty is boring, talking about beauty can be compelling. Quite frankly I'd rather see a bit of attention payed to unconventional beauties, those on the list so far are all very very traditional - completely unchallenging in a way...