Am I the only one?

[Teresa]

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This recent Boho cover freaked me out.

Looks to me like a woman is about to be raped.

Am I the only one who had this reaction?

[Thad]

great thread title

Like, am I the only one, who wonders why women don't ask the general question of,

"Why would you want to rape me?",

and asked for a real answer.

Does anyone dare to ask, and does anyone dare to answer?

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This recent Boho cover freaked me out.

Looks to me like a woman is about to be raped.

Am I the only one who had this reaction?

[Sandy2y]

No, you're not the only one. The picture is insulting to women everywhere. And, a fresh reminder of how violence to women is business as usual.

Sandy2y

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This recent Boho cover freaked me out.

Looks to me like a woman is about to be raped.

Am I the only one who had this reaction?

[Dixon]

No, you're not the only one. The picture is insulting to women everywhere.

I would agree that the picture has overtones of impending violence, and even sexual violence such as rape, although other, less disturbing, interpretations are possible. But I don't understand how it's "...insulting to women...". Are you inferring that the picture is endorsing violence?

[Sandy2y]

Yes!! Endorsing, perpetuating, and sexualizing it. Want an analogy?

Imagine a cartoon with a Black person in the foreground and a white man standing in the doorway holding a noose. I think it would be insulting to Black people everywhere.

Sandy2y

I would agree that the picture has overtones of impending violence, and even sexual violence such as rape, although other, less disturbing, interpretations are possible. But I don't understand how it's "...insulting to women...". Are you inferring that the picture is endorsing violence?

[craig mason]

I was also shocked (as a male). After reading the story, I understood how it could possibly be considered an illustration of that story but had to wonder if juxtaposing a male with a gun over a woman on her knees was intentionally provocative or simply unconscious (neither a good excuse). Publishing it as a cover so widely on display was distasteful and insensitive, surprisingly so for a presumably progressive paper.

No, you're not the only one. The picture is insulting to women everywhere. And, a fresh reminder of how violence to women is business as usual.

Sandy2y

[eeeeeeow]

"Honey. Come out here with me and the kids. Leave the wine alone."

[Chris Dec]

"... and play with my gun. (Yes I am glad to see you.)"

"Honey. Come out here with me and the kids. Leave the wine alone."

[Dixon]

Yes!! Endorsing, perpetuating, and sexualizing it. Want an analogy?
Imagine a cartoon with a Black person in the foreground and a white man standing in the doorway holding a noose. I think it would be insulting to Black people everywhere.

In neither of the two examples is there an implied endorsement, and if you wanted to make a case that merely depicting some brutality perpetuates such brutality--well, you'd have to make a case for that, rather than just saying it. Depiction is not necessarily endorsement. In fact, often depiction is in the service of fighting against brutalities. More often ugly or brutal things are depicted with neither an intent to support nor to oppose some brutality, but just to invoke those images for artistic, educational, consciousness-raising, poetic or fictional purposes. Note that you have just created a (mental) image of "...a Black person in the foreground and a white man standing in the doorway holding a noose". Is this image you created an endorsement of racist violence? Does it perpetuate it? No--you're using the image as part of discourse. Anyone seeing an endorsement of brutality in the image you've created would simply be inferring something that wasn't implied--just as you've done with your perception of endorsement in the Boho cover image.

The fight against all forms of violence is an important one, which is not helped by getting worked up over imaginary transgressions when there are so many real ones around we could be addressing. It just undercuts your credibility, which is a shame since you have something important to say.

[Timothy Gega]

I considered writing a story for this Writing Contest myself. (Cover photo). I just didn't know what to do with the body...

[podfish]

Yes!! Endorsing, perpetuating, and sexualizing it. Want an analogy?

Imagine a cartoon with a Black person in the foreground and a white man standing in the doorway holding a noose. I think it would be insulting to Black people everywhere.
Sandy2y

Vocabulary Word of the Day

goes to podfish for

Inure

"to accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain, etc.;..."

Dixon's put his answer in a much better context than I could. But there's one aspect of this he doesn't address. Although I disagree with your characterization of this as an insult, I think I understand why you find it disturbing.

I've used the analogy of the movie "Pulp Fiction" for this thought - making that movie once may be art, but why would there ever be a genre of that kind of stuff? Why is there a genre of chainsaw massacre movies? I suspect you're objecting because you don't think the representation of brutality is appropriate for light entertainment.

Why would such a thing be found on the cover of a local arts & entertainment paper? That's a deeper cultural question. At least we don't still have public hangings... or show ISIL beheadings (oh wait, I think the news shows did). It certainly is true that the 'average' reader of the paper doesn't have a particularly visceral reaction to images like the one on the cover or the one you've proposed. We're pretty inured. It's probably a bad thing.

[LifeIsSweet]

This is obviously a suggestion of impending rape. But, to know context of the image, we need to read, "The God's Eye", which this illustration represents. Also, who is the artist? Did s/he represent what the writer intended? In any case, why would the magazine choose this image for its cover? So many questions? As progressive and open-minded as I am, this cover photo makes me sick. I think it was meant to titillate.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

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This recent Boho cover freaked me out.

Looks to me like a woman is about to be raped.

Am I the only one who had this reaction?

[Dixon]

For those who may be interested in the actual intentions of the artist and editor involved, here's the explanation:

Eye of the Beholder
What was behind that cover image anyway?
Posted By Stett Holbrook on Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 5:00 PM

One of my favorite parts of my job as editor the Bohemian is working with artists and photographers to create each week’s cover. The cover almost always relates to our feature story and is designed to be eye-grabbing from up to 10 feet away and make readers say, “hey, that looks interesting. I better pick that up and read it.”

For our fall literature issue last month, I wanted an artist to illustrate the winning entry in our annual fiction contest, “The God’s Eye” by Jeff Cox. I reached out to Brooklyn illustrator extraordinaire Danny Hellman. He’s inked work for dozens of magazines and newspapers. I sent him the winning story, an Agatha Christie-esque story about a stolen jewel, and asked him render a scene. I thought the illustration he sent me was spot-on. It showed a woman on her knees looking for the missing jewel while a sinister man with a gun loomed in a doorway behind her. A big eyeball floated between them. (Spoiler alert if you haven’t read the story: the thief stashed the jewel in the empty socket behind his glass eye, hence the floating eyeball on the cover). But that’s not what a few readers saw...


Read the rest at:
https://www.bohemian.com/BohoBlog/ar...f-the-beholder

[Roland Jacopetti]

For those who may be interested in the actual intentions of the artist and editor involved, here's the explanation:

Eye of the Beholder
What was behind that cover image anyway?
Posted By Stett Holbrook on Tue, Oct 28, 2014 at 5:00 PM

One of my favorite parts of my job as editor the Bohemian is working with artists and photographers to create each week’s cover. The cover almost always relates to our feature story and is designed to be eye-grabbing from up to 10 feet away and make readers say, “hey, that looks interesting. I better pick that up and read it.”

For our fall literature issue last month, I wanted an artist to illustrate the winning entry in our annual fiction contest, “The God’s Eye” by Jeff Cox. I reached out to Brooklyn illustrator extraordinaire Danny Hellman. He’s inked work for dozens of magazines and newspapers. I sent him the winning story, an Agatha Christie-esque story about a stolen jewel, and asked him render a scene. I thought the illustration he sent me was spot-on. It showed a woman on her knees looking for the missing jewel while a sinister man with a gun loomed in a doorway behind her. A big eyeball floated between them. (Spoiler alert if you haven’t read the story: the thief stashed the jewel in the empty socket behind his glass eye, hence the floating eyeball on the cover). But that’s not what a few readers saw...


Read the rest at:
https://www.bohemian.com/BohoBlog/ar...f-the-beholder

I didn't know the actual story behind that cover, but it was obvious to me (and I wrote about it in a Bohemian Letter to the Editor) that this was not a sexual scene, but a man threatening a woman with a gun. I think most addicted thriller readers (like me) would have come to that conclusion. Actually, l'm quite surprised at the number of people who interpreted it as a rape scene, considering the expressions on their faces, the way they were dressed, the gun, and so forth. Rape, though, is a very big issue in our society, a very hot button for most people, myself included. In my opinion, just a few changes in the illustration would have made it an obvious rape scene, but that isn't what it was when it appeared on the cover of the Bohemian. Thriller readers also know that rape is a pretty rare theme in that literature. If it wasn't, I wouldn't read it.

[eeeeeeow]

It's terrific with a film noir slant. Surreal quality really raised an eyebrow. Love it. Keep up the great work.

I didn't know the actual story behind that cover, but it was obvious to me ...

---

[ You can read the story that inspired the cover, “The God’s Eye” by Jeff Cox, here. - Barry ]

[Ronaldo]

[Dixon]

What an honor to have my face superimposed on one of my all-time favorite characters (Rorschach) from one of my all-time favorite books (Watchmen)!