Ashley Graham is such a beautiful, bright light in this dumb world, isn’t she?
So her very first Vogue cover has been a long time coming
Unfortunately, instead of just a lovely cover featuring a lovely person, we got this great big mess instead.
So that’s the cover. From left to right, we have models Liu Wen, Ashley Graham, Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Imaan Hammam, Adwoa Aboah, and Vittoria Ceretti.
As Vogue says about the cover, “In a climate of immigration bans and building walls, the biggest names in 2017 make the case that there isn’t just one type of American girl — nor has there ever been.”
And there is a fair bit of diversity here, Adwoa’s father is from Ghana, Imaan is of Egyptian and Moroccan descent, Liu is Chinese, and Gigi’s parents, of course, are Dutch and Palestinian.
But to many people, it just isn’t diverse enough.
One person took to Twitter to complain “While they may be different ethnicities, they all have the same facial features & structure so is that even real diversity?”
Another simply asked “Where are the dark skin girls?”
But while there are definitely some weird things going on with this cover, the thing that really stood out to a lot of people is Ashley Graham’s appearance here.
Notice how she’s the only plus size model, and she’s the only one covering up her thigh?
Oh, and check out Gigi’s arm and hand there. See how long it is — unnaturally long, some might say — and how it’s just long enough to cover up Ashley’s waist?
Yeah, that’s where a lot of people are getting hung up.
Ashley shared the cover on her Instagram page, and her followers were quick to point out the issues.
“No one else has their hand on their thigh,” one person complained. “Girl you better show the world your thick thighs!“
Another said “I’m so disappointed with the obvious photoshopping of Gigi’s arm/hand and the fact tht they only made you as the plus size rep put your hand down covering the thigh. Nobody else had that pose. That’s on Vogue but it’s frustrating.”
“They are missing representing curvy,” someone told her. “You’re one person and you can see like 25% of you. You’re also the only one in all black. I saw this and was soooo disappointed. Such a missed opportunity.”
But Ashley saw all the criticism, and she wasn’t having it.
She replied to one of the comments, explaining that “I chose to pose like that.. no one told me to do anything.”
And that may be true, but even so, there’s no denying that it looks a little questionable.
Oh, and hey, Vogue, next time how about you give Ashley her very own cover? She can handle it.