Fashion The magazine has a new cover: Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The Chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has spent the majority of this year serving as an avuncular frontman for many Americans desperate for the facts and dealing with an adverse-to-the-truth administration.
In a special digital edition of Fashion, Dr. Fauci has been less stylish as a nice guy and is approaching the whole daddy territory. (Magazine buyers will find Drew Barrymore gracing the August newsstand issue.)
His square black-rimmed sunglasses reflect a ray of sunlight in the camera’s eye. Her blue and white button is unbuttoned at the neck and her jeans are tight. It is as if Fauci played Daniel Craig playing Roger Stone in an inevitable biographical film. He is sitting in a folding chair placed on the pool terrace; this is how an elevated man spends his summer in the suburbs.
Under the command of the editor in chief and dynamo of social networks Laura Brown, FashionThe star has risen. Lady Gaga, Carey Mulligan, and Katie Holmes appeared on the last three covers with designer clothes and lots of makeup. Regardless of Fauci’s popularity, he’s the pivot for turning to a 79-year-old immunologist.
For whatever it is that Fauci lacks in absolute glamor, he makes up for in ubiquity. For much of 2020, its celebrity remains unmatched. Brad Pitt has played it in SNL, her image has graced donuts, cookies, and other baked goods from the sea to the sparkling sea. Without trying, just showing up for work and sharing facts, Dr. Fauci has reached the kind of total idolatry that Trump desperately craves.
In the simplest terms, Dr. Fauci is a good choice for Fashion. The brilliant has returned the favor of allowing her a profile by holding the interview, conducted by direct and news-oriented CBS Evening News presenter Norah O’Donnell. (O’Donnell is also a neighbor of Dr. Fauci and his wife, Dr. Christine Grady, and describes the couple as “frequent guests at my husband’s restaurant”).
After InStyle released the cover on Wednesday, it didn’t take long for critics to lament or question Dr. Fauci’s motivations for deigning to pose for a fashion publication. “Whats Next….Dancing with the stars? read a tweet. “Ridiculous cover for a style magazine,” added another.
Laura Ingraham mentioned the photo on her Fox show. “Here it is on the latest cover of InStyle magazine,” she said. “Oh, what’s he wearing? Where’s the mask? I was just joking.” (Laura Brown happily republished this growling attempt on her Instagram page.)
It is true that there is not much F capital fashion in Fauci’s images. It’s just another man sitting by a pool, looking at the sun and wondering where it all went wrong. (Aren’t we all doing that now, at least emotionally if not physically?)
Sure, welcoming Dr. Fauci to the glitterati during a time of global crisis and economic collapse seems a bit frivolous. But why snobbery about why the NIH director would open up to a magazine like Fashion?
It reeks of elitism, not to mention sexism, implying that a women’s publication is unable to handle a “serious” profile just because nice clothes are included a few pages later.
After the 2016 elections, Teen Vogue He published an article by Lauren Duca titled “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America” that quickly went viral. But as much as the opinion piece resonated with readers for its content, others were more surprised at its origin.
How cute, many reasoned, that a site for young women could make room for articles on activism along with summaries of prom dresses. (Anyone who regularly read the site was probably less shocked: Then-EIC Elaine Welteroth made a point to enthusiastically cover topics of politics and social justice.)
The often parodied Silicon Valley brother, entrepreneur and founder of Bustle’s Bryan Goldberg was deeply drawn when he announced the launch of the company in 2013. “Isn’t it time for a women’s publication to put the news and world politics along with beauty tips? Goldberg asked in a blog post, clearly missing the last forty years in the media that saw the rise of Cosmo, Glamor, Elleand many others.
It is convenient for some to assume that there is a binary between general news and the “women’s media.” If fashion writers are not “true journalists,” then they are not considered competition. That could be one reason why the Twitterati couldn’t believe that one of Ivanka Trump’s “toughest interviews” was conducted by Prachi Gupta to Cosmopolitan.
So don’t be surprised when the biggest thing in the nation, including Dr. Fauci, sits down for a photo shoot with a lifestyle brand giant. If your decision to do so confuses you, then perhaps you haven’t been paying attention to what’s inside these magazines.
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