Taken from: http://www.examiner.com/literary-in-national/vanity-fair-cover-controversy
February 2, 2012
Once again the Vanity Fair “Hollywood” issue is causing quite a kerfuffle. The entertainment and fashion magazine’s Marchfront cover features some of film’s forecasted “it” girls of 2012. The likes of Oscar-nominated “Dragon Tattoo” star Rooney Mara and “The Help” starlet Jessica Chastain. “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence and “Alice in Wonderland” star Mia Wasikowska are also on the front cover. All very talented, beautiful actresses adorned in icy pastels backdropped by an all-white art deco set. Perhaps the only splashes of color are found on the magazine’s second and third foldout panels: women of color, that is.
“Mission Impossible” star Paula Patton and “Pariah” star Adepero Oduye, two women of color, are pictured inside the magazine’s fold – not on the front cover with their white counterparts.
“This has become a tradition at Vanity Fair,” Princeton professor of African American Studies Dr. Daphne A. Brooks recently told Fox News.
Vanity Fair has been tucking talent of color inside the folds of its “Hollywood” issues for years. In 2005 actresses Rosario Dawson and Kerry Washington were pushed to the inside pages. In 2008 it was Zoe Saldana and America Ferrera. In 2009 and 2010 no actors of color were featured at all. In 2011 “Hurt Locker” star Anthony Mackie was scooted to an inside panel.
In the previous eight years only one person of color has appeared on a Vanity Fair “Hollywood” cover: comedian Chris Rock.
In 2010, Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson blogged about the issue. She wrote:
If the criteria to be considered for the cover of Vanity Fair is the actresses must have a body of work behind them – then the question is, where are all the mainstream roles for the terrific and qualified young actresses – black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian? Where are they?
Maybe what we want Vanity Fair to do is not to follow Hollywood’s lead but to take the lead in changing attitudes and celebrate the many diverse and talented actresses out there. Because a picture is worth a thousand words.
Asked her opinion about the cover, actress Zoe Saldana told Access Hollywood Wednesday, “I know that it’s just a matter of time until magazines, the media, our art, our culture, our colloquial lifestyle tags along to our reality.”
***
For more pictures on covers from previous editions, as well as a similar article: http://blogs.babble.com/famecrawler/2012/01/31/vanity-fairs-hollywood-issue-pushes-actors-of-color-to-the-side-every-year-photos/
