Four groups focused on domestic violence and women’s issues, with the PR help of Global Strategy Group, are channeling outrage toward Conde Nast for a Vogue international edition cover that depicts a male model with his hand on the throat of a female.
“This truly disturbing image of a woman being choked sends a dangerous message to anyone who sees this magazine – that choking is a sign of passion rather than of violence,” wrote the heads of the four organizations – Sanctuary for Families, Safe Horizons, NOW NYC and Equality Now – in a Sept. 14 letter to Conde Nast editorial director Thomas Wallace and chairman Sy Newhouse. “In New York, your magazine appears on numerous newsstands and has enormous reach with young men and women.”
The cover photo of Vogue Hommes International shows model Stephanie Seymour with model Marlon Teixeira’s hand wrapped around her neck.
The groups, which want the magazine pulled from newsstands and a pledge to not use “violent images” like the cover in the future, charge that choking is a “huge predictor” of future lethality, noting a 2008 Journal of Emergency Medicine study of murders of women in 11 cities found that 43% of women who were killed by intimate partners had experienced at least one previous episode of choking before being killed.
They also point out that in 2010 the New York State made choking a violent felony.
Conde Nast has not yet been reached about the letter.