People are unhappy with Vogue again, which does not surprise us at all.
The issue this time concerns how the magazine handled Cara Delevingne's relationships with women in its July cover story.
[ Related: Michelle Rodriguez Supports Cara's New Relationship ]
The writer, Rob Haskell, basically suggests that Cara's interest in women is just a "phase," as can be seen in this passage:
"Cara says she felt confused by her sexuality as a child, and the possibility of being gay frightened her. 'It took me a long time to accept the idea, until I first fell in love with a girl at 20 and recognized that I had to accept it,' she explains. 'But I have erotic dreams only about men. I had one two nights ago where I went up to a guy in the back of a VW minivan, with a bunch of his friends around him, and pretty much jumped him.' Her parents seem to think girls are just a phase for Cara, and they may be correct. 'Women are what completely inspire me, and they have also been my downfall. I have only been hurt by women, my mother first of all.' 'The thing is,' she continues, 'if I ever found a guy I could fall in love with, I'd want to marry him and have his children. And that scares me to death because I think I'm a whole bunch of crazy, and I always worry that a guy will walk away once he really, truly knows me.' When I suggest to Cara that to trust a man, she might have to revise an old and stubborn idea of hers—that women are perennially troubled and therefore only women will accept her—her smile says she concedes the point.
People have taken umbrage at this flippant dismissal of bisexuality, and a woman named Julie Rodriguez created a Care2 petition asking for an apology from the magazine and editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.
Julie wrote:
"The idea that queer women only form relationships with other women as a result of childhood trauma is a harmful (and false) stereotype that lesbian and bisexual women have been combating for decades.
As a bisexual woman myself, I've experienced hurtful comments like this many times. People are quick to assume queer women's identities are a "phase" and to refuse to recognize the important relationships in their lives — an attitude which can cause depression, result in families rejecting their daughters (or forcing them into abusive conversion "therapy"), and even put young women at risk of suicide."
We agree that it is harmful to suggest that being gay or bisexual is a phase, and many people also seem to agree with Julie — at the time of this writing 12,812 people had signed the petition!
Check out the petition HERE!
[Image via Vogue.]
Tags: cara delevingne, care2 petition, gay gay gay, julie rodriguez, july 2015, july cover, july issue, rob haskell, vogue
