My husband gets Esquire magazine every month and in celebration of their 75th anniversary, they have been remaking old covers. This month they remade the cover of the December 2000 issue with President Bill Clinton. Halle Berrry, Esquire's 2008 "Sexiest Woman Alive", remade the President Clinton cover. The photographer of the Halle Berry cover, Cliff Watts, said this about the image, "She's a powerful woman; he's a powerful man...There's a sensitivity and a sexuality there, but also the strength."
I understand Watts' comment on the photo of Berry, but when I first saw this cover in my mailbox I was shocked that she would pose for a photo like this. She is sitting in such a suggestive manner, with only the top half of a "power suit" and her bra showing through that. When I opened the cover by the prompting of a message reading, "Does this cover remind you of anything? Open Here!", I of course saw the original Bill Clinton cover. Then it made a little more sense, but she presents herself as an object here. The "Making of the Cover" page inside says that Halle Berry had a baby recently, making her even more worthy of her title as "2008's Sexiest Woman Alive."
I guess I'm just surprised that a new mother and a wildly successful actress would allow herself to be presented in such a way when Bill Clinton has all kinds of sexual connotations attached to him. Somehow this is dirty, I feel wrong looking at it.

I had to get my oil changed this week and I was sitting in the waiting room and I decided to pick up the people magazine they had. It was the one we discussed in class with John McCain's family on the cover.
The article that caught my attention though was one about Brittney Spears. I was an interview with her mom about her daughter's lives and everything that their family has gone through. The mother seemed to be shocked that her daughter's lives are so out of control. She said that Brittney has gone through many "hard times" and that is why she acts so ridiculously. She didn't seem to take responsibility for her daughters, rather made excuses for their behavior.
The two have grown up being exposed to and part of the media. They had several pictures from Brittney's life starting with one in "The Mickey Mouse Club" where she was a little girl. It's no wonder celebrities and pop stars always seem to crash and burn- this girl never had a normal life to begin with.

Week 6

I've been thinking a lot about the Mini Study I did last week. I looked at several issues of Fortune magazine and compared the main articles featured on the front cover.
What I want to comment on is the latest of the magazines I analyzed, which featured Henry Paulson on the cover. The issue was dated September 29 (because of course magazines date their publications in advance...which I've never understood why, I need to look into that- I'm not a journalism major by the way- I'm new at all of this!) but at the time the financial crisis was at the top of every news hour and on the cover of every magazine. There was a photograph of Mr. Paulson on the first page of the article that shocked me. He was peering around the door of an enormous vault with a eerie look on his face, maybe even a slight grin. He posed for this photo.
The point I am trying to make is that in the midst of a national economic crisis this guy found time to pose for a photo shoot with Fortune magazine? Didn't he have just a few more important things to do than pose for a photo shoot with Fortune? It frustrated me that our Secretary of the Treasury, who has a huge responsibility to this nation thought that would be good use of his time. Maybe I am way off here, but it rubbed me wrong. Get to work Paulson!