I am not sure what to think of this.  A controversy has erupted around the cover of Vogue's April 2008 issue, which features NBA all-star LeBron James, and ridiculously lithe supermodel, Gisele Bundchen.

I wasn't sure which headline was supposed to relate to the cover, at first glance...

"You are (not) what you eat"?  With his open mouth, it does look like LeBron is possibly ready to eat Gisele, although she is realistically the more hungry of the two...

Or

"Perfect Fit:  Dressing For Every Shape..."?  As in: If you are a buff athelete, you should not try to wear a silky gown, and if you are a model, don't wear boring black shorts and tank...

The April 2008 cover of Vogue looks like this:

Is your first thought "King Kong"?  Mine wasn't either.  Mine was "Gisele looks like an overly eager basketball groupie, who ran out onto the court to get a photo with LeBron, who was in the middle of a full-court press".

An Art History professor at Marymount Manhattan College disagreed with me:

“Here you have an image of a black male athlete in an exceptionally aggressive stance, wide footed, bending over, clutching her with his arm,” said Jason Rosenfeld... “It’s one thing to have an athlete in that kind of pose and with that kind of expression on a court after he or she has done something miraculous. It’s another thing to couple it with someone who is of an entirely different ilk and gender. That turns it into a racially charged image.”

Hmmmm.  I don't know, but let's see what the accompanying story is. 

"Shape Issue:  ...World's Top Models & Star Athletes".  This is what worries me the most.  Now, I haven't yet looked at the issue (it should be in my mailbox today), but generally speaking, models are not the MODELS of health (oh - clutching stomach - hilarious pun!), and their "best bodies" are the result of starvation diets, laxatives or controlled substance abuse.  Don't freak out, I said "generally speaking".  I'm sure there are a few who exercise and eat right.

The interpretation of any photo is in the eye of the beholder.  Vogue had this to say, in response to Jason Rosenfeld's claims:

“It’s so exhausting that every time people see an image of a black person they work themselves into a tizzy that somehow it doesn’t adhere to the way in which they think a black person should be presented,”...

“Needless to say, the intention from the beginning was only to depict LeBron and Gisele as superstars at the top of their game,” Vogue spokesperson Patrick O’Connell said. “The point about the entire issue is that it celebrates diversity. And I think that people need to look at the entire issue.”

Vogue is typically cutting edge, and I think they could have really stepped the whole "celebrating diversity" thing up a bit, by having LeBron and Gisele wearing the same dress.