Do You Think Aussie Model Julia Nobis Looks “Disgusting” & “Gross”?


A couple of weeks back, 20 year-old Australian model Julia Nobis graced the cover of The New York Times’ luxury inset, T Magazine.

 

The cover has since garnered a tremendous amount of conversation and critique around Julia’s body, which a bevy of readers have branded too thin. We meet again, age old argument around The Unreasonable Pressures The Fashion Industry Place On Women To Be Skinny. These two reader quotes are
a good summation of the general consensus:


1. “Where did you get this child for your cover? The photo represents kiddy
porn and I object.”



2. “As a woman, I was infuriated to see the current cover of T Magazine,
which featured an anorexic-looking model. The additional photos in the
shoot featured in the magazine were of similar super-thin models — and
this on Mother’s Day weekend, when we should be celebrating some more
realistic picture of womanhood. Haven’t we moved beyond this? Hasn’t the
debate in fashion over the promotion of these wretchedly thin models
been thoroughly discussed?” Do we really have to fight this issue within
The New York Times in 2013?”

Rather than pointing fingers at a magazine that
specifically deals with fashion, with a model contorting her body into
far more unhealthy looking “hi-fash” poses, this is the source of the
most recent fashion versus real people uproar. The conservative viewership of the NY Times have engaged with a seemingly ceaseless debate that really does pale by comparison to some shocking fashion photography that actually alludes to an eating disorder, unlike this one. This isn’t even the
clincher. This is the clincher:

Published by internet news source, The Young Turks, Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian attempt to navigate the contention around the highly sensitive issue. Uygur is an absolute oaf who completely misses the point. He spends the better part of his speaking privileges saying things such as, “She looks disgusting, she looks gross… she looks like she just came out of a camp” and “I’m here to tell you as a red-blooded American man, that is not desirable, it’s disgusting… that looks like a zombie and I’m afraid that she would bite my neck”.

Oh, okay Cenk Uygur. Nice job trying to do what is right by backing “the average woman,” whoever she is, and in the process, aligning yourself with precisely the same superficial, unrealistic attitudes you attempted to refute in the first place. This particular can of worms is opened frequently, always splitting audiences down the middle. It’s one thing to want to unpack longstanding societal issues and attempt to shed light on the ravages of existence, but this guy commenting here is as unwelcome as a lifelong case of hemorrhoids, and potentially just as damaging.

SIGH.

Title image via Instagram

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