Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Most Beautiful: Pink

Issue dated April 30, 2018: Pink


Singer Pink gets the "Beautiful" cover this year, and yes, there's a subtle difference in the title. It's now the "Beautiful Issue," with no language designating Pink as the "most" beautiful. In last week's Guessing Game post (read it here,) I said that it's time for People to stop objectifying women for their looks, and in last year's "Most Beautiful" post, about the issue with Julia Roberts on the cover, I said this:

Rating and ranking women based on their looks is ridiculous and offensive, and claiming that a 49-year-old woman is staying "Forever Young" is just plain stupid. I'd love to see People get away from the whole "Most Beautiful" thing, and for that matter, "Sexiest Man" and "Half Their Size" can go too. (Read the entire post here.) 

I'd say this qualifies as progress, or at least a step in the right direction. People acknowledges the change, too, with an "Editor's Note" that says the following: 

The issue is always a hit with audiences, advertisers and Hollywood because it celebrates all kinds of beauty, of course—beautiful souls as well as beautiful skin.

Over the years the name of the issue has evolved (“50 Most Beautiful,” “Most Beautiful Woman,” etc.), but the words “Most Beautiful” have always been part of the title. This year we’re renaming it “The Beautiful Issue” — to make clear that the issue is not a beauty contest. Nothing else has changed. As always it will feature beautiful women (and a few men) of all shapes, sizes and colors, and it will celebrate the most beautiful qualities of all: strength, humanity and artistry. (Read the Editor's Note here.) 

John Cena's break-up and Khloe's "baby and betrayal" were both on the current Guessing Game list, although I didn't come up with that pithy alliterative headline. There's a bit of a "rinse and repeat" aura to the two topline headlines, which look remarkably similar to the ones on last year's cover. In the top left corner, a broken-up couple, man in a suit and tie on the left, woman in a strapless dress on the right; in the top right corner, framed in a circle, a member of the Kardashian/Jenner family.

Read the Guessing Game post here.

Last year at this time: Issue dated May 1, 2017

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