The cover subject of the July issue of Elle U.K. isn’t a starlet swathed in the latest Dior couture gown, a pop songstress perfectly posed, or a model showing off her sexy pout. The person isn’t even a woman but rather British soccer icon David Beckham, slicked down and shirtless as he steps out of a swimming pool. The footballer is the first man in the magazine’s 26-year history to grace its cover in a solo shot.
The move is noteworthy for several reasons, and it acts as a reminder of the sharp differences in how men and women are typically portrayed in the media. Females regularly appear on the covers of men’s magazines like GQ and Esquire, airbrushed and objectified with exaggerated cleavage and exposed legs. But when males land on the covers of women’s magazines, they are usually fully clothed and posed alongside a scantily clad member of the opposite sex.
In the past 15 years men have been photographed for Elle U.K.’s cover just a handful of times, including the February 1997 issue, when musician Paul Weller appeared with model Kate Moss; April 1997, which shows Flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes with his arms wrapped around model Naomi Campbell; September 1998, when actors Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Ewan McGregor were part of a Britain’s Sexiest Stars package; January 2001, which featured McGregor again and actress Renee Zellweger; and November 2003, which spotlighted singer-actress Nicole Appleton and Oasis’s Liam Gallagher. All of the men — with the exception of a shirtless Cortes — are completely covered up, wearing shirts and jackets. Gallagher even sports a Burberry scarf. The women, meanwhile, all have their skin exposed — Campbell wore a slinky back-baring mint-green dress, Zellweger donned a backless bustier, Appleton had a bare midriff, and Moss sported a low-cut spaghetti-string top.
But Elle U.K. took a different approach this time, leaving Beckham all by himself to show off his chiseled abs and bulging pecs — but that version only goes to subscribers. The magazine also created a more subdued newsstand version with a close-up of Beckham in a gray T-shirt, showing off his tattooed arms.
In explaining the magazine’s decision to feature the London-born midfielder without a companion, Elle U.K. editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy offers a simple explanation, referencing the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games.
“David Beckham is a national hero, so we saw an opportunity to shoot a celebratory cover to support an historical and patriotic year,” she said in a statement posted on elleuk.com. “He is an icon and Elle is known for featuring icons on its cover. This is a first for us on the newsstand and I believe he is loved by men and women alike. Anyway, who doesn’t want to see a picture of one of the world’s most handsome men on the front cover of a magazine? It will be a collector’s issue.”
However, it is still uncertain whether Beckham, a former England team captain who is on the shortlist for the England soccer team, will even participate in this year’s Olympics. Team England soccer coach Stuart Pearce will decide in the next few weeks if Beckham will make the cut. But the soccer player did help promote London’s bid to host the games, and on May 18 he carried the Olympic torch from Greece to Royal Navy air station in Cornwall, England.
The upcoming Games, it seems, have offered an excuse for other women’s magazine editors to place shirtless male athletes on their covers. For American Vogue’s June 2012 issue, Anna Wintour put U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte (the fourth Vogue male cover star) in swim trunks, flanked by two female Olympians — soccer player Hope Solo and tennis star Serena Williams, both in gold one-piece swimsuits.
But the cover group shots – troubling as they might be – aren’t really the issue here, and another question comes up when contemplating July’s Elle U.K.: Why did it take so long for a prominent women’s fashion magazine to put a solo man on its cover? A look at 2011’s best-selling magazine covers reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulation in the United States points to the bottom line. Out of the top sellers of the year, none featured a male cover model on his own. GQ’s most popular cover from 2011 pictured Mila Kunis. The actress was a hit all around – her February Cosmopolitan cover sold 1.2 million issues and her August Elle cover with Justin Timberlake was the magazine’s fourth-highest seller last year. By contrast, Esquire only sold 73,000 copies of Timberlake’s solo cover, making it the magazine’s worst-performing issue in 2011. There are numerous factors – from the economy to human psychology to societal expectations – that can contribute to unpredictable newsstand sales, but the numbers generally show that women perform better than men.
One thing is certain: If current editorial standards remain intact, men and women will continue to buy magazines flaunting manipulated images of svelte women who represent an unrealistic standard of perfection that no human being can actually achieve. Nonetheless, Elle U.K.’s Candy did, in a sense, make history and break gender boundaries by naming Beckham as the magazine’s first solo male cover star (although it goes without saying that he’s been airbrushed, too). We’re curious to see how the issue fares on the newsstand and where the editors will take it from here.