Vogue Brazil has come under fire for a spread in its September issue to commemorate the beginning of the Paralympic Games in Rio.
The spread features two actors, Cleo Pires and Paulo Vilhena, who appear to have disabilities — Pires has her right arm amputated, and Vilhena displays a prosthetic leg. The problem is, the disabilities are mere Photoshop illusions — both Pires and Vilhena are able-bodied.
In the spread, the models are also pictured with two Paralympic athletes whose disabilities they were digitally altered to resemble — table tennis player Bruna Alexandre, who has an amputated arm, and sitting volleyball player Renato Leite, with a prosthetic leg.
Done with the support of the Brazilian Paralympics Committee and the athletes themselves, the spread was created “to attract visibility to the Special Olympics and highlight the relevance of Brazilian disabled athletes in the panorama of the national sport,” according to the magazine’s Instagram.
The campaign was implemented because reportedly only 20 percent of tickets to the Paralympic Games, which take place Sept. 7-18 in Rio, have been sold.
However, the well-meaning campaign has drawn ire from those who feel that actually disabled models — perhaps like the athletes in question — should have been given the opportunity and the space to model in the shoot themselves.
“There’s no shortage of disabled people to take the place of spokesperson in these adverts and show society that yes, they exist and they deserve as much space in the media as us,” said feminist writer Natália Belizario, according to The Telegraph.
Disabilities charity Scope spokesperson Richard Lane told Huffington Post UK that it was “hard to understand why Vogue Brazil felt the need to use models who aren’t disabled in a Paralympic photoshoot. The magazine has missed the perfect opportunity to celebrate Brazil’s talented Paralympians as sporting equals. It’s so rare to see positive and powerful representations of disabled people in the media.”
The backlash has gotten to and is not sitting well with Pires, who came up with the idea for the shoot along with creative agency Africa.
The actress took to her Instagram to defend the shoot, saying in a video, according to the Telegraph: “We lent our image to generate visibility. And that’s what we’re doing. My God.”
7 Most Exciting Non-US Olympics Stories You Didn't See on NBC (Photos)
There's been plenty of criticism over NBC's Olympic coverage, but aside from near-constant commercials and tape delays, many viewers are upset that they're missing out on the action from countries that don't fly the stars and stripes. TheWrap has the best stories from the 2016 Rio Games involving athletes who are't American.
The 100m butterfly swimmer Yusra Mardini stole the heart of the world when she went from Syrian refugee to Olympic athlete, winning her heat in her first games. But her story still wasn't compelling enough to air during primetime on NBC, though she eventually got a segment on "NBC Nightly News."
Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby refused to shake the hand of his Israeli opponent Or Sasson, a display of unsportsmanlike behavior so egregious that the crowd roared with boos and the International Olympic committee reprimanded the athlete -- reportedly even sending him home, though the Egyptians deny this.
The men's gymnastics team finals were barely covered in NBC primetime, since the U.S. team ultimately didn't medal. Subsequently, the Ukraine team throwing several competitions and purposely taking last place, which angered fans across social media, was not acknowledged at all. NBC did recount the incident a few days later, during individual finals, however.
While NBC heavily covered diving one night, when U.S. team David Boudia and Steele Johnson won silver, the event became persona non grata again the next night, when no Americans were in contention for a medal. Primetime audiences completely missed out on one of the biggest stories of the day, when an algae outbreak in the diving pool turned the water a mysterious murky green. NBC ultimately caught up on the story days later, when American Abby Johnston was in contention.
With no Americans in contention for medaling in women's rugby, there was no chance that the heartwarming proposal from a venue manager to her Brazilian rugby player girlfriend would have made NBC primetime. But everywhere else, it was a huge, great moment at the games.
Countries who received their first gold medals this year included Puerto Rico, Kosovo, Vietnam, Fiji and Singapore - whose Joseph Schooling beat Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly. Only Schooling got a big moment on NBC primetime, probably because everyone was expecting another Phelps victory.
Brazilian judoka Rafaela Silva won the first gold of the Rio games for the host country, and the win was extra poignant since the athlete had been subjected to so much racist bullying after the 2012 Games that she almost left the sport. More stories like this please, NBC.
From countries winning their first medals to a heartwarming proposal, here are some golden moments from Rio that were passed over during primetime
There's been plenty of criticism over NBC's Olympic coverage, but aside from near-constant commercials and tape delays, many viewers are upset that they're missing out on the action from countries that don't fly the stars and stripes. TheWrap has the best stories from the 2016 Rio Games involving athletes who are't American.