vogue portugal mental health
source: independent.co.uk

People are criticizing the fashion magazine, Vogue Portugal, has for its stigmatization of mental health in its latest issue. On Friday, Vogue Portugal had released four covers for its July issue. One of the covers was mainly controversial. That particular cover shows a mentally unstable woman in a mental institution. The woman is accompanied by two nurses who are the real-life mother and grandmother of the model.

Vogue Portugal’s Instagram Post

In its Instagram post, Vogue Portugal stated that they aim to bring the topic of mental health, mental institutions, science, and people related to mental health to attention so that people can bring it to the discussion.

vogue portugal mental health
source: twitter.com

The issue contains stories and interviews of people associated with mental health such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists.

 

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🇬🇧 Our July/August issue is themed ‘The Madness issue’, with four different covers each designed to address different dimensions of human behaviour, during a time when the global pandemic has brought people to confinement. One of the covers portrays a hospital scene where the model is being taken care of by her real life mother and grandmother, shot by photographer Branislav Simoncik. Our intention is to open up the topic of mental health, and bring to the discussion the institutions, the science and the people that are involved with mental health today. The cover story explores the historical context of mental health and is designed to reflect real life and authentic stories, inspired by deep research of hundreds of reportage photographs from some of the most relevant and famous documentarists who have captured mental health hospitals. Inside the issue, features interviews and contributions from psychiatrists, sociologists, psychologists and other experts in the field. Mental health forms just one of the topics explored within the issue and is not linked to the theme of madness but instead covered as an aspect of human emotions and behaviour. We acknowledge the significance of the topic of mental health and our intention, through visual storytelling, is to shine a light on the important issues of today.

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The cover issue turned out to be straight-up offensive and insensitive towards mentally unstable people. Vogue Portugal handled this sensitive issue exceptionally irresponsibly.

 

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A post shared by Branislav Simoncik (@branislavsimoncik) on

Taking the right steps 

It is noteworthy that due to the global pandemic coronavirus, magazines are trying to come up with innovative and exceptional ideas to attract the audience. For instance: British Vogue photographed three frontline workers in the pandemic. The models included a black hijabi supermarket worker. With this step, the magazine highlighted the efforts of people who are not appreciated enough.

Do you think Vogue Portugal could have handled the situation more responsibly? Let us know in the comments below.

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