An Exposé on Exposing

    

        I am sure we’ve all heard the term “Never judge a book by its cover,” too many times to count in our lives. The saying reminds us to take our time and digest what we are looking at instead of jumping to conclusions too quickly. The same practice goes not only for book covers, but for any source of media. I recently practiced this method of pausing to analyze and find the true meaning of an imagine on a magazine cover of The New Yorker, an established weekly magazine that provides journalism, commentary, fictional pieces, cartoons and more to its readers. Each edition of The New Yorker includes a cover with an illustrated cartoon, and in the cover I chose, Barry Blitt’s “Nowhere to Hide”, I found myself noticing small details and making elaborate connections that I never would have thought of before.

In “Nowhere to Hide”, we see the view from inside of what seems to be a penthouse or apartment in a city. Inside of this high-ceilinged apartment there is upper-class decor, such as a glass coffe table and gray couch with a cowskin rug beneath it. Also in the room is a fat, bald man standing with his legs greater than shoulder width apart, wearing a white robe. His hands are pulling open the front of the bathrobe, in what seems like an attempt to reveal whatever is underneath it. He is facing his body towards an extremely large window that covers up almost a whole wall in the room.

Outside of the window, peering inward, is a large, somewhat cartoon-looking, woman. The top of her head down to her midriff is all that is visible of her from the view through the window. Her hair is black and extremely short, her eyes are blue and she is wearing a red strapless dress or shirt and gold hoop earrings. She very clearly resembles the cartoon character Betty Boop. Her expression seems shocked or saddened by the angles of her eyes and mouth. Also, strings appear to be coming off of her, similar to the way strings come off of large balloon floats in parades. 

The date in the top right of this cover page is November 27, 2017. During this time and in the month prior, dozens upon dozens of well-known men were being accused of sexual assault. These accusations and the demand of justice for the women of which these men hurt started a movement called the #MeToo movement, in which supporters of the cause would gather in protest and solidarity with anyone who had been subjected to sexual assault. The story that sparked this social upraor occurred in October 2017, when dozens of women accused famous film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual asssault and rape. Countless other accusations on other famous men followed, making it a hot topic for any media coverage, Barry Blitt’s cover of The New Yorker being one of them. 

Blitt’s cover seems to be an effort to expose the wrongdoings of the men accused during the #MeToo movement and bring voice to the movement sweeping the nation. But as you look closer you see the man in the image, who we can assume is exposing himself to the figure of Betty Boop outside his window, is extremely small compared to his penthouse and Betty Boop herself. This could be a play on contrast to show how these men being accused are morally and emotionally “small” compared to everything around them. Another important detail is the quality of the room that the man is in. The high-class decor surrounding the man shows how these men have no fear, as shown by the man’s stance, because of the wealth backing them. Harvey Weinstein, who somewhat resembles the man in the photo as he is also bald and larger himself, was extremely well off and it was often talked about how men like him did these horrible things because they thought they were untouchable due to their wealth and power and Blitt’s cover image seems to parallel that to a tee. Lastly, looking at the title of this piece, “Nowhere to Hide”, this image can also be trying to depict how women do not bring this upon themselves, there is no real way to avoid sexual misconduct if a man has an agenda. We see Betty Boop’s face in extreme shock which can lead us to believe that having this man expose himself to her was not something she saw coming. And also the strings pulling her down like a parade float may represent how these women who were sexually abused were almost “tied down” by the fear and threats of losing their livelihoods, credibility or even their lives if they spoke out about what had been done to them.

When looking at pieces like Barry Blitt’s, it is important to examine all of the possibilities of analysis to be sure there is nothing being missed. In his artwork, Blitt uses contrasting sizes and recognizable depictions of wealth, confidence and fear to show the reasons for protests and the wrongdoings being exposed in the #MeToo movement of late-2017.