May 18, 2011 | Sex & Society

Androgynous model too much for bookstores

Both Barnes & Noble and Borders have refused to display the current issue of fashion magazine Dossier Journal because androgynous male model Andrej Pejic is showing off his nipples on the cover. Apparently he looks "too much like a woman."

Before the magazine can be put on sale in the stores, Dossier Journal has been asked to censor the cover and provide the magazine in sealed plastic bags. Not surprising, only American stores have an issue with the magazine.

"It's a naked man on the cover of a magazine, which is done all of the time without being covered up, so I definitely don't think it merits this, but I understand what it is," Creative Director Skye Parrott told The Huffington Post. "It's not a coincidence that it's only the giant U.S. chain stores that are asking us to do this ... It's only the American copies that are being censored."

A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, however, claimed the chain never asked for issues to be poly-bagged, saying, "We have no plans to poly bag the magazine nor did we ever have plans to do so."

And this is what keeps some people up at night.