As I write this, yesterday's post about the controversial Vogue cover featuring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen has generated more than 260 comments...the most we've had for a single post in three months (UPDATE: as of Monday morning, we're at 444 comments).
One of the commenters was former soccer star Brandi Chastain, who famously landed on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated back in 1999, after tearing off her jersey to celebrate the World Cup-clinching goal.
After reading her comment, which focused more on gender than on race, I spoke to Chastain to get more on her take on the Vogue photo and to find out what it's like to be in the middle of a cover controversy.
You can read our conversation HERE.
Here's Chastain's original comment to the blog (after the jump):
"Everyone is talking about racism, and I didn't immediately see it. As a woman, I immediately saw it from my experience of being a woman who lives and works in a world dominated by men. I saw a woman being held, saved, protected, taken, insert your own word here, on the cover of Vogue. Being an athlete, I saw LeBron as exactly what he is, strong, powerful, talented in his photo. Perhaps these are all the qualities that Gisele possesses but I only saw her physical beauty. The point I'm getting at is that we all will initially see things from our "own" perspective first. After looking at it for a second time, I wasn't taken aback and realized we must have perspective. I agree that there will be some who will be offended, and others that won't, and this is a great moment to share these with one another to find compassion and understanding."
--Brandi Chastain