Disappointing choice of cover image

I was disappointed by your choice of cover image for the August issue of Canadian Family Physician.¹ It depicts an attractive young woman, heavily but tastefully made up, holding up a blue procedure mask stained with her lipstick. On her face is a neutral expression that could be interpreted in various ways. The title underneath it reads, “Unique challenges faced by early career female physicians.”

While the article highlighted in the cover story accurately and insightfully identifies some of these challenges, this poor choice of cover image suggests to any outside observer who might encounter the publication that female physicians consider makeup transfer onto procedure masks to be an important issue in their practice, and that the article itself (in the vein of a 1950s women’s magazine) is dedicated to helping circumvent this. Not only does this diminish the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s position on its female membership in the eye of the public, but it also ridicules the article and one of the main points it is trying to make: that female physicians (especially young ones) often have difficulty being taken seriously.

I do not wish to impugn the photo itself, or the photographer. Entitled Defiantly Feminine, the photograph itself is well composed, and taken separately from the article it depicts a strong message that I interpret as “I’m a doctor and a young woman, and I have no apologies to make for either.”

A more apt cover image could have depicted a woman torn between her roles as a mother and a physician, or even a New Yorker–style cartoon of a man and woman in a hospital elevator, both with their identification badges clearly visible (hers reading Dr Woman, and his, Nurse Man), and a patient entering greeting them as “Hello Nurse; hello Doctor,” respectively.

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