May 17, 2011 20:01 GMT  ·  By

Andrej Pejic is gorgeous: slim and delicate body, perfect bone structure, wonderful facial features. Andrej Pejic is a man, perhaps the world’s most famous male androgynous model to date, which is why Barnes & Noble is taking issue with his cover for Dossier magazine.

The bookstore is so afraid that its customers may be confounded by the cover that it’s asking Dossier to cover it in opaque plastic, just in case.

The issue, it would seem, lies with the fact that Pejic is shirtless in the photo, which means customers might be misled to believe they’re actually looking at a woman, Jezebel informs.

Oddly enough, Barnes & Noble never had any problems with magazine covers that had shirtless muscular men on it, from GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Details, to fitness publications like Men’s Health and Men’s Fitness.

So this can only mean that Pejic is being singled out: number one, because he’s not athletic enough and number two, because his feminine face.

Dossier co-founder and creative director Skye Parrott tells Jezebel the cover was meant to shock, otherwise they wouldn’t have chosen Pejic for it; however, no one saw this coming.

“We knew that this cover presented a very strong, androgynous image, and that could make some people uncomfortable. That’s partly why we chose it. I guess it has made someone pretty uncomfortable,” Parrott says.

This is officially the first time that a photo of a shirtless man is getting the same treatment as men’s magazines that show too much skin.

“I’ve been talking to all my friends who work in magazines, and nobody I know has ever heard of anything like this happening. Especially with a guy. Guys are shirtless on magazine covers all the time,” Parrott explains, pointing that this is “a very interesting question of gender.”

Jezebel notes that Pejic himself is very comfortable with his androgyny, even saying repeatedly that there are times when he feels like a man, and others when he feels like a woman.

Whether the public considers him one or the other is of no consequence to him. Which begs the question of why Barnes & Noble is censoring his image.

“What message are the big bookstore chains sending — that the male torso is only appropriate all-ages viewing when the man in question is ripped?” Jezebel asks.

“Does the Barnes & Noble newsstand have a minimum biceps standard, no skinny dudes need apply?” the e-zine continues. Or is androgyny something that should be hidden and be ashamed of? The debate is still raging on.

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Male androgynous model Andrej Pejic in Dossier magazine
Male androgynous model Andrej Pejic in Dossier magazine
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