Babies As Accessories: Cute Or Exploitative?

Babies As Accessories?

As expected, this month's Vogue Spain cover shows off a cute accessory.

But it's not a hot new handbag, or a statement necklace.

It's a baby.

Dree Hemingway, the 24-year-old great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, covers the December 2011 cover of Vogue Spain .

Hemingway, a known fashion risk-taker, appears on the cover in a ripped tee and billowing cream dress, looking angelic. But blocking some of the dress is the naked baby she's clutching to her chest. What?

So whose baby is it? It's not Dree's. So unlike those ubiquitous celebs-posing-with-their-new-infants covers, Dree's tot is ... just there. Like a bag or a hat.

This isn't the first time Vogue's used tots and pregnancy to style up a photo shoot: in 2009, Carine Roitfeld put model Lily Donaldson in a fake baby bump and depicted her smoking cigarettes and carelessly tossing a baby doll aside.

So, is it totally wrong to feature babies in photo shoots as accessories? On the one hand, babies are undeniably cute. But on the other, that's someone's kid, who will someday be a grown adult combing back through old Google Images to discover his or her naked bum on the front of an international magazine.

What do you think? Check out the cover below and weigh in on our poll:

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