The now-famous photograph of singer k.d. lang and model Cindy Crawford on the cover of the August 1993 Vanity Fair magazine was notable for being one of the first images in popular culture to feature a self-identified lesbian in an image with lesbian thematic content. This paper explores Vanity Fair's cover in terms of lesbian visibility issues, different interpretive strategies for constructing meaning, and the use of lesbian/gay symbology and aesthetics. The appropriational relationship of the image to other representational forms in popular culture and the significance of lesbian sexual imagery are discussed. Examination of the use of inversion, hyperbole, and irony reveals the image's polysemic references to both lesbian re/presentations and mainstream society's stereotypes.