The Vogue cover that features Kim Kardashian and Kanye West has certainly got people talking, and while one might say that the purpose of any magazine cover is to get people talking, so they’re more likely to buy the magazine — and that there’s no such thing as bad publicity — the April issue of the venerable fashion bible Vogue seems to really get under people’s skin.
A long list of journalists and even the occasional celebrity have already expressed their disapproval. Earlier The Inquistr told you how Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar was first out the Twitter gate , declaring that she planned to cancel her Vogue subscription. The real news there was that people actually still have magazine subscriptions.
Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke, who never seems to be in a good mood, declared that the Kim Kardashian — Kanye West Vogue issue should “come with a barf bag.”
I’m loving the big backlash aimed at Anna Wintour for putting Kim Kardashian on Vogue cover. Issue should come with barf bag.
— Nikki Finke (@NikkiFinke) March 21, 2014
A Buzzfeed correspondent also weighed in, not too favorably.
I’m gonna buy the Kanye and Kim Vogue issue just so I can burn it.
— Matt Bellassai (@MattBellassai) March 21, 2014
Well, it’s a sale, anyway.
Another Twitter user wondered how Kardashian’s onetime mentor and pal Paris Hilton might have reacted, seeing as how she never got her own Vogue cover.
If you think you’re upset about Kim K’s Vogue cover imagine how Paris Hilton feels! “That big butt girl used to arrange my closet”
— bevysmith (@bevysmith) March 21, 2014
One fashion blogger wondered cryptically about the “broader implications” of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, reportedly a friend of Kanye West, choosing to give a cover to “Kimye.”
To everyone saying this cover doesn’t have broader implications, do some research. #Vogue
— THE FASHION LAW (@TheFashionLaw) March 21, 2014
It was unclear that that blogger meant, but it could be a reference to the fact that there is actually an interracial couple on the cover of Vogue . The last time an African-American man appeared on the Vogue cover was 2008, when NBA star LeBron James appeared with his arm around model Gisele Bundchen — but that cover was widely criticized for making LeBron and by extension, black men in general , look like “King Kong,” exploiting a racially derogatory stereotype.
The same can’t be said of Kanye West’s appearance on the Vogue cover with his soon-to-be wife Kim Kardashian. If the picture were not on the cover of Vogue it would hardly be controversial or even provocative — except to people with ugly racial prejudices who are, sadly, offended by depictions of interracial relationships.
Perhaps the best comment on the entire Vogue affair, however, came from James Franco and Seth Rogen. The Pineapple Express and Freaks and Geeks co-stars earlier parodied Kanye West’s “Bound 2” video , which featured a nude Kim Kardashian appearing to simulate sex on a motorcycle.
But Franco and Rogen can’t stop making fun of the “Kimye” couple . Here is their tongue-in-cheek take on the new and weirdly controversial Vogue cover. Enjoy!