What Makes A Magazine Cover Controversial?

Over at Webdesigner Depot, Angela West has put together an excellent list of 30 of the most controversial magazine covers of all time. A) we wish we had thought of it first, and B) we urge our readers to check it out.

Looking the list over, a few patterns start to emerge:

Racial Overtones

The greatest common denominator of many of the controversial covers was the way that they dealt with race relations, particularly in their depiction of African-Americans. Back in 1971, it was shocking for Playboy to feature an African-American model at all; by the 90s, the issue shifted to negative stereotypes perpetuated by covers. Time’s darkened mugshot of OJ Simpson, Vanity Fair‘s Lebron James/Gisele cover, which many said evoked King Kong, and The New Yorker‘s tongue-too-far-in-cheek cartoon of a radicalized Obama couple all fit that description.

Religion

One of the two topics you aren’t supposed to mention at a dinner table: Whether it’s Time‘s earth-shattering “Is God Dead” cover from 1966 or Kanye’s wearing the crown of thorns and talking about masturbation for Rolling Stone in 2006, religion on a magazine cover is a surefire way to offend at least a fraction of your readership and stir up controversy.

Homosexuality

This one didn’t manifest itself in negative depictions of homosexuals so much as in acknowledging they existed at all. In particular, Vanity Fair‘s k.d. lang/Cindy Crawford cover and Time‘s Ellen: “Yep, I’m Gay” cover outraged many readers at a time when female homosexuality was still a taboo subject.

Exposed Female Flesh

This’ll get ‘em riled up: Vanity Fair’s (they sure seem to pop up a lot on this list) nude, pregnant Demi Moore cover, Entertainment Weekly‘s cover photo of nude Dixie Chicks tattooed with the slogans and slurs surrounding their opposition to the invasion of Iraq (full disclosure: this cover was designed by Mediaite editor Colby Hall‘s wife), and even Baby Talk‘s picture of a woman nursing her baby in a way that actually involved her breast all led to protest and public debate.


Can you think of any controversial covers that the original list left out?

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