10 magazine covers that shook the world
Release a magazine cover with a presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in Muslim garb, and adorn his wife in militant underground attire and armed with an AK-47, and there’s sure to be a seismic reaction. And did we mention the burning U.S. flag? When the presidential hopeful happens to be Barack Obama, drawn here on the cover of The New Yorker in the midst of a so-called “terrorist fist jab” with his wife Michelle, attempts at fun-natured satire are sure to be lost on the involved parties.
It’s an honor to be named Time’s Man of the Year, no doubt. But what, per chance, was Time trying to tell us by framing President Clinton in front of the letter ‘M’? Are those devil horns, or just the tips of an ordinary, harmless and completely innocent consonant? The picture at the left isn’t the offending photo , but the effect is the same.
Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz again incited hysterical reactions when she photographed Gisele Bündchen and LeBron James for the April 2008 cover of Vogue. The issue marked the first time a black man had graced the cover of the magazine. But the stark juxtaposition of the two caused a stir, with one critic on ESPN.com concluding, “Vogue’s quest to highlight the differences between superstar athletes and supermodels only successfully reinforces the animalistic stereotypes frequently associated with black athletes.”
Shortly after the arrest of O.J. Simpson in 1994, Newsweek and Time ran photos of his original police mug shot. The one on the cover of Time, however, was altered to look a bit darker than the original police photograph. Newsweek ran the shot untouched. Heated discussions about race in America quickly followed.
Photographer Annie Leibovitz has said the original concept for the now legendary John Lennon and Yoko Ono Rolling Stone cover was for both to appear nude, designed to mark the release of their album “Double Fantasy.” As legend has it, Lennon was game, shedding his clothes quickly, but Ono felt uncomfortable. Leibovitz recalled for Rolling Stone: “I was kinda disappointed, and I said, ‘Just leave everything on.’ We took one Polaroid, and the three of us knew it was profound right away.” That same night, Dec. 8, 1980, he was shot and killed by a fan in front of his Manhattan apartment.
It was the photo that spawned all manner of celebrity mom to bare all along with their bellies, among them Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. “It did seem to give a little bit more permission to feel sexy, attractive when you’re pregnant,” Moore told V Magazine. “But I really didn’t expect for the response to be what it was. I was pretty shocked.” At the time, some retailers were so taken aback by the shot that they sold the issue in a brown paper bag as if it were an adult title like Playboy.
One year later, Demi returned to the cover of Vanity Fair to commemorate her pregnant nude shot. This time, she appeared with a men’s suit painted on her body.
When author Stephenie Meyer wrote that “Twilight” hero Edward, the 17-going-on-108-year-old vampire, is supposed to be dazzlingly, blindingly beautiful, we’re pretty sure she didn’t mean in a rosy-lipped female kind of way. Pity then poor Robert Pattison, an actor whose one only claim to fame thus far is his small role as Harry Potter rival Cedric Diggory in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” The backlash was immediate. Once MTV.com posted an early preview of the cover, the site attracted hundreds of comments including this one from a poster identified as “Horrified”: “Edward looks like a ZOMBIE. The stylists and photographer obviously had no idea who the characters are…he looks like a hairy, powdered donut.”
When Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines told a concert crowd in 2003 that she was “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas,” the comment cost the group half of their concert audience attendance in the United States. “At that moment, on the eve of war, I had a lot of questions that I felt were unanswered,” Maines told ABC. “The wording I used, the way I said it, that was disrespectful…Am I sorry that I asked questions and that I don’t just follow? No.” Despite little radio play leading up to the release of “Taking the Long Way,” the disc landed at No. 1 atop Billboard, going gold in its first week.
When Time posed the question on its cover in 1966, it was the first time the magazine had ever used just type on its cover without an associated photo. The story, which concluded that religion was dead, included the opinions of Christian theologians including Gabriel Vahanian, whose book “The Death of God” helped spark the radical movement. It received heavy backlash from readers and Vahanian’s movement slowly faded away.
Never one to shy away from an attention-grabbing gambit, superstar rapper Kanye West graced the cover of Rolling Stone just weeks before the Grammy Awards, complete with a crown of thorns and bloody, Christ-like wounds. Even for a man who comes blessed with one large egosaurus, was comparing himself to Jesus too much? Conservative and Christian groups thought so, but when all was said and done, the world was ready to forgive and forget when West unveiled a new album and some nifty glow-in-the-dark tour effects.
Tags: Interesting Articles, Interesting news, magazine covers, shook the world
May 12th, 2009 at 3:11 am
God has never existed, so therefore can never have died.
May 12th, 2009 at 5:13 am
how about that picture of a noose on that Golf magazine for that article on Tiger Woods?
May 12th, 2009 at 9:34 am
These magazine covers didn’t shake the world at all. At best they shook a few bits of the US. And maybe Canada. It’s a fair bet that a billion or so Chinese were completely unmoved. Europeans and Australians would have shrugged – if they noticed at all. The south Americas and the African countries would have paid no attention whatever.
Another case of the US mistaking itself for “the world”.
May 12th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Comment on the statement made by “DAVO”: If you say that God never existed (which is a fact statement), then you must have explored all possiblities that he does not. In doing so you would have had to become all knowing. If you know everything then that would make YOU God! Therefore you deny your own Deity. Doesn’t make sense – does it? Just remember this. On that day, every knee will bow and every toungue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
May 12th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Kanye West is such a conceited whiny bitch… FAIL
May 12th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Herp derp i have no proof that there isnt a god but it sounds dumb so therefore it is dumb.
May 13th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I like the Janet Jackson Rolling Stone with the hand bra.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Another case of the US mistaking itself for “the world”.
I don’t think even the US was shocked by it or even claimed that the entire world did either. Only the media claimed this.
May 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
@Davo:
I’ve never seen you, therefore you have never existed. Your comment was produced by a bot.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
how does ice t’s cop killer rolling stone cover not make it? this list sucks
May 14th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Oh no a atheist faggot here
June 18th, 2009 at 3:36 am
fuck kanye west. hes a gay fuckin fish
June 18th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
@Red Five
I love how you tried to use a Atheist argument against one.
Christians always fall behind the shield of ‘you can’t prove he doesn’t exist.’ So we have an effect counter to this.
Red Five, you cannot prove that you are not a bot, you cannot prove Santa Claus doesn’t exist, you cannot prove the Flying Spagetti Monster doesn’t exist. I have no doubt that you do not believe any of the above three statements, you don’t believe them because they are ludicrous statements. Would you believe them if they had a 2000 year old book stating they did exist, or if millions swore that they did?
Don’t bother responding, just think over it. I doubt I’ll be back to answer any objections you raise.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
@ Davo is a fag
Fuck off, seriously, I’ll act professional towards Red Five because he didn’t overstep his boundaries.
Yes yes Davo was a bit obnoxious but you religious zealots always hype up how much more moral you are then Atheists. Turn the other fucking cheek.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:37 am
“Davo is a fag Says:
Oh no a atheist faggot here”
oh and we can all see what a good god fearing person you are..to call someone else an obscene word because you lack the intelligence to communicate and feel you have the right above god to judge others. some things need to be said, others don’t. why not make your words count for something?
June 19th, 2009 at 8:05 am
@Christian4Life
You realize that’s a two way street, right? You say Jesus is Lord like it’s a fact and then you get caught up into these never ending loops of philosophy and end up convincing yourself black is white. I’m not saying there is no god, but if there is, he sure isn’t Christian. If you actually read the bible it calls for a lot of deaths. I mean ALOT. People who are homosexual, people who have two different kinds of thread in their clothing, people who plant to different plants next to each other in one farm, people who disrespect their mother and father (it’s bad but…really, killing them?) the list goes on and on and on and eventually any rational person has to come to the conclusion that this wasn’t divinely inspired. Here’s my idea, I’m going to go through life, crossing my fingers there’s a god and a heaven that isn’t as repulsive as the bible’s version, and I’m going to be good as I can be. Do jury duty, give to the poor, all that stuff. If god accepts me into his paradise because I’m good, that’s wonderful. If he curses me with eternal hellfire because of something trivial like the thread thing or not going to a church so I can murmur at him, then that’s not really a god I want to worship.
P.S. Ultimately it’s much more likely that we are all just vibrating clumps of matter in a vast uncaring universe and create myths about mighty sky wizards who made us out of dirt because we are terrified of the idea of not existing, or at least can’t comprehend it. Let’s hope not though.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
to Christian 4 Life : what fuckin planet are you on?? do you seriously beleive a single person human or not :
1. created heaven and earth
2. created the sun and heavens (after heaven and earth i may add,so he made the earth in the dark!!!!!!)
3.is creator of all things,but evangelists still insist “god wants your money”
4.And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence..
June 21st, 2009 at 12:37 am
Like many of you said, the US is not the world (no, no, its not, lyke srsly), the only cover that really upset me is the VOGUE one, its overly racist and without taste. Sadly LeBron James didn’t seem to mind.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
So, a bunch of celebrity pictures shook the world? Wow, I did not know the world was also called USA and got shocked by the make up on a character from a teeny movie. I guess that’s pretty damn shocking, the guy looked like a zombie wow!
Life’s fetus cover could’ve at least made to the list.
June 25th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Most of these look like they may have shook the US … the world. Ya right
August 12th, 2009 at 4:13 am
anyone who believes in god is
a) wrong
b) an idiot
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Twilight… really?