Melania Trump has graced her first glossy magazine cover as First Lady of the United States.
The publication is Vanity Fair Mexico. And the cover looks like this…
Yes, that's the Slovenian-born FLOTUS pretending to eat jewellery like spaghetti. For some reason.
Just FYI, that tagline reads, "Her family background, the tactics to deal with her husband and how she plans to become the new Jackie Kennedy."
The article originally appeared in sister publication GQ last April. But Vanity Fair Mexico's decision to recycle the story is drawing ire from its readers.
Not only is the lavish image being labelled 'insensitive' considering, you know, more than half of the country's 127 million people live in poverty; it's also being criticised in the context of the rather, erm, tense relationship that currently exists between Mexico and the US.
Just this week, President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled his first official meeting with his new American counterpart amid conflict over Trump's controversial plans for an anti-immigration wall.
And that's just one of the many issues at play here. Let's not forget the comments made by the new President in 2015 at the start of his election campaign: "[Mexico is] sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Factor all that in and the backlash to the Vanity Fair cover is hardly a surprise.
“It’s a lack of sensitivity on the part of the publisher,” prominent Mexican author and columnist Guadalupe Loaeza said, according to The Guardian. “I started reading this and I couldn’t finish. I didn’t want to know anything about the wife of our country’s No 1 enemy.”
Others are making their frustrations known on social media.
“It seems like @VanityFairMX wants to win the hate of its readers," Tweeted one critic. "It’s unbelievable that in this moment THIS woman is on the cover GROSS!”
“There is no limit for humiliation or the stupidity of @VanityFairMX," posted another.
The publication has not publicly responded to the criticism.
Top Comments
This sends a very clear message, which harks back to the days of MarieAnnttoinet during the French revolution, it seems clearly suggestive of the whole "let them eat cake" comment which highlights huge differences between her rich, entitled lifestyle, and that of many Mexican's, who are struggling to put food on the table, and a roof over their families heads. Goes to show she is easily manipulated, and is blissfully unaware, or doesn't care how her image and connection affects other people.
Good Lord people! Give the poor woman a break! Has it occurred to anyone that the cover was not her idea but oh gees! that of Vanity Fair? Stop with the persecution already, she has only been FLOTUS for a week, I would like to see any of her gleeful critics do what she is doing and handle the spot light as well as she is.
Really? Come on, she's the First Lady. If she doesn't want to pose a certain way, I'm sure she can damn well say so! You're just making excuses for her, and they simply do not add up, because it is her choice how to pose. Not the magazine's. Enough with the delicate flowers on here and the excuses. She knows darn well what she is doing.