The most controversial foreign magazine covers of 2021

The most controversial foreign magazine covers of 2021 touched on hot button issues of race, body image, gender identity and politics.
What follows are foreign magazine covers that created a stir in the past year.

French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo angered some readers with its March 10 cover. It depicted Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II with her knee on the neck of granddaughter-in-law Meghan Markle. Critics blasted the cover as racist for evoking the U.S. death of George Floyd. (See articles by Newsweek, CNN, NBC News, the Independent, and Daily Mail.)

The U.K. edition of Cosmopolitan got people talking with a series of covers for its February issue. The magazine used photos of plus-sized models with the cover line “This is healthy!” Critics said the magazine was glamorizing and normalizing obesity. (See articles by the Daily Mail, the Independent, the Federalist, Newstalk and LADbible.)

British Vogue took flak for its glamorous makeover of young pop star Billie Eilish in its June cover story. She swapped her trademark androgynous baggy clothes for a sexy Gucci corset and skirt over Agent Provocateur skivvies, accessorized with latex gloves and leggings. (See articles by the New York Times, the Wrap, Slate and the Evening Standard.)

The Chinese government ordered the April issue of Harper's Bazaar China pulled for featuring K-pop girl group Blackpink member Lisa on its cover. Lisa is associated with German sportswear brand Adidas, which is boycotting cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, where forced labor has allegedly been used. (See articles by New Straits Times, Jing Daily and Malay Mail.)

Rolling Stone India took heat for omitting singer, rapper and lyricist Arivu on its August cover. The cover featured singers Dhee and Shan Vincent De Paul but not Arivu, who wrote or co-wrote and performed two recent hit songs with the pair. (See articles by India Today, She the People, and the Quint.)

French magazine Causeur ran a cover image of five ethnically-diverse children with a mocking title “Smile, you are great replacements!” Critics said the September issue manufactured fear of demographic change and stoked anger against minorities. (See article by TRT World.)

U.K.-based medical journal the Lancet came under fire for describing women as “bodies with vaginas” on the cover of its Sept. 25 issue. The journal said it was trying to be inclusive of trans people. But critics said the wording dehumanized women. (See articles by the Daily Mail and Lipstick Alley.)

Vogue Italia faced criticism for its September cover that showed the white sand beach of Rosignano Solvay, Tuscany. Environmentalists said the cover presented a false image of the shoreline, which is home to a chemical plant guilty of directly disposing waste products into the nearby sea. (See article by Euronews.)