Nicole Kidman is featured on the latest cover of Vanity Fair magazine but not everyone is happy.
The outlet is facing harsh criticism on social media from fans who took issue with the editing of the image as well as the outfit Kidman is wearing— a short skirt, top, knee-high socks and shoes that resemble a school girl's outfit. As one Instagram user wondered, why would a 54-year-old woman "need to be fetishized as a teen to make it on the cover of Vanity Fair?!"
The Instagram user was not alone in her sentiments. Soon hundreds of others chimed in with similar thoughts.
"Why are we dressing mature, accomplished, powerful women like sexy little girls? I’m surprised she was okay with this," one person commented on Instagram.
"Please don’t do school girls out of mature, accomplished women. It’s just degrading," another Instagram user wrote.
Over on Twitter, fans were equally critical as they took issue not just with Kidman's outfit, but with the editing and touching up of the image.
"Why Vanity Fair? You say women can look great at any age, yet you infantilize them. And the photoshop is so sloppy. When did the standards drop so low?" one user tweeted.
"Nicole Kidman does not look like this. Why do we do this s**? Infuriating how we simply do not accept how people actually look like rather than what bloody sells. Poor sell Nicole," another Twitter user remarked.
"I adore her. She's my favorite actor of my generation. But that pose and outfit are hyper-sexualizeation and objectification of women. She's brilliant. She doesn't deserve to be done like this. Her acting and beauty are everything, not being 'sexy.'" a third added.
While fans were not specifically angered by Kidman, the actress has faced her fair share of backlash, most notably for her role as Lucille Ball in "Being the Ricardos," with many saying she looks and sounds nothing like Ball.
In an interview last year with Variety, Kidman said she had felt certain fears and apprehensions around playing Ball, likening it to "free-falling."
"I am way out of my comfort zone right now," Kidman said. She also admitted to putting in "an enormous amount of time on Lucille Ball" because "she has a very particular way of speaking." In addition to the pressure she was exerting upon herself, Kidman said she was still dealing with the apprehension of the public, who were mistakenly under the impression that the production was a remake of "I Love Lucy."
"The strange thing about Lucille Ball is that everyone thinks we're remaking the ‘I Love Lucy’ show, and it's so not that," she said. "It's about Lucy and Desi [Arnaz] and their relationship and their marriage. It's very deep, actually."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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