Vogue Portugal pulls 'triggering' mental health cover after online backlash

07 July 2020 - 12:03 By Cebelihle Bhengu
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Vogue Portugal has pulled the cover after critics said it was triggering for mental health sufferers.
Vogue Portugal has pulled the cover after critics said it was triggering for mental health sufferers.
Image: Instagram/Vogue Portugal

Vogue Portugal has issued an apology and pulled one of its covers for its  “madness issue” for July/August after it was described as "triggering and insensitive" by some mental health experts.

The controversial cover depicts a psychiatric hospital and shows a naked woman in a bath tub with two women standing beside her and one of them pouring water over her head.

In its apology, Vogue Portugal said: “On such an important issue such as mental health we cannot be divided. Vogue Portugal has taken the decision to pull one of the four covers of our July/August issue which depicts a scene of a psychiatric hospital as well as the inside cover story about mental health.”

One of the critics was Emma Hopeall, who said she found the cover distasteful as she has a family member who suffers from mental illness and often gets hospitalised.

“I find the idea that you would aestheticise that on a Vogue cover for the madness issue truly incomprehensible. This is kind of strange, this kind of strange, archaic image of mental illness is deeply stigmatising,” she wrote.

London-based clinical psychologist Katerina Alexandraki told BBC UK that the cover is not a true reflection of what people with mental health issues go through.

“This image reinforces the idea of women being vulnerable and helpless during a mental breakdown. It doesn't show the effort those with mental health put in to overcoming their struggles, their strengths and resistance to overcome diversity.”


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