Teen magazine shocks readers with scorched-earth takedown of Trump

Move over, Kendall Jenner's floor-length coat.
 By 
Maria Gallucci
 on 
Teen magazine shocks readers with scorched-earth takedown of Trump
Teen Vogue's November 2015 cover. Credit: Jamie mcCarthy/Getty Images for Teen Vogue

With fake news reports and factually dubious tweets clouding the U.S. media atmosphere, readers are searching for a voice of reason to cut through all the noise.

Many people, it seems, found that voice from an unexpected outlet: Teen Vogue.

The U.S. fashion magazine, geared specifically to "teen girls," ran a scathing op-ed on President-elect Donald Trump this weekend.

In the piece, Teen Vogue weekend editor Lauren Duca explored some of the well-documented instances of Trump either lying about things he's done or said, or making factually unsupported claims.

"At the hands of Trump, facts have become interchangeable with opinions, blinding us into arguing amongst ourselves, as our very reality is called into question," Duca wrote.

Duca likened Trump's tactics to the plot of Gas Light, a 1938 play set in London's Victorian era, in which an overbearing husband systematically hides household items to make his wife question her own sanity. The wife, Bella Manningham, eventually realizes that her husband's trickery coincides with the dimming of gas-burning lamps throughout the building.

Duca claims Trump is "gas lighting" the U.S. public by spinning any attempt to bring truth to his falsehoods as evidence of bias.

Trump himself has recognized at least one of his conspiracy theories was baseless.

In September, two months before the presidential elections, Trump acknowledged that President Barack Obama was indeed born in the United States. For the past five years, Trump helmed the "birther" movement claiming that Obama wasn't born a U.S. citizen, and thus wasn't eligible to be commander in chief.

Some of Trump's critics seemed surprised to find such scorched-earth language in the pages of Teen Vogue. Others juxtaposed Duca's Dec. 10 op-ed with the magazine's recent coverage.

Other writers pointed out that glossy magazines like Teen Vogue have long blended politics and activism with gossip, fashion and beauty. Cosmopolitan, for instance, is known by its readers for publishing both listicles of sex tips and in-depth features on reproductive rights, workplace equality and pro-feminist themes.

Trump's supporters were less than amused to see the Teen Vogue op-ed populate their social media feeds.

Mashable Image
Maria Gallucci

Maria Gallucci was a Science Reporter at Mashable. She was previously the energy and environment reporter at International Business Times; features editor of Makeshift magazine; clean economy reporter for InsideClimate News; and a correspondent in Mexico City until 2011. Maria holds degrees in journalism and Spanish from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College.

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