# Does this Rolling Stone magazine cover offend you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774 "2013-07-17T18:10:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/241 "2013-07-19T01:10:33Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > Some of those fangirls are now going to be looked at real close by the authorities, as they should. _As they should_? What utter rubbish. > [@](#): > > However, why keep stirring up a sick interested in this monster? Serious discussion about an incident of public interest and one of the perpetrators and how he got to that point is not a “sick interest.” > [@](#): > > And I don’t have to read it, it’s the same slop trotted out when Paul Bernardo or Ted Bundy were on trial. You get really strange morbid sexual fascination from certain circles. Big deal. A broken record. Nothing new. Move on, a rag like RS should know better and stop sexualizing monsters. It’s clear to me that you have absolutely no idea what kind of articles _Rolling Stone_ publishes on matters of public interest. _Rolling Stone_ brought down the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan by revealing his discourse in professional situations. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/242 "2013-07-19T01:16:53Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Monsters really are not supposed to look like that. Like _what?_ He looks as much a monster as anyone else who has bombed people. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/243 "2013-07-19T01:20:13Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > Some of those fangirls are now going to be looked at real close by the authorities, as they should. However, why keep stirring up a sick interested in this monster? > > And I don’t have to read it, it’s the same slop trotted out when Paul Bernardo or Ted Bundy were on trial. You get really strange morbid sexual fascination from certain circles. Big deal. A broken record. Nothing new. Move on, a rag like RS should know better and stop sexualizing monsters. There’s nothing remotely sexual in the article. It doesn’t glamorize him in the slightest. He comes off as fairly sad and pathetic. It’s not about sick interest. We would be well-served if we had a better understanding of what causes people to commit such atrocities, no? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/244 "2013-07-19T01:28:16Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Like _what?_ He looks as much a monster as anyone else who has bombed people. But you know very well that people make assumptions about each other based on what we look like and we’re more likely to assume people who look good are good. If you have some time to kill, take a look at what people on the SDMB were saying about this kid when we first found out what he looked like. People were absolutely surprised the suspect looked nice, and I think people were much more willing to take responsibility away from him based on how he looks and put all the blame on the older brother. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/245 "2013-07-19T02:06:28Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > But you know very well that people make assumptions about each other based on what we look like and we’re more likely to assume people who look good are good. Yeah and I’m challenging that idea because it’s asinine. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/246 "2013-07-19T02:48:25Z")
Nm ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/247 "2013-07-19T03:14:20Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Yeah and I’m challenging that idea because it’s asinine. Nobody said otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/248 "2013-07-19T05:37:55Z")
I am definitely not offended, but I do think that it is in slightly poor taste. I know that magazines have to put attractive (or popular) people on their covers to sell issues, but in light of the serious subject matter, it seems cheap to me. Choosing to put a rock star looking pic of their subject, where rocks stars are usually featured seems like trolling to me. Seeing the number of people/businesses that are offended or put off by the cover, I guess their marketing people hit the target! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/249 "2013-07-19T09:05:07Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > No, but I understand why people aren’t particularly inclined to humanize this one, and so I see little point in being outraged about the outrage. Fair enough. I understand the impulse too, although I think it should be challenged as perhaps too self-defeating. Refuse to humanise your enemies and you risk them rising to the challenge, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/250 "2013-07-19T10:15:18Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Fair enough. I understand the impulse too, although I think it should be challenged as perhaps too self-defeating. Refuse to humanise your enemies and you risk them rising to the challenge, as it were. Perhaps part of the angst is that this one was really not at risk of being unfairly demonized, so it’s not much of challenge to humanize him.. He’s handsome, he’s got his crazy fan club, and he’s young and white. So if RS is trying to make an appeal for us to humanize a “monster”, they aren’t really asking the public to stretch themselves very much. They are just encouraging us to do that which seems to be many people’s natural impulse anyway. It’s provocative by being not all that provocative, and I can see why it would make people react negatively. FYI, I haven’t read the article so I don’t even know if the writers are trying to humanize this kid. I’m just saying the issue is not as simple as saying we should love our enemies. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/251 "2013-07-19T10:29:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > “Newsmaker of the Year” might have been less controversial Not based on a [recent Canadian Newsmaker of the Year](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/newsmaker-of-the-year-poll-triggers-storm-of-social-media-debate/article6697432/). ---
**Author:** ![Schism](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@Schism](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schism)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/252 "2013-07-19T10:30:36Z")
Not love, know. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/253 "2013-07-19T12:40:39Z")
In reply to the RS cover, yesterday Massachusetts State Police photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy has [released several photos](http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/07/18/tsarnaev/) from Tsarnaev’s standoff and arrest. SFW, nothing you wouldn’t see on CNN. Murphy has been suspended pending an investigation. From the article: > [@](#): > > Murphy wants the world to know that the Tsarnaev in the photos he took that night—defeated and barely alive, with the red dots of sniper rifles lighting up his forehead—is the real face of terrorism, not the handsome, confident young man shown on the magazine cover. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/254 "2013-07-19T13:21:36Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I don’t know. I’m trying to think of a shooting spree incident pre Colubine. I can’t think of any. The best I could come up with was that tower shooting at the University of Texas. > > It’s probably confirmation bias, but it seems like ever since that incident, the shooting sprees have increased ten fold. Between those two incidents, Brenda Spencer shot up a school in '79 and got a song written about her, “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats. Even though that would seem to be more glamorizing and lasting than a Rolling Stone cover, she managed to fade away into history enough that most people (including you) don’t remember her. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/255 "2013-07-19T13:55:34Z")
Hunter Thompson is probably rolling in his grave (natch). ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/256 "2013-07-19T14:19:22Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > In reply to the RS cover, yesterday Massachusetts State Police photographer Sgt. Sean Murphy has [released several photos](http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/07/18/tsarnaev/) from Tsarnaev’s standoff and arrest. SFW, nothing you wouldn’t see on CNN. Murphy has been suspended pending an investigation. That was a really stupid thing to do. I don’t see anything particularly shocking about the photos, but it wasn’t worth losing his job over. > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Hunter Thompson is probably rolling in his grave (natch). Rolling one, you mean? (By the way, he wasn’t buried. He was cremated and his ashes were shot out of a cannon shaped like the Gonzo fist logo.) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/257 "2013-07-19T14:52:34Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Hunter Thompson is probably rolling in his grave (natch). Thompson would have celebrated anything that could be seen as an extended middle finger to the pearl-clutching segment if society. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/258 "2013-07-19T14:57:19Z")
> [@42fish](#): > > Between those two incidents, Brenda Spencer shot up a school in '79 and got a song written about her, “I Don’t Like Mondays” by the Boomtown Rats. Even though that would seem to be more glamorizing and lasting than a Rolling Stone cover, she managed to fade away into history enough that most people (including you) don’t remember her. There were a few more than that, I think. Didn;t someone shoot up a McDonalds in the 80s? Maybe one or two in post offices? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/259 "2013-07-19T15:28:21Z")
Quick, ask me who was on the cover of RS last month! Haven’t a clue. If people hadn’t thrown a shitfit about this one, I’d never have known about the fact that he’s on it. The act of kvetching about it gives it the attention and notoriety the kvetchers claim to be against. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774/260 "2013-07-19T16:19:43Z")
I’m like TriPolar. I understand why it is offensive, even though I myself am not offended. The guy is being glamorized by being put on the cover of a magazine that mostly has glamorized photos. It doesn’t matter that they’ve run other stories before. And it’s also quite clear that they put this on the magazine specifically to piss off others to create controversy. And, no, putting a pretty picture of someone on the cover of Rolling Stone doesn’t humanize them, because, get this, most humans don’t get that treatment. Humanizing means treating people like everyone else, not treating them better. If the magazine wanted to humanize the guy, as they claim, they’d have used an image that made him look like an everyday kid. They have made sure you didn’t initially think he was a rock star before recognizing him. You know, like a legitimate news magazine would. But what does offend me is all the people in this thread bragging and being snarky about how they can’t understand why people might be upset. You are admitting ignorance and then acting like this is a good thing! People have gone out of their way to explain why they are offended. Do you try to understand that point of view? No, you try to prove them wrong so that you can go on not understanding them. It’s not some sort of contest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-rolling-stone-magazine-cover-offend-you/663774.md?page=14)