Melania Trump's Vanity Fair Mexico cover draws ire: 'It's a lack of sensitivity'

Her husband has single-handedly triggered a diplomatic crisis between the US and its southern neighbor in a confrontation which has helped send Mexico’s economy into a tailspin.

So it was probably inevitable that Melania Trump’s appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair Mexico would provoke outrage. 

The fact that she is posing with a fork and a string of jewels as if she were about to eat them like spaghetti has only added insult to injury in a country where almost half the population lives in poverty. 

The magazine’s February issue includes a lengthy interview with Trump (which originally appeared in GQ last year), and promises to dish on “her (turbulent) family past, the tactics for dealing with her husband and how she plans to turn herself into the new Jackie Kennedy”.

“It’s a lack of sensitivity on the part of the publisher,” said Guadalupe Loaeza, a Mexican author and columnist. “I started reading this and I couldn’t finish. I didn’t want to know anything about the wife of our country’s No 1 enemy.”

Mexicans used social media to mock the cover, though many also expressed outrage and dissatisfaction with the magazine for playing up the Trumps at time when the US president is denigrating them as a country and culture.

“Thank you @VanityFairMX for putting Melania Trump on the cover. Great example of sensitivity, empathy, patriotism and editorial intelligence,” tweeted Denise Dresser, a prominent public intellectual.

Mexican magazine covers frequently offer outlets of escapism, portraying the privileges, excesses and tacky tastes of celebrities and the upper crust. 

“Large proportion of Mexicans are culturally programmed [by media] to worship the fair-skinned and famous,” said Andrew Paxman, a professor at the Center for Research and Teaching of Economics, who studies Mexican media. 

“It plays into the escapist fantasy, perpetuated in Mexico by decades of Cinderella-style telenovelas, that a good girl of modest means can fulfill her dreams by marrying a Prince Charming.”

Last year, a BuzzFeed Mexico survey found that the overwhelming majority of people featured in Mexican magazines were white – even though the majority of the population is considered mestizo or indigenous.