Visits: 20
The culture section of Vogue encompasses a wide range of coverage; from cinema, to theater, to books, to politics, to the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial justice. And why write across all of this? Because that’s the point of Vogue: to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and consider how our lives intertwine with it.
During a year like this one, when so many things were happening simultaneously, readers both wanted to stay up-to-speed with the news, and escape from it. As such, opinion pieces about the 2020 election were popular, as was more comforting content about soothing Netflix movies and, back in February, the Super Bowl. (Seriously, you all couldn’t get enough of J Lo.)
Below, the most-read stories from Vogue.com’s culture section this year, in ascending order.
During the early days of lockdown, many Americans watched Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus newscasts on CNN, even enjoying brief moments of levity as he sparred with his brother, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, on air. So when the face of COVID-19 coverage came down with the disease himself in late March, it seemed like a surreal moment. But, in true news-anchor fashion, Chris kept calm and carried on, broadcasting from his basement.
This was Corey Seymour’s feel-good profile of Najiah Knight, the 4’10” Native American bull-rider posed to become the sport’s next big thing. When Seymour asked Knight if it was funny being the only girl on the mini bull-riders tour, she responded with an ear-to-ear grin: “I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.”
Donald Trump impressions are a dime a dozen, but it was internet star Sarah Cooper who captured pop culture’s consciousness with her huuge impersonation of the president. Cooper’s most viral hit? Her recreation of that “person, woman, man, camera, TV” interview. The question is: Did it bother Trump so much that he started to consider a Tiktok ban?
How’s this for an understatement: 2020 was a rough year. You wanted some Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton to get you through it.
This election cycle, there was much ado about Hunter Biden’s possible wrongdoings. But, as contributing writer Molly Jong-Fast asked, what about Ivanka?
The first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was a shouting match of offensive, derogatory, and often racist statements. Vogue writer Christian Allaire focused on one: Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” when referring to Elizabeth Warren.
In his article, Allaire described, why, exactly the stereotypical term is so offensive to the indigenous community, as well how American politicians have overlooked its meaning over and over.
In a brilliant but perhaps savage move, we published this on Valentine’s Day. We all can dream, right?
What can we say, the kid’s got some pipes—and you wanted to know all about her.
Leave it to Tom Hanks, our collective Hollywood dad, to provide calm and persuasive guidance during the early, chaotic days of the coronavirus pandemic. After being diagnosed himself in Mid-March, he wrote on Twitter: “You don’t give it to anyone—you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?” Our audience certainly took his message to heart.
Writer Michelle Ruiz struck a chord with her poignant reflection on Ruth and Marty Ginsburg’s love story following the Supreme Court Justice’s passing. Theirs was a truly egalitarian partnership: “[Ruth Bader Ginsburg] may never have been able to reach her full, glorious and iconic potential had she not had a husband who ranked her career as equal to his own,” Ruiz wrote.
Part chronology of their romance, part reflection on how so often women are “marrying their glass ceilings,” it became Vogue.com’s most-read culture story of the year.
