Vice (magazine)

Vice is a free glossy magazine founded in Montreal, Quebec, and currently based in New York City that covers contemporary independent arts and youth culture. The magazine's readership comprises young postcollegiate bohemians, often labelled "hipsters." Known for its controversial content, it often strikes a sardonic and ironic pose on debauchery, sex, drugs, violence, and social issues involving race and economic class.

Vice publishes editions in Australia, Austria, Great Britain, the United States, Japan, Scandinavia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Mexico. It is available for free and supports itself primarily through advertising. The magazine has published collections of its most popular work:The DOs and DON'Ts Book, along with, The Vice Guide to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. Vice has also created a retail clothing chain, Vice Retail, and a record label, Vice Records, as well as nascent ventures like Vice TV and Vice Film.

Founding

Founded in Montreal, Quebec by Suroosh Alvi, Shane Smith and Gavin McInnes, the magazine was launched as the Voice of Montreal in 1994 with government funding to provide work and a community service. When the editors wanted to break free of their commitments with the original publisher, Alix Laurent, they bought him out and changed the name to Vice in 1996. In search of more streetwear advertising income, they moved to New York City in 1999.

Subject matter

The magazine prides itself on being subversive, controversial and openly writing about taboo topics, which has garnered it both praise and condemnation. Particularly outlandish articles, such as The Vice Guide to Shagging Muslims and Bukkake On My Face: Welcome to the Ancient Tradition of the Japanese Facial have precipitated the magazine being banned from a number of university campuses.

The magazine is also famous for the "DOs and DONTs", which has since been imitated by countless other magazines. The feature displays candid photographs of strangers in public places accompanied with a short piece of commentary either ridiculing or praising the person's fashion and perceived sensibility, although some DOs and DON'Ts don't comment seriously on fashion, preferring to couple unusual photos with absurd text to create a joke. The idea has also been spun-off into a book, The DOs and DON'Ts Book, along with a compendium of the magazine's most popular work, The Vice Guide to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. Vice has also created a retail clothing chain, Vice Retail, and a record label, Vice Records, as well as nascent ventures like Vice TV and Vice Film.

In the past few years, Vice's content seems to have shifted from dealing mostly with independent arts and pop cultural matters to covering more serious news topics, although both are often treated with the same spirit of blithe and caustic irreverence. They've recently championed the "Immersionist" school of journalism, which they regard as something of a DIY antithesis to the big-office methods practiced by traditional news outlets, and put out an entire issue composed of articles written in this manner. There have also been recent issues of the magazine wholly dedicated to concerns facing Native Americans, the mentally ill, and the mentally disabled written mostly by members of each group.

Vice has strong ties with hipster icons such as photographers Terry Richardson and Patrick O'Dell (their former photo editor), clothing line American Apparel (a frequent advertiser), and comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman and David Cross. Vbs.tv, Vice's new "television" channel, is available for viewing on the internet, with the apparent intention of circumventing network intervention over content issues and allowing for a global, free of charge distribution plan akin to that of the magazine.

Vice's issues are usually devoted to one theme (e.g., "The Comics Issue," "The Iraq Issue") but, in 2007, Vice announced: "After umpteen years of putting out what amounted to a reference book every month, we started to get bored with it. Besides, too many other magazines have ripped it and started doing their own lame take on themes. So we're going to do some issues, starting now, that have whatever we feel like putting in them."

Criticism

Vice has been accused of using "irony" to conceal reactionary politics and to promote conservative, racist and sexist attitudes .

Vice cofounder Gavin McInnes wrote a piece in The American Conservative entitled "Hip to Be Square, It’s getting cooler to be conservative" (August 2003). In this piece, McInnes explains that Vice is ultimately a conservative magazine which aims to nurture conservative kids by exploiting cool culture.:

"I would estimate that only 12 percent of our readers would dare call themselves conservatives—but that is at least twice what it was five years ago. Finally, the dumb [liberal] community’s days are numbered. They are slowly but surely being replaced with a new breed of kid that isn't afraid to embrace conservatism. I'm not saying I had anything to do with this newborn counterculture, but I do have this strange compulsion to start handing out cigars to all my friends."

In an interview in The New York Press from 2002, Mr. McInnes's views came through in the coarse ethnic expressions he used in saying how pleased he was that most Williamsburg hipsters are white. As a result, he became the focus of a letter-writing campaign by a black reader. Vice apologized for Mr. McInnes's comments.

McInnes' views on immigration have also generated controversy and accusations of racism. In the September 2003 interview with The New York Times, McInnes stated, "I love being white and I think it's something to be very proud of." He also remarked "I don't want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life.". In the piece he wrote for The American Conservative, McInnes explains that he "couldn’t understand why Americans were so determined to favor PC posturing over simple facts. Immigration is out of hand, and it’s only going to get worse... when you are going to schools that are 50 percent Spanish and watching your education slip through your fingers, you tend to be a little more pragmatic. The same goes for affirmative action."

Suroosh Alvi, another co-founder of Vice, defends Gavin McInnes' comments in 2003 by saying, I can't with a clear conscience purport the same political ideals as Gavin. But since Day 1, we tried not to censor ourselves or anyone else, both in the form of editorial and advertising, so if Gavin wants to make an argument for his political ideals, bring it on.

In The New York Times 2003, McInnes is quoted as saying, 'No means no' is puritanism. I think Steinem-era feminism did women a lot of injustices, but one of the worst ones was convincing all these indie norts that women don't want to be dominated.

In 2004 Vice ran a picture of two Thai girls that it deemed good-looking, and told readers that "not even a good raping" could make them less attractive.

Jim Goad, noted for his strong anti-feminist beliefs and conviction for assault on his then-girlfriend Anne Sky Ryan, contributes to the magazine.

In 2005 Vice published an article titled "Some Dumb Myths and Smart Facts about Slavery!" written by Jim Goad which argues more or less that slavery wasn't such a bad institution and that inequality is the natural state of things.

External links

• Viceland - official site
• The Edge of Hip: Vice the Brand - New York Times article about the magazine.