“And I keep wanting to ask, but why is she famous?”

RUMOURS have been circulating for a while that Kanye West had been ‘begging’ Anna Wintour to put his fiancée, Kim Kardashian, on the cover of American Vogue.

Wintour had done her best to appease him, lifting her reported ban on members of the Kardashian clan from attending the Met Ball. I’m willing to bet that she instantly regretted that decision when Kim arrived dressed in a ’70s style carpet. Perhaps that photo, which appeared on Vogue.com’s Best Dressed List afterwards, Kanye smiling broadly at the camera, Kim cropped out so all you can see is one, well upholstered hand, was Wintour’s revenge?

It seemed impossible that Anna would ever capitulate, and so I, like most other people with even a passing interest in fashion, presumed that the chances of Kim getting the cover were slim. The recently released images for April’s cover, Kim in a cream Lanvin gown, Kanye’s arms wrapped around her lovingly, have proved us wrong. The reaction has been almost hysterical, with outraged threats to cancel subscriptions flooding social media.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West cover VOGUE April: http://t.co/FgFT25JOXz pic.twitter.com/VTgSLAorKG

— In The Know (@InTheKnow) April 1, 2014

Why all the fuss? Well, Vogue, a magazine I must confess I adore, has always portrayed itself as one of the last remaining truly aspirational magazines on the newsstands. Whenever Vogue has been criticised; for using models that are too young or too thin, for rarely featuring women of colour or with ‘plus size’ figures, for being out of touch with reality, the counter argument has always been — Vogue is aspirational. Vogue is not meant to reflect your’s and my plebeian reality. Vogue is a fantasy world.

A world where white, blonde women are the epitome of true beauty, where we should all aspire to look like regular Vogue cover stars such as Sienna Miller, Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, Gwyneth Paltrow. Vogue might argue that they are merely responding to consumer demands, but in doing so, they would be denying the fact that as one of the most powerful fashion magazines in the world, they are not only reflecting our values, it is, in fact, shaping those cultural values. So, in portraying a single type of beauty, the message that young women receive is that this is the ONLY type of beauty that counts. If they do not look like Paltrow or Lively (and who does?) then they have failed in some fundamental way.

Because of this, there is a part of me that thinks it’s a good thing that Kardashian and West are the cover. It’s wonderful to see a mixed race couple portrayed in this way. Kardashian, like recent cover star, Lena Dunham, does not conform to the typical body type that we see in Vogue and she (unlike Oprah Winfrey) did not have to diet to an ‘acceptable’ weight. So, I applaud Vogue for stepping outside of its comfort zone. But couldn’t it have been Mindy Kaling, star of The Mindy Project, one of the only female show runners in Hollywood? What about Kerry Washington, of Scandal fame? Or recent Oscar winner, Lupita N’yongo?

I’ve only seen about two episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and the undeniably beautiful Kim seems like a perfectly pleasant, nice woman. But Wintour’s claims that she is someone whose ‘presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it’ seem farfetched. (If this is the case, why did Kim not warrant a solo cover on her own merits? Why was Kanye also featured?)

And I keep wanting to ask, but why is she famous? Because she had a sex tape that was leaked? This isn’t slut-shaming. There is nothing wrong with healthy female sexuality, and the double standard that says that women who are sexual are ‘sluts’ is at best archaic, and at worst dangerous. But the problem is, in a supposedly post-feminist society, some believe that ‘sex-positive feminism’ is actually doing the patriarchy’s work for it. So popstars get naked in music videos, claiming it’s a feminist decision to do so. Jordan, who became famous for getting increasingly large breast implants, is celebrated for her ‘business savvy’.

Perhaps because of the problematic origins of her fame, Kardashian now seems to be determined to be a ‘nice’ girl, to be inoffensive and she seems to me to encapsulate the basic problems with our society today, where having opinions on global issues is less important than having a backside that defies gravity.

In choosing to put Kim on their cover, Vogue is validating that.

It’s telling young women that if they want to become wealthy and successful, that instead of going to college, or starting their own business, that Kardashian’s example is the easiest route to a ‘perfect’ life.

Are we wrong in holding Vogue accountable for this? Could it be our fault? Is it our seemingly insatiable need to consume trash in the form of low-brow reality TV shows and barely readable ‘literature’ like 50 Shades perpetuating the vicious cycle?

As Nicole Richie said, “I don’t have a clue why I’m famous, either. But I didn’t make myself famous. I’m not doing it: you’re doing it.”

Can we stop now? Please?

Aida Austin is on leave

Louise O’Neill’s debut novel Only Ever Yours will be published by Quercus in August 2014