it's not vegan ep. 18
Everyone stop being lactose intolerant now!!! From the gov sponsored Got Milk? campaign to the Babygirl effect, drink up.
Two things happened this week: tariffs and Devon Lee Carlson on the cover of ISSUEISSUE. Devon, shot by Yasmine Diba, leans weakly against a tree and, as if severely calcium deficient, clutches a glass of milk in two gloved hands.
Devon Lee Carlson by Yasmine Diba for Issue Issue, 2025
Something ominous is going on with milk. Last year, there was the Babygirl incident—Nicole Kidman, aspiring Babygirl, drinks a glass of milk that Harrison Dickinson, a true Babygirl, has sent to her table.
And then there was Gabbriette in Elle, gently rotting on a floral coverlet with a gallon of milk on the bedside table. Hunter Schafer in Vogue Italia looking wistful with a cup of milk in hand. Mia Goth, shot by Colin Dodgson for AnOther Magazine, performing magic with, yes, a carton of milk. Amelia Gray photographed by Sebastian Faena for CR Fashion Book unceremoniously pouring milk from a glass bottle down her Balenciaga robe. And that was all just in 2024.
Gabbriette by Cameron McCool, Elle, 2024
Hunter Schafer by Ethan James Green for Vogue Italia, June 2024
Mia Goth by Colin Dodgson for AnOther Magazine, 2024
Amelia Gray by Sebastian Faena, CR Fashion Book, 2024
It might be because we grew up in the era of Got Milk? Some light research reveals that in the 1980s and 1990s, milk sales were in decline (sad). The California Milk Processor Board decided to do something about it (brave). And what they did was give celebrities milk mustaches (happy) and hang giant posters in every suburban cafeteria across the nation (patriotic). That was 31 years ago.
Kate Moss by Annie Leibovitz, 1995
Dennis Rodman by Annie Leibovitz, 1996
Or maybe the use of milk in imagery is just be in keeping with a long-standing tradition of milk being used to suggest innocence or suggest sex. Problematically, sometimes both.
.Terry Richardson for Sisley, 2001
Natalia Vodianova photographed by Bruce Weber, W Magazine 2002
Jacquelyn Jablonski by Victor Demarchelier for Vogue Germany, November 2010
I’m older than the Got Milk? campaign, but I’ve never had a glass of milk. I do, however accidentally, seem to have a fixation with democratic entropy and the uptick in American symbolism in culture: football, now milk, probably Stars and Stripes Bikinis next. Like I said: two things happened this week—tariffs, and Devon Lee Carlson clutching a glass of milk.