Vice Magazine Fashion Spread Shows Models Posing As Female Writers Who Committed Suicide (PHOTOS)

Vice Magazine caused a major controversy after revealing images from a photo shoot that show models posing as famous female writers who have committed suicide. The fashion spread was a part of their "Fictions" issue. According to Fox News, the shocking images have been removed from the website but will still appear in the printed issue because it has already been published.

The photo essay called "Last Words" depicts the writers at the time of their death and includes Sylvia Plath, Virginia Wolf, Dorothy Parker, historian Iris Chang, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and poet Elise Cowen. The photos, which can be seen at Jezebel.com, shows a model kneeling in front of an open gas oven, a model sprawled across the ground, one standing in front of the sink after just cutting her wrists, a model with a gun in her mouth and another with a noose around her neck.

In replace of the horrifying images Vice magazine released a statement:

"Last Words" is a fashion spread featuring models reenacting the suicides of female authors who tragically ended their own lives. It is part of our 2013 Fiction Issue, one that is entirely dedicated to female writers, photographers, illustrators, painters, and other contributors.

The fashion spreads in VICE Magazine are always unconventional and approached with an art editorial point-of-view rather than a typical fashion photo-editorial one. Our main goal is to create artful images, with the fashion message following, rather than leading.

"Last Words" was created in this tradition and focused on the demise of a set of writers whose lives we very much wish weren't cut tragically short, especially at their own hands. We will no longer display "Last Words" on our website and apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended."

Underneath each of the photos was a caption with the writer's birth and death date as well as how she died. Also in the caption was a description of the clothes being worn by the models. In one photos depicting a woman hanging herself, the caption also included what designer tights were used to create the noose, Fox News reports.

Vice was heavily criticized for "dangerously portraying suicide as being sexy."

Helen Lewis, who writes for The Guardian in England, said that there have been studies that show that depicting suicide in a report on suicide only urges people to copy what they see.

"Every year in England and Wales, about 24,000 young people between the age of 10 and 19 attempt suicide. What will children in that kind of distress see when they look at those Vice pictures? They will see a menu," Lewis wrote. "Using famous women makes it worse, because vulnerable people can fixate on a favorite writer and identify with them."

Another issue a lot of people had with the spread was that it depicted real women who were obviously at a low point in their lives.

"These weren't fictional characters, these were real women, who lived and struggled and died, and to treat their lowest moments as fodder for a silly fashion spread is shameful and sad," Jenna Sauers wrote on Jezebel.com.