Mary-Kate and Ashley's 2003 VMAs & Rolling Stone Cover

They Thought I Was You

We are THRILLED to be talking this week about Mary-Kate and Ashley's appearance at MTV's 2003 Video Music Awards and subsequent Rolling Stone Cover (and never again about Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action).
On August 28th 2003, Mary-Kate and Ashley made their second appearance at the MTV VMAs. For anyone who doesn't remember, this was a big year for the VMAs. This was the VMAs that opened with the notorious Britney Spears, Madonna & Christina Aguilera performance, and a tidbit that the history books don't mention is that Mary-Kate and Ashley were also there! They presented best pop video with David Spade, and every joke Chris Rock makes about them is as cringey as you can imagine.
We also talk about their red carpet interview with SuChin Pak before the show, who asks them how they feel about Rolling Stone calling them "America's Fantasy," in their iconic cover that was coming out just a week later. In this interview and in the Rolling Stone article, Mary-Kate and Ashley walk the impossible tightrope of posing for a magazine with notoriously sexy covers while denying an awareness of their own sexuality amidst a barrage of reminders that America has started sexualizing them.
We do our best to unpack this strange and unsettling time in pop culture history, and buckle up for the rollercoaster that is about to be our coverage of Mary-Kate and Ashley in 2003 & '04. We hope you enjoy this first chapter!
You can also watch the video version of this ep by subscribing to our Patreon here.
You can watch the full video of the 2003 VMAS here and read their Rolling Stone Article here.
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