Kylie Jenner's Wheelchair Photos Slammed by Disability Advocates
The Jenner-Kardashian just got bigger and bolder when Kylie Jenner stepped into the world of fashion and modeling, but with her latest photos for Interview magazine, it seems she's becoming more popular for all the wrong reasons.
The recent provocative photo shoot has definitely been controversial, and while some of the photos seem fine for the world to see, two specific photos sparked outrage among social media users and disability advocates.
The two photos show Jenner sitting in a wheelchair, arms and legs rigid. Her face stares blankly on the floor, her makeup all the more making her look like a doll. One of the more common aspects about the photos that people noticed is that Jenner's wheelchair was black and gold.
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Associate director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability in San Francisco, Emily Smith Beitiks, told CNN that Jenner's photos are offensive. "It's deeply disturbing. People with disabilities are already seen as powerless, and this just reinforces that," she said.
Being 18 years old and supposedly just fresh out of her childhood days, Jenner's photo shoot that was obviously of sexual nature, received a lot of negative comments, but her wheelchair photos put her and the magazine under the scrutiny of Twitter users.
According to People, Interview said they came up with the photo shoot to give people a channel through which they can think "about image and creative expression." However, people who lived their lives on wheelchairs don't think so.
Kayla Whaley, a writer from Atlanta, made the most powerful statement that could have said it all for the entire community of people with disability. "I'm constantly infantilized because of my wheelchair, denied even the idea of sexuality and agency let alone desirability. But Kylie? She gets paid and praised to wear the shallowest possible illusion of my disability for a few hours," she said.
Numerous others who either know someone with disability, or have been deprived of their rights to indulge in modeling or art-related activities, also took to social media and expressed their dismay.
For Whaley and the community, an "apology" would be nice, and though they think it will never happen, the writer said it would be appreciated if someone gives them the chance of getting into the world of art, fashion, and media.
