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Kylie Jenner Slammed for Posing in a Wheelchair in Provocative Photoshoot

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Updated on July 6, 2023

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Kylie Jenner’s provocative photoshoot for Interview magazine has not gone well with some folks.

Jenner and the magazine have both come under fire, and it’s not because of photos of the reality star wearing leather chaps that reveal her buttocks.

Jenner has a history of igniting controversy, whether it’s over dating an older man, plumping her lips, or wearing provocative costumes.

She has faced backlash again on social media after a photo from the fashion session showed her posing in a wheelchair.

The 18-year-old reality star is seen in a skin-tight black bodysuit, seated in a wheel chair, on the cover of the magazine’s December/January edition.

In a statement to ET, Interview stated, “At Interview, we are proud of our tradition of working with great artists and empowering them to realize their distinct and often bold visions. The Kylie Jenner cover by Steven Klein, which references the British artist Allen Jones, is a part of this tradition, placing Kylie in a variety of positions of power and control and exploring her image as an object of vast media scrutiny. Throughout the Art Issue, we celebrate a variety of women who are both the creators and subjects of their artistic work, and the Kylie feature aims to unpack Kylie’s status as both engineer of her image and object of attention. Our intention was to create a powerful set of pictures that get people thinking about image and creative expression, including the set with the wheelchair. But our intention was certainly not to offend anyone.”

“It’s disappointing to see people fall back on the tired and totally untrue idea that being in a wheelchair is limiting. I think most wheelchair users, myself included, would tell you that our wheelchairs are empowering and enable us to fully live our lives,” Ian Ruder, senior editor of New Mobility, a United Spinal Association member journal, tells PEOPLE.

Emily Smith Beitiks, associate director of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability in San Francisco, told CNN, “It’s deeply disturbing. People with disabilities are already seen as powerless, and this just reinforces that.”

Others defended Kylie, claiming that the wheelchair was used as a prop to represent how constrained Kylie feels as a result of her popularity (which she does talk about briefly in her interview with the mag).

This is the second time Jenner has been the center of controversy this year. Her hair was plaited into cornrows in a photo she uploaded on Instagram in July, prompting Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg to accuse her of “appropriating black culture.”

Amy Richardson of Hartlepool, England, spoke with ET about her own comments criticizing Kylie’s usage of a wheelchair as a prop, which have been retweeted by other Twitter users.

“It’s common for fashion magazines and models to use wheelchairs or other mobility aids to look ‘edgy,” she commented. “I would much rather that disabled models were used if a photographer really wanted to do a certain concept using wheelchairs, etc. But most of the time the models used are able-bodied.”

“I guess what I and many other disabled people really want is just to be given the same opportunities as everyone else,” she added. “If disabled people weren’t excluded from the fashion world then there would be no problem with able-bodied people using wheelchairs in fashion. It would all be equal. But right now we’re almost invisible and so what I hope for is more visibility. More opportunity and more acceptance of the disabled body.”

Richardson stated that she would want an “explanation” from Kylie rather than an apology.

“Mostly, I’d like an explanation of how not one person at the magazine, nor Kylie herself, or her manager/mother thought, ‘Maybe this could hurt people,’” she mused. “An apology would be lovely but it’s not completely necessary. I just want them to know that what they did was harmful because I know it might not have crossed their mind.”