Among other things, Hollywood does an excellent job at prodding us with questionable media bait, and we are just as good at taking that bait and retaliating by getting heated and vocal. But is this piece of media we’re angry about actually that offensive, are we just looking for something to argue about, or has our skin grown too thin?
When I say “Hollywood,” I’m not talking about every famous person ever. The Kardashian/Jenner group is a prime example of the Hollywood I’m referring to. Kim Kardashian became well known for a sex tape, but prior to that, her father was O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney, her (then) stepfather Bruce Jenner (now stepmother Caitlyn Jenner) was an Olympic athlete, and the rest is history. I’ll be honest -- I cannot keep up with the Kardashians.
Recently the youngest of the crew, Kylie Jenner, did a risqué photo shoot for Interview Magazine where she was transformed into a retro sex doll. In one of the photos, she is posing in a wheelchair. It was a weird photoshoot, shot by Steven Klein. Since she is dressed as a retro sex doll and judging by the rest of the photos, my mind wanders to a wheelchair fetish subculture as the explanation for the picture, though that is probably not even close to the actual explanation. Not that it makes it OK, but my initial thought was, “Why is Michael Jackson in a wheelchair?” I was not offended when I first saw it. Is it because I am not impacted by the "limitations" of a wheelchair, or am I just not sensitive enough to be offended by it?Not surprisingly, she is being slammed for the photo shoot and the comments section of any of the articles are raging with negative comments. No comments on the rest of the photo shoot, just the wheelchair photos. People are saying the usual “how dare she, she doesn’t know what it’s like to be confined to a wheelchair, if they wanted to show a sexy woman in a wheelchair they should’ve hired an actual disabled woman…” But also in the comments, there are people arguing with the people that are angry about the photo. “Don’t say ‘confined to a wheelchair,’ my wheelchair liberates me” and back and forth.Here is where the line gets blurry. Is this photo something to be enraged about, are we being too sensitive, or are we just looking for something to argue about at this point? The reason this has come to mind is because of recent requests for trigger warnings and aiming to turn college campuses into “safe spaces.” LOVE Magazine did “insane asylum chic” back in 2012 and I heard nothing negative about it. When did we start to become so easily offended?
