So Kylie Jenner is on the cover of the new Interview magazine. In a wheelchair.
The cover is one of three shot by photographer Steven Klein, and it's raising the ire of activists who are calling the editorial ableist.
Others took the opportunity criticize Jenner and the mag for treating disability like a fashion accessory.
And also:
Even Karl Lagerfeld's cat Choupette went in on Kylie.
NEWSFLASH for @KylieJenner & @InterviewMag: A wheelchair is not an accessory.
As the blog Feminists With Disabilities explains, Jenner is partaking in "crip drag," which is "when a character has a disability, but the actor playing that character doesn’t have whatever disability they are portraying."
In fact, many are asking why Mercado wasn't chosen for the shoot.
"My wheelchair is not an accessory, and it's not something I can leave behind when I feel like it," says writer Karin Hitselberger, who blogs about disability at Claiming Crip.
And, says Hitselberger, Jenner doesn't have to contend with being perceived as virtually invisible most of the time.
For its part, Interview told E! that its intention was "to create a powerful set of pictures that get people thinking about image and creative expression, including the set with the wheelchair."
