Now She's Being Fame Shamed: Why Can't We Just Leave Kendall Jenner Alone?
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First she was fat shamed, then backstage bullied, and now she’s being fame shamed. Kendall Jenner just can’t cut a break.
Let me just start off here by saying I have never seen an entire episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians in its entirety nor do I suss out Kim and Kanye’s every move, though I am fascinated and intrigued by how this American family has become such a zeitgeist of pop-culture in the last few years. Yes, all the haters here are going to blow up the comments section now, pouncing on me with reminders of Kim’s lurid past or lack of talent (old arguments in my book); but let’s face it, whether any of you like the Kardashians or not, they have very firmly carved out a place for themselves in the pop-culture timeline.
So that brings us to Kendall Jenner, who as Kim’s half sister, has exploded in the fashion populace in the past year, gaining a nod of approval from everyone including Anna Wintour with her fashion spread in Vogue, to Estee Lauder, who just named her as a contracted spokesperson, to stylist Katie Grand, who gave Kendall her first big break walking in the Marc Jacobs fashion show.
Like it or not, Kendall Jenner is officially a supermodel. And I don’t mind that one bit, though this week, fellow model Arisce Wanzer wrote a very *snap snap* open letter to Jenner, fame shaming her, saying that her career happened without any of the sacrifices. She argues that her success is just a by-product of who she is.
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As a fashion editor for more than 20 years, I have seen the rise of many supermodels along the way, some with famous last names and some not; but that has never been the sole reason you hire them. You hire them mostly for the look. What the industry is guilty of is not nepotism, but the Lemming Syndrome. I don’t think the fashion industry is working overtime to make sure a Kardashian/Jenner sibling is gaining advantage, but more the fact that if the key players (we’re talking Anna, Katie, Riccardo here) have given their approval to Jenner (or anyone else for that matter), then the rest of the industry will want a piece of her too. This just further exemplifies that the fashion industry contains a band of trend-setters and followers, which is fine. It’s how trends - like that Cerulean blue sweater as explained in The Devil Wears Prada - actually has legs.
The fashion industry rallying and championing a specific girl that may have been puzzling to some at first has been recurring history within the industry. There was Twiggy in the ’60s, who was gangly, lanky, and not what you call model material, until the industry fashion bibles consistently featured her. Same with Kate Moss and her shorter height and imperfect smile in the early ’90s, who seemed like an odd choice to follow the statuesque supermodels of the ’80s. And now the industry is rallying for Jenner, whose biggest imperfection seems to be her family.
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Wanzer says in her rather hostile open letter that as a fellow model, seeing Jenner’s success, “cheapens your entire experience. You thought you were special, that your hard work had finally paid off. You didn’t realize that these coveted spots were for sale. The cost? The soul and dignity of a fashion house. The clothes will still sell, and the players will still play, but the image will be forever tarnished by these real life Veruca Salts buying their way in with sleazy fame rights.”
I will admit that I had to re-read Wanzer’s letter several times just to get the points that she is making. She claims that Jenner’s stellar career happened without merit and yet she disregards Jenner having all the right markers of a model (height, look, youth, stance) as well as her social media following (and this we will attribute to her fame), which is an asset.
But to say she bought her way into fashion with her fame seems to contradict the very points that she is trying to make. Because her family is famous, therefore, she does not deserve to be a model and a successful one at that? If Jenner has all the desirable attributes of a successful model today, then why fault her because of her last name? It’s not like her physical qualities are an exception to the modeling norms or even the argument that she’s just “average pretty” when beauty is such a subjective issue anyways. And would this argument be moot if her family had, what some might deem, a “respectable” legacy? If Wanzer believes that Jenner shouldn’t have these opportunities because of her fame, then isn’t that just as prejudiced a view as if her mom really did buy her those opportunities?
Read the letter in full and tell me what you think.
