Last week Kylie Jenner stirred up some controversy over her Interview magazine cover, which featured a photo of the 18-year-old reality TV star in a wheelchair.
The image, which was photographed by Steven Klein, was dubbed "offensive" by those who actually use wheelchairs, with one woman tweeting, "My chair is not haute couture."
Now, Erin Tatum, a woman with cerebral palsy, is taking to Tumblr to recreate the controversial shot, in order to highlight the issue with using a wheelchair as a prop.
"I tried my best to create a more authentic version of Kylie Jenner's Interview cover, given that I'm, you know, actually disabled and a real life wheelchair user," Tatum writes on her Tumblr page. "I can barely get people to make eye contact with me, let alone land a cover shoot. If being in a wheelchair is trendy now, I’ve apparently been a trendsetter since before Kylie was born."
Of her initial response to the Interview cover, the 24-year-old tells The Washington Post, "I saw it and I just started laughing with my mom. Like oh, what, it's cool to be disabled now? That's how the idea of a photo shoot started. I could pull off that outfit so much better than her."
After buying the leather corset from Spencer's at a mall near their home in Pennsylvannia, Tatum and her mother hung a white sheet as a backdrop and "dragged every lamp in the house to Tatum's bedroom," before taking the picture on a cell phone, according to The Washington Post.
Tatum tells the Post what bothers her most about the shoot is how Interview took a woman "whose entire family is internationally known for their beauty and sexuality" and placed her in a wheelchair.
"It’s blatant sexualization of physical limitation, which is ironic because in the real world if you have any physical limitations or have a disability, that seems to automatically forfeit your right to sexuality,” she says.
"Generally people don’t want to be attracted to disabilities because in their minds, they would be attracted to someone who is like a child, or very infantile. That perception makes us a lot less viable as dating partners. The playing field is incredibly unequal."
Prior to Erin's post, Interview magazine defended the controversial shoot, saying the gold-plated wheelchair was simply exploring Kylie's image "as an object of vast media scrutiny."
"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," the publication told E! in a statement. "But our intention was certainly not to offend anyone."
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