Kylie Jenner’s barely legal tour is in full swing. The 18-year-old high school graduate and cutout bikini enthusiast gave the Internet a guilty boner on Tuesday with the release of her Galore Magazine interview and photoshoot. While the article doesn’t exactly dole out revelations (yes, of course Kylie Jenner has an incredible work ethic—we’ve all watched YouTube tutorials on the time-consuming, laborious art of facial contouring), the NSFW photos definitely deliver.
We start off with a semi-wholesome vibe, as lil’ sis Jenner shouts out Kim by stealing her Balmain pants. But the sweet, hand-me-down vibe is soon overpowered by images that are more reminiscent of another kind of home video. In one shot, Jenner holds a little stuffed tiger over her own…crotch. When not posing suggestively with an 18th birthday cake, Jenner shows off her matching Moschino bra and panties, and pulls down her Moschino shorts to reveal her very own underwear.
Surprisingly enough, this high fashion peep show wasn’t directed by Jared Fogle—Terry Richardson, fashion’s highest-paid pervert, took the reins on the racy shoot. Richardson isn’t just the photographer who made aggressively dry humping a piece of construction equipment great again—he’s also been the subject of a barrage of allegations from models and industry insiders who claim that he non-consensually defiles, degrades, and altogether icks out his often underage subjects. Like any man with a stated pornography obsession, Richardson has never had a reputation for loving and respecting women. In 2010, model Rie Rasmussen confronted the photographer, insisting, “He takes girls who are young, manipulates them to take their clothes off and takes pictures of them they will be ashamed of. They are too afraid to say no because their agency booked them on the job and are too young to stand up for themselves.” The next year, former model Jamie Peck went public with her recollection of Richardson asking her if he could make himself tea with her used tampon, before whipping out his penis and demanding a hand job. Her story rocked the fashion world as only used tampon tea can, and the allegations started piling up, along with public distancings from celebs like Lena Dunham and Coco Rocha and publications like Vogue.
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Kylie Jenner is, inarguably, a ridiculous human being. She believes in chemtrail conspiracies, dates the 25-year-old auteur behind “Rack City,” and has more Cartier love bracelets than a U-Michigan Kappa. But her decision to shoot with such an abhorrent human being is more than just silly—it’s downright off-brand (gasp!). The Kardashians aren’t in the business of landing on the wrong side of history. Caitlyn Jenner’s extremely public transition this summer marked the former Olympic athlete, and her supportive family, as the new faces of trans visibility (for better or worse). Meanwhile, most-famous Kim has revealed her progressive hand on a number of issues, coming out in favor of stricter gun control laws and opining that the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize gay marriage made her “proud to be an American.”
Given Kim’s politics—and the fact that her husband, Kanye West, is planning to run for president in 2020—her own history with Richardson is even less explicable. The usually savvy superstar somehow agreed to let the photographer work on her July Rolling Stone shoot. In addition to implying her continued support for the abusive artist, the RS cover also made Kim look like a particularly busty Miami boat show model.
By posing for Richardson, the Kardashian klan will only continue to find themselves in lose-lose situations. Kylie, any smart photographer would love to shoot you seductively peeling off your Moschino only to reveal more Moschino. For that matter, your personal Instagrams are better than this derivative Richardson drivel. Buying your own suggestive prop stuffed animals: $20. Boycotting photography’s most sadistic, perverted, pig: Priceless.
