She has broken the Internet again.
Kylie Jenner, younger sister of Kim Kardashian, and who is only about a year younger than me, received much backlash after posing in a wheelchair on the cover of Interview.
But this article is not about how offensive her cover is to the disabled community.
Kylie, as well as others with a high profile on social media, is an example of an anti-role model.
An anti-role model is basically a bad role model, whose actions negatively affect a group of impressionable people, specifically teenagers.
Obviously, we are in college. We are young adults. We have more important issues to worry about, like finals, internships, etc. Yet Kylie Jenner has an effect on everyone, even on me for writing this article about her. No matter what you do to avoid her and her family’s drama, all you have to do is log onto one of your social media accounts and BOOM! She is on your newsfeed. With over 40 million followers on Instagram, Kylie Jenner is a constant trending topic, and it is not only teenagers that are following her every move.
So what does Kylie Jenner mean to a college student? What does she mean to me? I don’t want bigger lips, a curvaceous body, nor Tyga as my boyfriend. I am on a college budget, so it is not like I can buy those expensive swimsuits she has a tendency to model. And her makeup face contouring? Again, I am in college, I do not have time to put makeup on when I have to get ready for an 8:00 a.m. chemistry laboratory exam.
And yet, her actions that are publicized make me more aware of what not do.
Yes, she’s my anti-role model.
Her wheelchair metaphor is nothing new.
Remember when Kylie appropriated black hairstyles?
Over the summer, she posted on Instagram a picture of herself with cornrows. Her caption of the photo was “I woke up like disss.”
Amandla Stenberg, actress for "The Hunger Games" movie series and teen activist, accused her of appropriating black culture, trivializing the style of cornrows as a new hair trend. While Kylie Jenner received backlash, so did Amandla.
“Why pounce on Kylie over a hairstyle?,” Kylie’s supporters asked.
“Why does Kylie want to be black so bad, but not speak on black issues?,” Amandla’s supporters questioned.
When Kylie posted this photo of herself in cornrows, it did not receive as much uproar as when she posed in a wheelchair.
Since everything is metaphorical to Kylie, here is my question…
What was the metaphor of my anti-role model’s cornrows?
As a black girl with natural hair, cornrows are not just a trendy hairstyle. Yes, I wake up “like dis” in cornrows, too, but only because I don’t want my hair to get matted overnight.
Cornrows, to me, don’t mean thuggery, or fashion, or whatever Kylie was trying to portray.
Kylie may walk the red carpet rocking cornrows, which a hair stylist has done for her, but I sit in my dorm for two hours, detangling my hair, watching natural hair DIY YouTube videos, hoping these cornrows would soothe my frizzy hair.
And yet, after Kylie posed in the “trendy” cornrows, Amandla is moved to the side by Kylie’s 40 million-and-more Instagram followers, and an influx of “Cornrows like Kylie” hair tutorial videos popped up on YouTube.
Yes, Kylie Jenner is my anti-role model.
She taught me what it means to appropriate one’s culture.
So when she appropriated the wheelchair, what more should I expect from my anti-role model?
