Finally, I understand why everyone says that we are too sensitive and easily offended. Kendall Jenner and Vogue are not insensitive, rude, or trying to insult the dance community, so everyone calm down.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, I’ll fill you in.
Kendall Jenner recently did a feature with Vogue Spain. It featured a cover, spread, and a video. In this video, Kendall is shown playing around on a ballet bar in a tutu and some ballet shoes, with her voiceover talking about how she loves to embrace her inner kid and be silly. After this video was posted, the dance community went absolutely insane. People were offended that Kendall was acting silly while representing Ballet and that Vogue picked her to do the video instead of a real ballet dancer. Me, being a huge fan of Kendall Jenner and someone whose life goal is to work for Vogue, I am here to defend not only Kendall but also Vogue.
Here’s the deal, nobody ever said ballet wasn’t a serious sport. Ballet is an amazing sport that requires intense discipline and athleticism. Ballet dancers are some of the toughest athletes in the world, and they deserve nothing but respect. But, the idea of the video was not to showcase ballet. The video Vogue made was to showcase Kendall and to accompany her cover for the magazine. The point of the video is Kendall, not ballet dancers. If Vogue wanted to do a feature on ballet, they would choose a dancer to be in the video or on the cover. They would choose someone who has had an insane impact on the dance community and the video would probably be of them showcasing their skills.
If you actually listened to the video and paid attention, you would know that Kendall is talking about how she loves to act silly, play like a kid, and dance around stupidly aka stuff that we all love to do. Most little girls go through a phase of wanting to be a ballerina at some point in their lives. Ballerinas are beautiful, graceful, and get to wear gorgeous outfits, which is pretty much what every little girl wants to do. Kendall being in a tutu and ballet shoes while dancing around silly showcases the exact point she makes in the video: that she likes to be silly and act like a kid. We all danced around in tutus and ballet shoes as little girls. I thought this was completely obvious within the first 10 seconds of the video.
So, no this video is not offensive. Yes, ballet is a sport that deserves to be respected, but there was no disrespect from Vogue or Kendall Jenner. Being offended that she’s acting silly while wearing ballet shoes is the exact same thing as being offended by seeing a father and a son toss a football back and forth on their front lawn because they’re not NFL players.
This shouldn’t even be an issue. So, please, drop it. Stop making up things that don’t exist and being offended by these pretend things. And Vogue, please continue to be a staple for the fashion community and showcasing amazing models like Kendall Jenner (who is the only talented Kardashian).
