I have been following Erin on Tumblr for quite a while. I was initially drawn to her blog because of the awesome content that she posts and the eloquent, assertive, yet, nevertheless sassy and lighthearted, manner is which she expresses her ideas. The two of us see eye-to-eye on a variety of issues. After following Erin for several months, I learned that she has cerebral palsy, and she uses a wheelchair in her everyday life.
Upon hearing that Kylie Jenner recently posed in a wheelchair for an Interview Magazine photo shoot -- which, I must add, was an absolutely atrocious display of ableism -- I was counting on Erin to have a brilliant comeback; she most certainly did. On Dec. 5, 2015, Erin posted this photo and message on her Tumblr page:
In the past couple of days, Erin's Tumblr post has garnered a great deal of attention --both positive and negative. In fact, I am not the first to cover this story; it has already been featured on several online news sources and magazines, such as Business Standard, Cosmopolitan, Elite Daily, Metro and stuff.co.nz.
The majority of backlash Erin has received has been in the form of anonymous Tumblr messages, many of which have accused her of being "attention seeking," while ignoring the fact that she was, in actuality, highlighting an important social issue with her recreation of Kylie Jenner's magazine cover.
Erin also made it clear that even if she did want attention, she would be completely entitled to wanting it. After all, Kylie Jenner, an able-bodied pop-culture icon, used a wheelchair as a fashion accessory in order to gain more attention. Why shouldn't someone who actually uses a wheelchair deserve to receive attention from from the public? One Tumblr anon explained the injustice of this disgusting double standard:
I completely agree with this anon. Erin's decision to use her own image to create a more authentic version of Kylie Jenner's Interview Magazine cover is nothing short of revolutionary. All marginalized members of our society should look to Erin as an example. She has the courage to question the status quo, which unfairly discriminates in favor of able-bodied people.
In a world in which there are actual, real life wheelchair users who could be models, why would an able-bodied individual be chosen instead? Let's be real, Erin is the most beautiful human being on the face of the earth and the only reason why she is not being featured on the cover of a magazine is because she is a true disabled person who uses a wheelchair. The fact that this all boils down to ableism and discrimination, which is disproportionately in favor of us able-bodied folk, is sickening.
