Self-Made Scandal: How Interview Magazine Provoked Outrage with Kylie Jenner

Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine has always been well-known for their blatant use of shock tactics, which inevitably stem from their eclectic artistic roots and direction. While Creative Directors may come and go and the wave of print publication wavers, one thing has remained the same: Interview’s desire to provoke its reader and in doing so, stir up some outrage.

A photographic shoot that could be described as angering the nation could be Kylie Jenner’s 2015 shoot with Interview Magazine which was shot by photographer Steven Klein.

Kylie Jenner, now Forbes’ youngest self-made billionaire is plenty criticized as she remains a powerhouse on social media and is the youngest of the infamous Kardashian-Jenner clan. Her photoshoot with Interview Magazine was one of these moments as she was considered to be “glorifying” disability with distaste. In one of Jenner’s most criticized images from the 2015 shoot, she appears pale, stiff-like in a black latex body suit and heels. The collar around her neck suggests a S&M aesthetic while she grips the sides of a black and gold wheelchair. Her old-Hollywood glam and jet-black hair remain frozen as well as her doll like facial structure. By first glance, Jenner seems almost unrecognizable, shockingly in provocative positions and insinuating awful and outdated female stereotypes. Yet, by way of her interview with Chris Wallace, one may put two and two together that the shoot reflects how Jenner is depicted and distorted by the public.

Kylie Jenner for Interview Magazine, Dec 2015

The inspiration; however, like many of Interview’s shoots, mimics an artist’s work. Interview, unlike many other fashion publications, comes from an art background and infuses such inspiration in the shoots and issues they produce. Thus, Jenner’s shoot is paying homage to artist Allen Jones’ erotic female sculptures. Jones’ work utilizes the female body and explores the worlds of eroticism, fetishism and female fragmentation by eliciting the male dominating gaze. Jones’ most notable work may be his Hatstand, Table and Chair, that Jenner’s body similarly mimics in other shots in the shoot. These 1969 pieces depict three women in varying, one may suggest sexual, positions, being portrayed as furniture. They are in bondage gear and black latex and are subdued to degrading positions and functions. The pieces, as one might predict, hailed major criticism from the feminist community who felt these sculptures were not pieces of art or expression but rather projected humiliating notions and further encouraged the male gaze and in this case literal objectification of women. This past outrage similarly matches that of the 2015 outrage, as many women expressed distaste for the idea and those belonging to the disabled community protested that Jenner had no right to assume the space of disability. Yet, in both instances, Jones’ and Interview both remain dedicated to their true artistic intentions.

The Guardian writes about Jones’ use of women as furniture by writing that “Jones’ sculptures may be classified as ‘porno chic’ but what they show is sexual cruelty. Forniphilia is “The art of human furniture” a word coined in 1998 by the fetish company of self-proclaimed ‘mad bondage scientist’ Jeff Gord”. One may attribute forniphilia as a surrealist idea that can be seen in Dalí and Schiaparelli’s vision of the Desk Suit in 1936. Yet, the concept is often misinterpreted to be solely degrading and satisfy the male fetish.

One could; however, speculate that the true intention of Interview Magazine was less likely the desire to pay homage to an artists’ work but rather to recreate the scandal and outrage that those sculptures once enacted. While Interview stands by their decision to represent Kylie in such a manner, inherently demonstrating the male gaze and expectations that she faces on a day to day basis, the backlash did not seem satisfied by the artistic decision.

However, while most response to this shoot was negative, Interview Magazine gained immense press due to said social media outrage. The shoot was shared on all social platforms from Twitter to Instagram and while the content associated with it was negative, one might suggest the advertisement and press gained seemed to outweigh the negative response. While it is clear the marketing and communication strategies of a publication are most likely not to elicit bad press, Interview Magazine seeks to provoke and test the limits of their audience, and in doing so, are always referencing and paying homage to older shoots and pop culture, whether it be received poorly or not.

Work by Allen Jones

One can continue to see this strategy in Interview’s recent 50th anniversary issue where SNL Kate McKinnon “impersonated” Warhol and many other celebrity figures in infamous shoots. Archival images and ideas often strike a chord with the present-day audience, but this type of resurgence and regurgitation of media seems to be what propels Interview Magazine and other publications that seek to use pop culture as a means of expression and a unifying source of information.