Kendall Jenner Responds to Bikini-Shoot Criticism
July 29, 2010 in Beauty & Body Image, Celebrity Quotes by Versus
A few days ago, we talked about Kim Kardashian’s 14 year-old sister’s bikini photo-shoot – take a look at the highly discussed post here!
Kendall just responded to the criticism she’s received – let’s hear her out:
“My entire family was very supportive, though my dad [Bruce Jenner] was a bit concerned at first, he knows that I am responsible enough that I wouldn’t do anything I wasn’t ready to do, or didn’t want to do.”
“Going into this shoot, it was never my intention to be provocative or too racy. It was a beach shoot, and I was wearing beachwear. I am happy with my age, and am not trying to rush into anything too soon. I look forward to all the milestones my teens have to offer–Sweet 16, turning 18, and so on.”
What do you think about her response?
People are overreacting.
I’m 15 and a lot of my peers wear things to the beach half the size of everything that she had on.
she looks nasty
I don’t see why that photoshoot was racy; she was hiding everything, showing just legs and arms….
exactly
yeah, i know, right?? we ALL wear bathing suits just like that to the beach! a top and a bottom! my goodness…
I hate when teenagers act as if they were 30, but there’s nothing shocking here (to me). She’s really pretty.
That’s funny because I’m a teenager and all we ever hear is that we should be more grown up and mature even when we are mature.
There’s a difference between being mature and grown up and dressing like a hooker and acting like a slut you know.. Mature and grown up people don’t do that.
It’s not mature to act like a slut.
It’s immature to act like a slut.
But French Cha said that she wished that teenagers wouldn’t act as if they were 30.
I was never told to be more mature when I was a teenager, neither were my friends etc. Unless maybe we were being distinctly immature (even for our age), but that would be an occasional thing…and we all do it sometimes, even when we grow up, lol. Maybe that is what you are referring to.
Grown up and mature refers to taking responsibility and being sensible. You’re overreacting now…
I’m not sure if a 14-year old girl knows how this industry is already selling her body. If I were her dad I’d send her on summer vacation with her friends but not to a half-naked photoshoot so that everyone on the internet can stare at her.
i don’t think she look half-naked. well, she was in a bikini, bot don’t 14-year-olds wear bikinis when they’re on the beach? The photoshoot was tasteful and she showed nothing more than a young beautiful body in a decent way. you know what family she came from, she knows what industry is all about. and 14 year old is old enough to make her own choices.
Definitely not. There are reasons why kids are protected by law. Not every decision a 14-year old girl chooses is good for her. Her beginning sexuality is exposed in a way I find disturbing.
She is a kid, not a grown up woman. I don’t have to see her boobs or bum to know that this is wrong.
So are you saying 14 year olds shouldn’t be allowed to wear bikinis? That’s not ridiculous or anything…
Wearing a bikini is okay, posing like a mature for a magazine is something different. She is not even grown up and already sells her body.
Congratulations.
@Kaiser, the point is that she wasnt selling her body, everything was pretty much hidden, the only things was that she was wearing a bikini and facial expressions, nothing more. I couldnt even determine how curvy she was from the pictures.
nobody saw her boobs and bum. she wears the same thing we wear to the beach.
and what exactly were her poses that were provocative? was she sitting there in front of the camera and spreading her legs out and wide open for all to see? no. she posed like everyone HAS to at a photoshoot or it wouldn’t LOOK like the photoshoot and/or the idea they were trying to pursue.
I would even say she wears more than same-age-kids at the beach
its not what she is wearing it is how she is wearing it, arched back, moody expression smokey eye makeup, when i go to the beach at any age i don’t look or behave like this, i’m laughing having fun, playing games and reading magazines.
this is so true. she could be wearing the exact same thing, but if she were doing more “high fashion” poses vs provocative ones i think the response would be much more different.
It’s a testament to the fact that she’s a bad model. Anyone can do generic sexy poses.
I think people were shocked rather about her age than the shoot itself. If i had a kid i sure know i wouldn’t want my 14 year old daughter taking pictures in a bikini for the whole world to see. Like amazon mentioned, she was taking certain poses and wearing make up and trying to come over ‘seductive’, 14 year olds don’t do that on the beach do they? She might be underage but that won’t stop certain men from thinking dirty about her. She should realize that when people criticize her it’s for her own good in a way.
Her response sounds really mature to be honest, if she actually came up with that then she might be smarter than she looks. Least smarter than her sisters or slutty kids like miley. She doesn’t really realize what is going on though, other wise she wouldn’t have done the shoot in the first place.
im sure it was her publicist that fed her that statement. Im just glad to hear that her dad was at least a little bit concerned about the shoot. Clearly her family has no problems with sexualizing their daughters, but she is only 14, and a good parent should be concerned about that!
I agree with Minnie and Irina. I think a lot of people were over-reacting as she was simply dressed as many teens would be dressed on the beach. She has smoky eye make-up, but I don’t see anything overly sexy about it. It’s not as if she has clear platform high-heels or a tiny skin-tight minidress with her boobs popping out the top. I don’t see her arching her back up against a wall as she leans her head back with her mouth open looking like she’s about to orgasm. I just see her sitting about on some rocks and stairs looking as if she’s moody/has the sun in her eyes and one picture of her looking like is enjoying the beach (I like that one more than the others).
I also don’t see how a teen going to the beach and a teen doing a photoshoot sitting around the beach is so different in terms of how scandalous and exposing it is. The bikini isn’t that different from what some teens would wear on holiday and, on a big beach, thousands of people can see them as well. Plenty of men go to beaches and a number of them may think ‘dirty thoughts’ about them there too. Any person anywhere can imagine naughty things about anyone around them, whether that person is famous or not. There’s nothing we can do about that unless we turn the world into an enormous Orwellian prison and install ‘thought police’.
I agree pretty much,I do think the photoshoot was a bit tasteless, I do not see the need for her to be wearing so much make-up or trying to have her appear “sultry”, but it is nothing major and I’m not exactly disturbed by it. Lets face it many young girls take more provocative (or intended to be provocative) pictures of themselves and post them on social-networking sites. I doubt she will look back on this photo-shoot and regret it when she is a grown woman, it is just a photo-shoot after all. Girls who have sex at this age, that is something they often look back on and regret, but these are just some fashion photos and in the grand scheme of things, really not a big deal.
I found this photoshoot completely inappropriate.
Yes, lots of pretty 14 year old girls interested in modeling get professional photos taken. They can be tasteful, in appropriate clothes. This photoshoot is clearly marketed to be ‘sexy’.
Yes, many 14 year old girls wear bikinis to the beach. But they don’t then have their photos taken and distributed- and they most certainly dont go to the beach with big bedhair and smudgy kohled eyes that are CLEARLY designed to make the subject look sexy.
In the pictures, she is posing provocatively, sexily, with her breasts squeezed together. These photos could easily be in FHM, and men would find them arousing and sexy. It is not an innocent photo shoot. It will encourage some men to think that 14 year olds can be s lutty and sexy and ‘grown up’, when really they are still children.
No one is saying what she did is illegal, or should be. But her parents should have known better. Then again, this is the mom that PRESSURED and pushed for Kim K to pose for playboy….not exactly a role model.
my opinion is different than yours (I posted mine above) but I’m not replying because of that, I respect your feelings on this I understand that it is a controversial issue to some. I just wanted to say, however, that I dont think a photoshoot would encourage a man to think 14 year olds are sexy and grown up (if he didnt already think this way). I dont know any men that would even consider being with a 14 year old, either sexually or romanticly, its disgusting. Only a pervert would want to sleep with a 14 year old, and I think honestly that a photo cant make someone a pervert, they just either are or they arent.
I am a man and if I would not know that this girl is only 14 years old, I would clearly say that she is sexually attractive.
Her underage clearly arouses interest. But how old is enough? 14 is okay, 12 not? It’s not only the photoshoot. She grows up in an environment where she learns that her body is the way of getting famous and sexy is the new intelligent.
I question whether a parent was present for this.
E! production probably was there to capture this shoot for Keeping Up with the Kardashians (sigh)
They were. it was on Keeping Up With the Kardasians…season 5 thousand
Come ON. All that eye make up and tousled hair and were supposed to believe provocative was not the aim?
i don’t understand why did she responded to the criticism at all…its her life, she makes her own decisions so i don’t think she needs to explain herself to anybody…she should stop worrying so much bout what others think and just go on doing her thing
and the pics were provocative and it was made on purpose of course – to get attention, i bet we’ll see her soon as a face of some brand
I completely agree. I don’t know why she responded either. I wouldn’t have. I mean, it’s her life and none of our business.
I don’t think it was wrong for her to pose in a bikini. I really don’t think most 14 year olds are wearing one pieces these days. I had an issue with her make-up and the styling of her shoot, including her non-bikini pictures, which I saw on another site. I think those individuals lost sight of the fact that their client was 14 and not 24. A 14 year old should be fun and playful in a beach shoot, not sultry and sexy.
She makes very good point.
You are not seeing anything more in any other way than you would see on a daily basis at your local beach.
I know I wore a bikini since I was 7. I never owned one-pieces because I didn’t like them.
These images are not sexual unless you make them sexual. I think a lot of people are projecting…using what they know about the other Kardashian sisters (and their lewdity) and assuming she is following down their path. Give the girl a chance. Just because she is half-related to them does not mean she is like them. I’ve known twins who lived in the same household who were completely opposite in personality and values.
You are completely right. I always hated one-peices and I’ve never worn one.
After reading other comments, I can say this: maybe it’s not ok for a 14 year old to wear this much make-up, but I still don’t find the shoot racy. Like I said, she was hiding everything.
And maybe I wouldn’t let my child try to get into showbiz until she/he is 18. But it’s different for her, she grew up in showbiz.
A normal girl… I would’ve criticized. Her, no, don’t see the point. I find the photoshoot quite professional, a lot more professional than what Kim gets lol
i think people who are making assumptions of kendall because she’s a kardashian and she’ll probably end up a slut like her sisters. come on. why think she will turn out like them? in my opinion she’s more mature than all her sisters, which is rare these days because most teenage girls are either immature or think they’re too grown and won’t obey rules. and i don’t agree with 14 year old girls wearing make up but it’s not like she was a porn star with her legs spread out. so because she had a two piece bathing suit on, does that make her sexual in any way? what about girls you see on the beach that are 3-15 wearing two pieces? are they being sexual too? the only problem i had when there was a picture of her boobs smashed together but other than it wasn’t too provocative. there are some girls who do wear make up and let’s just say, dress provocative don’t always turn out to be whores like people assume them to be. i’ve known girls like that and they turned out fine, going to college, don’t have any kids and have some class to them. looks can be deceiving, so we can’t assume that kendall will end up like the other kardashians because she’s still growing up.
If your family is wealthy,why do un need to show yourself like a piece of meat? I dont get these girls.Get a serious career,dont be a Paris Hilton.
Her response sounded very contrived and coached.
Yes, 14 year old wear bikinis in public, but having your picture taken is a different story altogether. Pictures of teens running around on a beach having fun, simply selling beachwear I do not have a problem with. However when said pictures are sexy or sexualized in any way, which these seem to be, I find it, as another commentor said, ‘disturbing.’
And sexy or sexual doesn’t equate to nudity necessarily. I find this pic alone provacative. Heavily made up smokey eyes, long tousled beach hair, bikini clad and smouldering in the camera. Cmon, that’s not sexy, sensual, or sexual in ANY way?
Certainly men aren’t looking at this going, “Wow what beautiful lighting and artistry!”
She looks like she could be 25 in these pictures. That in itself is just wrong. A 14 year old posing in bikinis should be youthful and happy-looking with little makeup. Not sexy, sultry, with smoky eyes. I dare those of you that don’t think this is inappropriate to show these pictures to people who do not know who this girl is, and what her age is, and ask what they think when they look at these pictures.
I agree totally! Children (as 14 year olds still are) should not be sexualised or tried to be made into adults. It’s just encouraging paedophiles to look.
i don’t think it’s as inappropriate as people make it out to be. is it because she had makeup on and a two piece bathing suit that makes it provocative? i know she is a child but i don’t think the pictures were meant to shock people and make it seem that she wants to be some trashy girl. we all have our opinions about this photo shoot, you think it’s wrong and i don’t think it was all that bad.
Why is it inappropriate that she looks older due to eye make-up? What about those children and preteens who already look older without any make-up? There are more and more 12-year-olds who already have a woman’s body much earlier than previous generations did. I even knew a nine-year-old who looked like she was at least 16 and already had her period. Would it be safer to inject all children with puberty-delaying substances rather than allow them to have an adult’s body before the age of 18?
I certainly could show this to a bunch of strangers who don’t know who she is and never get a negative reaction. I live in France. You get plenty of preteens here already experimenting with make-up and kitten heels. Nothing bad ever happens to them.
Paedophiles like children, so why would they be more inclined to look at children who can pass as adults…? Wouldn’t they be more likely to think, ‘She is past her prime’?
Well she wasn’t showing flesh, but the general feel to the shoot was a provocative one, the way she was posing, and simply the fact she was in a bikini. I mean, why a bikini? Why not clothes? She’s only 14. It appeared as though the photographers/whoever it is behind the scenes intended to market Kendall in a sexy way. Her parents practically used her for money. If it really is Kendall who wants to model, her parents should let her decide for herself when she is 18, legally old enough to take control over her own body, not allow her (or encourage her, whichever it was) to do it now. The girl is 14 – she might look back when she’s 30 and say, “I wish i hadn’t posed trying to look sexy when i was a teen…. Why did you let me do it, mum/dad?”. She’s 14, so it’s still her parents’ choice what she does – they were clearly encouraging of this shoot, they probably wanted the money. I’m 16, and if we were famous, i know that my parents would never let me pose in a bikini (nor would i want to).
I think she is gorgeous just like her sisters! People are definitely over reacting…but this MIGHT encourage her $ her family to think twice next time? Who knows?!
Her response sounds like it was written for her lol…but I think it’s great she made a reply to defend herself
Do people actually care enough to be outraged?
i dont understand the big deal. she was wearing a bikini like many of us wear since idk when. the only thing i think im not supporting is her makeup which is too heavy. thats why maybe some say she looks like a hooker. a makeup artist actually wrote how young girls wear too much makeup. It’s probably not a big deal to most people, and im not saying its a big deal cuz its their choice but for me personally thats the only thing i thought made her look too mature.
and as for the kardashian family bruce jenner seems like the only one who has a head in there. or at least in the show he does.
anybody who doesn’t realize that those photos are to sexy for a 14 year old is just plain stupid.
at least she doesnt look slutty like miley cyrus does even in candid pictures.
What a great and safe publicist response.
I’m not doubting she’s a smart girl, but she’s not clever enough to write this politically correct response.
Let’s assume like so many others that this shoot is not about sex. What is it about? What’s the intention of showing a 14 year old girl which looks like a twen in a bikini?
Is it about the brand of her dress? I can hardly see anything. Is it about her self esteem? “Hey look, I am 14 and I look great in a bikini?”
For what sake does she pose in a bikini? There is nothing a 14 year old learns when there are photographers around, make-up artists and some managers who want to earn money with her.
Everything in this shoot says that a girl has to prepare to look sexy, to work out so you have a great body which appeals to men, to not behave anymore like a child. The real world wants you to pose, to open your mouth because we want that and if you get harsh comments about your body and your sexuality, this is business. BUSINESS. Your childhood is over.
There are people, her parents included, who sell her youth on the market. “Look, we got one of the Kardashians, she has no big butt, but she is only 14. That will be great! Everyone will be talking about it.”
It’s disgusting.
These pictures don’t really show a lot, not even the bikinis. From her poses, expression, make-up and hair style, I can’t think of another purpose for them other than being sexy.
It was a tasteful shoot, not vulgar in any way, but suggestive indeed. One could say I’m the malicious one by saying that, but I’m sure I’m not the only one, just I don’t fancy her.
Good thing the girl claims not to be willing to grow up too fast, maybe she didn’t see what we, “malicious people” see in that work. That which her parents should have observed and protected her from.
I’m very familiar with young girls in bikinis, of course. Just never knew it was that common, in some places, for them to wear that much make-up, especially along with beachwear. Not being sarcastic, that’s news for me.
Where I live, however terrible the image ladies from here get abroad, there still are parents who care about their children, and they at least try preventing them from doing this kind of stuff, instead of “being very supportive” of it. That, precisely, is the issue here, for me.
Don’t forget that the age of consent is 14 in some countries.
Just because you have a cherished world-view, it does not mean that everyone else shares it, or that it is right.
There are girls her age or younger that do porn videos or take naked pictures.I`m sure everyone knows about Montana F. sex video,right?That`s disgusting,not this.
All the famous models out there started from a young age posing and modeling for different photographers ,it`s normal if u want to be a model,right?Those aren`t her first model pics,why no one commented those?Only because she is posing in a swim suit,on the beach,she has to be criticized.
I`m disgused when I see here that people are narrow-minded,we live in the 21st century people,get over it.People change,times change.
And in the end,everyone is free to do whatever they want.
Kendall’s not the problem. Kris Jenner is the problem, and so is our society. The sexualization of children in photos shoots, films, and TV programs travels down the pedophilia path, it just stops short of the actual sex act and abuse.
I really don’t understand why there is any controversy at all! Its HER life. Even if she were doing something much worse than taking semi- provocative pictures, why is it our business? Its a free country, people are allowed to do whatever they want. The only person who should care about this is Kendall and her parents. Not the public.
People are overreacting. If it was ANY other 15 year old model no one would care, but only because she’s got the Kardashians as relatives people act like this. A 15 year old model goes on NY fashion week RUNWAY and no one knows at all (15 year old girls are not allowed on Runway shows) yet they freak out over a bikini photoshoot chih is totally legal. What. The. Hell.