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Candace Owens has criticized Kim Kardashian for her statement on Balenciaga's photoshoot scandal, suggesting her position as the luxury fashion brand's ambassador influenced her stance.
Balenciaga has faced criticism over the past several days regarding images shown on its website that included toddlers holding the company's teddy bear handbags.
The stuffed toys appeared to be dressed in bondage gear, including fishnet shirts and studded leather harnesses and collars.
On Sunday, reality TV star and businesswoman Kardashian, 42, took to Twitter to say she was "disgusted" and "shaken" by the controversial pictures.
"I have been quiet for the past few days, not because I haven't been disgusted and outraged by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to its team to understand for myself how this could have happened," she began the Twitter thread.
"As a mother of four, I have been shaken by the disturbing images," she said. "The safety of children must be held with the highest regard and any attempts to normalize child abuse of any kind should have no place in our society—period."
Kardashian added: "As for my future with Balenciaga, I am currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off its willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with—& the actions I am expecting to see it take to protect children."
Shortly after Kardashian shared her statement on Twitter, conservative commentator Owens, 33, chimed in with her own take on the matter.
"It only took 6 days for @kimkardashian to not actually condemn Balenciaga for child pornography because although she was disgusted and outraged—money is money and sometimes you gotta let child pornography fly for free clothes and money. Or something," Owens wrote in a quote tweet.
It only took 6 days for @kimkardashian to not actually condemn Balenciaga for child pornography because although she was disgusted and outraged— money is money and sometimes you gotta let child pornography fly for free clothes and money.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) November 28, 2022
Or something. https://t.co/BUa0CKHC3C
Newsweek has reached out to a representative of Kardashian for comment.
Kardashian's Twitter thread comes after her ex-husband, Ye—formerly known as Kanye West—appeared to take a thinly veiled dig at her.
Ye was recently let go from a number of his lucrative brand deals, including Adidas and Balenciaga, over a series of antisemitic tweets.
Speaking with a reporter over the weekend, the musician and designer said the number of celebrities not publicly condemning Balenciaga showed a double standard.
The rapper warned fans not to "trust influencers" because they were "being controlled."
Alongside Kardashian's rise to fame on the E! reality show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, she was well known for bringing in big money through her work as an influencer doing brand endorsements on social media and at in-person events.
"This just shows you all celebrities are controlled. You don't see no celebrities talking about the Balenciaga situation," Ye said in the video interview.
"All these celebrities out here, don't let them influence you in any way, because they're really controlled by people who really influence the world. There's no such thing as a celebrity influencer."
Balenciaga came under fire for its Balenciaga Objects collection, which featured a campaign titled "Balenciaga Gift Shop," shot by Gabriele Galimberti.
The shoot included several photos of children alongside various items. The images included toy bears wearing fishnet shirts, studded leather harnesses, and collars.
Galimberti has previously said of the shoot: "I must stress that I was not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither chose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same.
"As a photographer, I was only and solely requested to lit the given scene, and take the shots according to my signature style."
In another Balenciaga photoshoot for its new joint campaign with Adidas, shot by photographer Chris Maggio, people noticed a pile of papers which included a page from the 2008 Supreme Court ruling United States v. Williams.
The ruling upheld the PROTECT Act, a 2003 federal law that criminalizes advertising, promoting, presenting or distributing child pornography.
The photoshoot went viral after one person called out the company on Twitter, writing that "the brand 'Balenciaga' just did a uh... interesting... photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn.' Normal stuff."
Balenciaga apologized for the photo shoot and pulled the images which people on social media described as "child porn."
The brand told Newsweek it would stop selling the toy bears featured in the campaign.
The pictures went viral when social media users compared the images to depiction of child pornography.
"As a photographer, I was only and solely requested to lit the given scene, and take the shots according to my signature style," Galimberti continued. "As usual, the direction of the campaign and of the shooting are not on the hands of the photographer."
Update 11/28/22, 6:50 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add extra information.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more