Kim Kardashian's Virgin Mary Candle, Dress Angers Fans
Reality star Kim Kardashian was slammed by fans after launching a new prayer candle with her likeness as the Virgin Mary on it this week.
Kardashian made the announcement on Twitter that she is now selling a prayer candle with the image of the Virgin Mary but with the reality star's face superimposed on top of it. She tweeted a GIF of the candle, which retails of $18 on her online store.
A backlash of replies quickly flooded Kardashian's social media account, and many of her fans and anti-fans accused the TV star of cultural appropriation as well as trivializing a religious figure. The self-celebratory candle is allegedly appropriative of Latino culture and exploitative of those who actually use these kinds of devotional candles for prayer.
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Kardashian also received intense criticism from the Catholic League after she stepped out wearing a sheer dress that featured the image of the Virgin Mary on the same week she began promoting her devotional candles. The dress was designed by Dolce & Gabbana, and she wore it while filming "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" in West Hollywood on Wednesday, April 19.
"We've never seen any indication that Kim Kardashian venerates the Blessed Virgin Mary — she is a former porn star — so her latest headline-grabbing stunt can only be seen as exploitative," the group said in a statement.
"We know that she and her family have been through a lot — their problems are mostly self-induced — but that is no excuse for ripping off Catholic iconography to make a quick buck and grab headline news," the statement also read.
In the reality TV show, the star and her family are often pictured attending church. Her 2014 wedding to Kanye West was presided by a Miami-based pastor.
The launch of the reality TV star's Virgin Mary prayer candle happened just a week after sister Kendall Jenner's now-retracted Pepsi advertisement was widely accused of appropriating movements such as Black Lives Matter and for commodifying actual activism for the purpose of selling soda.
