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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Maddy Mussen

Kendall Jenner made a Photoshop fail — but why do we care so much?

Do you ever see a camera pointed in your direction, quickly clock that it will be a full body shot, and do an almost instinctive sucking in motion with your stomach? And then immediately feel like a self-absorbed, anti-self-love movement enemy of feminism? Lizzo wouldn’t stand for that guff, after all.

Well, here’s something to make you feel a little bit better about yourself: Kendall Jenner, one of the world’s most highly sought after (and highest paid) supermodels, is apparently still photoshopping her photos for Instagram.

The latest in a string of Kardashian-Jenner photoshop fails, Kenny was caught out by a rogue hand as she posed nearly nude in a holiday bikini pic.

The Instagram post, captioned “31 hours”, seemingly in reference to Kendall’s short stay at a picturesque island resort, showcases various pictures of the model in different holiday outfits and bikinis, including one strappy black G-string (click through to photo number 4 in the Instagram gallery below).

Kendall can be seen wearing the black bikini and balancing on the balls of her feet, bent over, with her eyes closed. She’s using her hand for support, except her hand is now apparently the same length as ETs weird finger.

Media critics like Derek Blasberg and Evan Ross Katz were quick to point out the strange distorted hand, with the former commenting “Sleeve it to you” under Jenner’s post, which quickly became one of the most liked comments.

Fans noticed too, and other comments range from the simple (”Why the long hand?”) to the confrontational (”What up with that hand tho”) to the not-messing-around (”Slenderman hand!”). Comments calling out the dodgy hand have tens of thousands of likes, as if everyone gleefully pats fellow commenters on the back for noticing something embarrassing about the millionaire supermodel.

Aside from the fact that we love to drag successful women down, why is this kind of point and laugh behaviour something we (myself included) consistently indulge in so readily?

If I had to put money on it, I’d guess it’s because there’s a chance one of the most popular models in the game doesn’t think she’s perfect, and this makes us feel better about ourselves.

Hey, if Miss Kendall Jenner is out there augmenting her body via Photoshop, then you don’t have to feel so bad about that one time you downloaded a teeth whitening app then deleted it when you realised it costs £4.99 to use any of the features, right?

And the same goes for when her siblings get caught out for similar gaffes — Kim, Kylie and Khloe have all had editing missteps, often more than once. When we’ve been taught that these people are the pinnacle of attractiveness, it can be gratifying to see them try (and fail) to enhance that attractiveness, but what if your phone locks mid-way through laughing at Kenny Jenner and you’re met with your own sad reflection? That’s not gonna be a proud moment.

Yes, it’s always a little funny and ultimately no one should be using Photoshop at all in this era of “body positivity”, but Kendall Jenner is just a human. Or, plot twist, she genuinely has abnormally long fingers. After all, Jenner once joked in an interview with Elle in 2015 that she has “the longest toes in the world.” “They're spider toes. They are,” she explained, adding, “I have spider fingers, too!” Gasp.

So maybe we’re the problem, or maybe it was Kendall’s spider fingers all along.

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