Kate Upton calls out photographer Terry Richardson over 'cat daddy' video
In an interview with British Vogue, Kate Upton is very publicly calling out photographer Terry Richardson over some “disrespectful” behavior.
Richardson, noted fashion photographer and alleged sexual predator, has cultivated a laundry list of unsettling complaints over sexual misconduct and abuse of his power from often-anonymous modeling hopefuls. Now well-known supermodel Kate Upton says she told him he disrespected her.
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Speaking with Vogue UK, the bombshell reveals she took Richardson to task for his leaking of her now-infamous “cat daddy” dance video, which went viral upon its release in 2012 — and despite her protests, helped bolstered Upton’s profile.
In the infamous clip, which has garnered over 22 million views on YouTube, Upton is wiggling as she does the “cat daddy” dance, wearing a hardly-there two-piece bikini in front of Richardson’s jumpy camera lens.
Despite the clip’s popularity, Upton was furious it had been released without her consent and let Richardson have it. As she told fashion “It” girl Alexa Chung reporting forVogue UK:
“I was like, ‘That was disrespectful, you could have told me!'”
While the dust has settled and Upton is a bonafide household name, saying “now, obviously, it’s fine,” about the incident, the situation between Richardson and Upton is an example of, as Ellie Shechet at Jezebel argues, various scenarios that have “effectively crushed [Upton’s] sense of agency”.
Things happen to Upton, namely success, “by forces largely out of her control,” while she also incurs what Chung described in the Vogue article as, the “inevitable backlash that tends to occur when a woman enters the collective consciousness via mainstream media.”
Speaking up to Richardson — a figure of significant clout and prestige — suggests Upton wanted to maintain some control over her image and was willing to put her career in jeopardy to do so. Although the fact that the video was never actually taken down may shed light on where the power really lies.
Images via Vogue UK.
Marjon Carlos is a style and culture writer for Fusion who boasts a strong turtleneck game and opinions on the subjects of fashion, gender, race, pop culture, and men’s footwear.