Julia Fox has angrily lashed out at Balenciaga's critics, saying there are "pedophiles in every industry" amid the fashion label's ongoing "child pornography" scandal.
The Uncut Gems actress took to TikTok to slam those blaming Hollywood and the fashion industry as being a safe haven for child abusers.
"You guys love saying like, 'Hollyweird. All the pedophiles in Hollyweird,'" she began her rant.
"Listen up, f*** faces. There's pedophiles in every industry. You want to go be a chef? You'll probably have some abusers over there. You want to go be a teacher, abusers over there. You want to go be an engineer, abusers over there."
Fox continued: "This isn't an issue with Hollywood. This isn't an issue with the fashion world. This isn't an issue with celebrities."
She finished by yelling close to the camera: "This is an issue with men, goddamn it. Men."
Fox's passionate TikTok comes amid the controversy surrounding two Balenciaga photoshoots, one of which showed children posing alongside teddy bear bags dressed in bondage gear.
@juliafox But everyone loves pointing the finger at everyone BUT the man
♬ original sound - Julia fox
Another photoshoot was for Balenciaga's collaboration with Adidas which featured an image of a bag resting on pieces of paper, including one from 2008 Supreme Court ruling United States v. Williams.
The court examined whether 2003 federal laws criminalizing child pornography were an infringement on the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
The Supreme Court upheld the 2003 laws to continue to ban the advertising, promoting, presenting or distributing child pornography.
Critics of the fashion label slammed the photoshoots as "child pornography" on social media.
A number of celebrities have also come out against Balenciaga, including Meghan McCain, who called the controversy "epically revolting."
"The bottom line here is that grownups are supposed to protect children – period. And as a society, we seem to be failing the most innocent and vulnerable, who have no advocates but us," McCain wrote in a Daily Mail column.
"Let's be clear, this isn't cancel culture. This is about protecting children. And adults need to step up."
Other famous faces such as Candace Owens and Bethenny Frankel called out celebrities for not publicly condemning Balenciaga's choices.
But Fox's ex, Kanye West, claimed celebrities "are controlled" to explain their silence on the issue.
"They tried to destroy me in [the] press. They tried to destroy all of my businesses at the same time, and the world saw it. And no one is saying anything," said West, who legally changed his name to Ye.
He made the comments while speaking to celebrity gossip site X17.
"This just shows you all celebrities are controlled. You don't see no celebrities talking about the Balenciaga situation, right? So that just shows you: All of these celebrities out here—don't let them influence you in any way, because they're controlled by the people who really influence the world."
The Spanish fashion label issued an apology last week when the scandal first came to light and on Monday released a longer statement.
Posted as a story on Balenciaga's Instagram account, it said the campaigns "reflect a series of grievous errors for which Balenciaga takes responsibility."
"We strongly condemn child abuse; it was never our intent to include it in our narrative," it wrote.
"The first campaign, the gift collection campaign, featured children with plush bear bags dressed in what some have labelled BDSM-inspired outfits. Our plush bear bags and the gift collection should not have been featured with children. This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images. The responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone."
About the papers featured in the Adidas campaign, it added: "were provided by third parties that confirmed in writing that these props were fake office documents."
But apparently the papers "turned out to be [real] papers most likely coming from the filming of a television drama."
"The inclusion of these unapproved documents was the result of reckless negligence for which Balenciaga has filed a complaint," the statement read.
"We take full accountability for our lack of oversight and control of the documents in the background and we could have done things differently."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
