11 Celebrity Photos That Caused Major Controversy

Nov 6, 2014 5:00 pm

Ellie Goulding has become one of many celebrities who's been accused of cultural appropriation. The singer posted a photo on her Instagram account (which has since been deleted) that showed her wearing a Native American headdress. Almost immediately, fan's erupted in outrage, slamming the singer for being insensitive.

She's not alone when it comes to controversial pics, however. Some of your favorite celebs like Selena Gomez and Harry Styles have been in similar situations. Click through to see 10 pics that started some serious arguments, then let us know in the comments below whose pic you think is the worst. Should celebs think twice before they post photos online?

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Ellie Goulding

Ellie is one of many celebrities who has been criticized for posting a photo wearing a Native American headdress. The singer stuck up for herself though and tweeted:

@wallisonluc I wore that beautiful unauthentic headpiece for about 5 minutes. I havnt worn my costume for Halloween yet. 😒

— Ellie Goulding (@elliegoulding) November 1, 2014

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Khloe Kardashian

The moment Khloe's photo went up fans bombarded the comments section expressing their disgust.
Cultural appropriation is definitely a controversial subject.

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Demi Lovato

Demi experienced similar backlash when she dressed up as a Native American for Halloween.

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Miley Cyrus

Miley was forced to apologize after a photo of her making a funny face with her friends was released. Many fans viewed her actions as racist towards Asians.

In her apology Miley wrote, “I want to thank all of my fans for their support not only this week, but always! I really wanted to stress how sorry I am if the photo of me with my friends offended anyone. I have learned a valuable lesson from this and know that sometimes my actions can be unintentionally hurtful. I know everything is part of God’s [ultimate] plan, and mistakes happen so that eventually I will become the [woman] He aspires me to be."

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Perrie Edwards

Perrie received loads of hate after being photographed wearing a bindi with Zayn and his Pakistani family. Fans said she was insensitive and racist, even claiming she was trying to "mistakenly fit in."

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Justin Bieber

Completely unaware of the shrine's history, Justin posted the pic above with the caption, "Thank you for your blessings."

Moments later he found out that the shrine honored Japan’s worst war criminals. He quickly deleted the photo and apologized to his fans.

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Harry Styles

Harry got into a lot of trouble for this pic and eventually decided to delete it.

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Selena Gomez

When Selena first performed her "Come and Get It" routine on television, she was immediately criticized for wearing a bindi.

However, that didn't stop the singer from continuing to do it — she even defended her decision saying, "I think the song has that Hindu, tribal feel and I wanted to translate that. I've been learning about my chakra and bindis and the culture … It's beautiful."

A few months later she rebelled against her haters posting the photo above with the caption, "Sari, not sari."

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Joe Jonas

Shortly after Miley issued an apology for her actions, a photo of Joe making a similar face was released. Though he received similar racist accusations, he never publicly spoke out about it.

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Vanessa Hudgens

Vanessa got a lot of hate after she posted the photo above after Coachella. She used the hashtag "bindimarks" which only infuriated people more.

"No piece of religion should be used as a fashion statement," one fan commented.

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Perrie Edwards

One of the very first photos Perrie posted when she got her own Instagram account was of her wearing a Native American headdress. Almost immediately, she was accused of being "racist" and insensitive.