Did you ever think that Emily Ratajkowski and Helen Mirren would have something in common? Did you ever think that what they would have in common is their defense of Kim Kardashian? Helen Mirren gave an interview to the Telegraph about body image, Kim Kardashian and how the younger generation doesn’t need “permission” to do whatever they want with their bodies. While Emily Ratajkowski got a ton of shade, I wonder if Helen Mirren will largely get a pass? Hm.
“When I was growing up, it was thought to be unbelievably sluttish to even have a bra strap showing. Everything was about women conforming. I love shameless women. Shameless and proud!”
Helen Mirren, 70, said she was happy to be finally “relieved of the whole sex-symbol tag” but was inspired by women who had not been “controlled by being shamed”.
“Women were controlled by being shamed. I love women who have claimed their own bodies: Madonna, Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, Bonnie Raitt. I love Pussy Riot more than anything in the world. They all raise their middle fingers to this epithet of ‘slut’. They wear what they want to wear, behave as they want to behave.’”
Mirren said the reality TV star’s famous backside had been positive for young women and body confidence.
“I’m not into the Kardashians, it’s a phenomenon I just don’t find interesting, but – and this is the big word: B-U-T-T – it’s wonderful that you’re allowed to have a butt nowadays,” she told the Sunday Telegraph Magazine. “Thanks to Madame Kardashian, and before her, J-Lo. We’re also allowed to have thighs now, which is great too. It’s very positive.”
I totally agree with Helen Mirren. Even if you’re not into the Kardashians and what they represent, Kim has done good things for body-positivity. I’m sure the counter-argument will be: Kim’s curves are manufactured and the product of multiple plastic surgery procedures. Which is true, but I’ll also say this: it used to be that women got plastic surgery almost exclusively to look thinner, to attain that sort of boyish figure that is held up as the most beautiful and desirable. Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce and more have all shown women with curves that they’re beautiful even if they don’t fit into that mold. As for the ladies owning the “slut” epithet… I don’t know, women still feel shame and there’s still a great deal of slut-shaming that happens every damn day. But Helen is focusing on the positive, and she’s right, a lot has changed for women since her youth.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Well, that’ not Kim’s real butt. Doesn’t Helen know that?
Ha!
Exactly. The whole, women used to get plastic surgery to look thinner and now they get it to look curvier argument, doesn’t fly with me. It’s still a problem, women not feeling good in their natural bodies and feeling the pressure to change it one way or another, it’s just the other end of the spectrum.
Plus seven
Thank you. Quoting John Constantine, “fire is fire”.
That was my thought, too. Mirren might not realize Kim liposuctioned her own fatty tissue and had it injected into that derrière, undoubtedly to feed into a man’s fetish since I can’t imagine it’s very practical.
On the one hand, it’s her body and she can mess around with it if she wants to. But not sure if it makes sense to praise her for faking things up to please a man. Can’t we find women with real bodies that blast through the rigid appearance barriers?
It’s also worth-noting she’s only praising white women and the token JLo for being body positive. Kim made it so women were “allowed” to have butts? You couldn’t think of any black or Asian celebrities that are comfortable in their own bodies to post? Aren’t black women known for having larger butts? Whenever you see someone praising women with butts online or posting photos it’s of white women. Not impressed with her blatant white-feminism.
Helen Mirren is a great actress. That is no reason to lend credibility to her views on anything. Thankfully.
I think the whole point is that she INJECTED it to make it look bigger… After decades where you had to look boyish a large bottom is now aspirational. For white women. Thats a huge shift and Kim contributed to it in a big way. I personally think that she looks vile and that Jennifer Lopez looks fantastic. But thats always the case with natural vs. artificial.
its hers,, she paid good money for it
Welp, at least she gave J.Lo a shout out. Problem with giving Kim props is she and her ilk are co-opting their entire look from another culture.
This. The Kardashians are race fetishists. They don’t deserve credit for anything.
I’m glad that she mentioned JLo, because the “trend” in the ideal was changing long before the K Klan came along.
Preach!
It’s only acceptable for white/white-passing people to have a butt. On any other WOC, especially black women – we get called slutty, trashy, and a variety of other descriptive words similar to those mentioned.
Thank you. This “acceptance” has not yet transferred to Black women or other women of colour.
Thank you!
Maybe because Helen is English she’s not aware of the standards of beauty among WOCs? I was not aware of them because I’ve never met any WOcs.
I read a study recently that suggested that as a whole, African American women tend to be happier with their bodies than American women of European descent. How come? If the bodies we see in the media are usually white?
I don’t think Kim and JLo made things better. They just added one more thing women should be. We should be thin, but have big boobs and big asses. We should be white, blonde and blue eyed, but tan. We should have perfect skin but not wear makeup. Etc.
Yep. For many women, they just represent a different kind of unattainable ideal.
That being said, more representation and diversity in female body type is almost always push in the right direction IMO.
@Locke Lamora
I hope you are aware that there are plenty of WOC in england too.
Also Helen Mirren has lived in Los Angeles forever. She doesn’t live in England anymore.
Duplicate comment.
I am aware of it, but I feel like the women mentioned here as beauty icons were all American.
And people tend to focus on the things that apply to them.
I dont have a problem with Jlo but she wasnt much different from the Kardashians in that she allowed white people to oggle the booty without gaving to deal with troublesome black skin. From Tina to Janet to Beyonce you would be hard pressed to find a black celebrity who did NOT have a round bottom. I mean even Whitney who was very slim and had a banana shaped body still had a defined bottom. Photos of her from behind would hint that this is a woman of color because she had a moderate high shelf butt.
JLo (as opposed to an afro latina like Ashanti) came to embody the ass because she wasnt black and her complexion was more Mediterrenian Europe than deepest Africa. She has spent her entire career lightening up to keep with that perception. So lets not pretend that when the media focused their ass veneration on Jlo it wasnt problematic. The only difference between her and Kim is that hers is natural.
THANK YOU. Geez how about WOC who have had curves naturally for centuries? Its like Elle mag when they praise Kylie for bring back box braids.
Hi appropriation nice to see you again.
Thank you. I have always had an ass and hips. Stop with the ‘curvy women’ code phrasing. Kim Kardashian has allowed me nothing. The white women who were considered attractive and sexy when I was growing up were straight as boards. From every angle. No shape whatsoever. Models tended to position their bodies in such a way as to convey shape. I couldn’t wear Levi jeans because they were not made for any women who had a rear end and hips. The only ones that fit my hips were inches too big for my waist.
But that was really only from the sixties onwards, prior to that the sex symbols were very curvy – in the late 50s Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield, Gina Lollabrigida, in the UK Diana Dors. Bums galore there!
But isn’t this one of those cases where black women were proud of having a nice round fanny forever and then a white woman gets a fake one so now it’s cool? Kim did not invent the curvier derrière.
Absolutely the case GNAT. I guess the thing here is that it’s now acceptable for non-black women. So I suppose the stamp of approval is that it’s accepted by mainstream. Sigh. I can’t.
My Britisher self had a moment of forty fits at “fanny” there, GNAT. I’m STILL double-taking at American lingo from time to time!
Fanny means ass? I never knew that. I only knew it as a word for the frontal part, shall we say.
Moi aussi! Still have to blink and remember. These strange Americans have bags called fanny packs. Makes me laugh and think of tampons every time!
Oh how funny!! I never knew it had a double meaning. I definitely meant rear, bottom, etc.. The first time I heard that shag meant having sex, I was very shocked, as the most popular dance when I grew up was called the shag. I guess we need to be careful. 😳
*The biggest of sighs*
Did we really need Kim K to ‘allow’ us women to have big butts and thighs? Who ever ‘disallowed’ us?
+++
I hesitate to even say this, but I was ordering jeans online and the models all have big butts now, which gives me a much better sense of how they’ll look on me. If I wasn’t allowed to have a big butts, guess someone forgot to notify my DNA, but I’ll say this: I welcome big butt acceptance, I just wish it didn’t involve plastic surgery butts to get us there. Then again, why even bother having a beauty trend if doesn’t require expensive upgrades to our bodies?
if by “allowed to have a butt” she means “allowed to spend a five figure sum injecting fat transplants from elsewhere in the body to make what was originally a perfectly normal sized booty grossly out of proportion.”
Off subject, but does Helen have too much Botox/fillers/whatever here?
I wondered if anyone else would notice. She’s unrecognizable in that pic!
I think she’s wearing face tape. Either she tried to give herself a face lift with tape or her stylist did then they put makeup over it, but it didn’t turn out so good.
Why is it that people think the only women who have “claimed their own bodies” and “wear what they want to wear, behave as they want to behave” are ones that have “raise[d] their middle fingers to this epithet of ‘slut’”?
I wear what I want to wear and behave how I want to behave and just because it wouldn’t fall into what is conventionally thought of as “slutty” doesn’t mean I haven’t “claimed my own body”, etc.
I don’t understand why people seem to put certain groups down in order to raise other groups up. If a woman wants to act in a way that is conventionally thought of as “slutty” then that’s fine. But if a woman doesn’t want to act in a way that is conventionally thought of as “slutty” then that’s fine, too.
Trixie this ^ +1,000
You bring up a good point- a woman can definitely choose to be more modest (whether we’re talking about clothing, sexual activity, the way she presents herself, etc.) some, most, or all of the time and still be claiming her body, wearing what she wants to wear, and behaving as she wants to behave. But I don’t think Helen was trying to imply that modest women can’t do that- she’s drawing attention to the fact that the whole purpose behind slut-shaming is to control women and girls through fear- by punishing and shaming women who’s dress, sexual activity, presentation, or dating history don’t conform to someone else’s idea of chaste, respectable, classy lady and by holding up those punished, shamed ‘sluts/whores’ as a thing other women and girls are supposed to live in fear of being seen as so they won’t be viewed as ‘less than’ (at best) and deserving of discrimination, disrespect, and violence (at worst). Helen Mirren is pointing out the fact that there are some women resisting that fear and control by doing what they want with their bodies in a way that’s a loud, clear, flashy F- you to that version of ‘morality’ and also defending other people’s right to do what they want with their bodies without the discrimination, shaming, and blaming too. But there are also a lot of women who do prefer to be more modest who also support that too.
Add me to the list of women confused as hell for when my natural body was now ‘allowed’ to be celebrated in the media.
Sigh.
This is sometimes where the big divide between white and POC feminists occur.
While those slender bodies were being praised no one gave a damn about the WOC who had naturally curvy frames and were told, “Sorry you don’t fit the mold. You are simply less attractive.” suddenly because one attention-ho and her family have clawed their way into every venue of media and culture I’m supposed to be happy the same society is now giving me a thumbs up and ‘allowing’ my body to be celebrated??? From someone who’s body has been so injected it whistles when she blows her nose???
Yeah, thanks but no thanks Helen. Whatever you and yours are ‘allowing’ these days it has nothing to do with supporting naturally curvy women.
Jeez don’t you know we should bow down to Kim. Without her, where would women with big butts go? They’d have to hide in caves had it not been for Queen Kim.
gee, and I thought it was JLo who had the first big butt but hers is real. She’s stunning.
double post !
What makes me mad about her comment is that Helen is completely erasing our cultural icons in favor of just what white women perceive.
I once read an article about how Mexican American women felt validated in the mainstream media for the first time because of Selena (Quintanilla not Gomez). Finally a woman who looked like them was representing the their community with pride and made them feel good of their facial features and their “exuberant” body type. I’m sure every minority community has the same kind of stories of how their own cultural icons have changed things positively for them.
But I feel comments like Helen’s diminish those people, like if we can not feel validated until the white people speak and/or copy our cultural references.
Well put!
Our icons and heroes always seem to be invisible unless they serve some purpose to white society.
Yes!! Selena is first and everything
Well, there were starlets in the 1950s and 1960 who were curvy, so what is she talking about.
Come through Eternal!
I really hate the idea that there is only one body type at a time that is “allowed” to be celebrated. There are SO MANY different kinds of beautiful!!! Men and women are not all attracted to the same thing. It is so frustrating when society and media reinforce the fallacy that there is only one ideal, and then that makes people feel horrible about themselves. No matter what a person’s body type, I guarantee there are tons of people out there that think it is ideal and sexy. What people are attracted to really has a lot of variety, but you wouldn’t know it from media.
+1. That’s why even though I agreed with everything else she said in her comment, when it got to the Kim Kardashian booty part I was like “Ummmmm….”. In a world where women are mocked for wearing things that people would rather see on a size 0 or 2 woman with no visible fat in the ‘wrong’ places, it is kind of nice to see someone built differently not listening to that (even though altogether I don’t usually care for Kim’s or Khloe’s fashion), but at the same time, it seems weird to praise her for buying and being proud of a body type or feature that other women have had naturally. And I agree with you too Tiffany.
Why do the f*cking Kardashian/Jenners get credited for EVERYTHING. They don’t start trends, they kill them ! Also, please, Kim was not the first celeb to have a “big ass”…not even close. She gets made fun of for that fake ass of hers actually. I mean does anyone here actually envy Kim’s butt?
I don’t get it either. all the kartrashjenners are fake. plastic surgery fake, shallow, self absorbed, egotistical shatheads.
I secretly was tempted to change my name for a second to mememe just for the lols, but no, it’s because Kim and Kompany are just white-adjacent enough that whites now allow THEMSELVES to consider those body types attractive and that by seeing a person like Kim walk around and not be ashamed of her body must mean FINALLY there’s something beautiful in a curvy frame.
Meanwhile the rest of us with these bodies have been loving them in spite of the society that really only considers beauty from a white standpoint.
I seriously am so sick of everyone attributing everything to them and the rest of us are copycats. Like they’re some trailblazers. They’re fake and they’re mother sold her soul to the devil and proceeded to sell out her children as well. If people would stop talking about them in a positive way maybe just maybe they’ll start to go away?!? Can we just try!! 😩
Just because there was a standard in the fashion world to have super slender and long bodies doesn’t mean the rest of the world wasn’t rocking what they had before Kim or J.Lo. And that standard hasnt changed, high fashion still goes for that body type. What’s changed is media. Kim aint no revolutionary.
Uh, where was Helen back in the 90s when black rappers were extolling the virtues of a larger butt? Large butts have been around since before time started. The Kardashians have created a cottage industry out of cultural co-opting. Frankly, the African American community should probably look into a class action suit for character basis compensation from them.
um, Helen, what have you done to your face?
Ahem, Please direct you comments to Dame Helen “Wind Tunnel” Mirrens face..
Wait. What?
Latinas like Selena, Salma, JLo, Sofia…, and black women of course, with real curvy bodies have been around longer than plastic Kartrashian…
Helen needs to stop talking. Sorry, I’ve had nothing but respect for her for the past couple of decades since she really became popular in America. Before that, I admit I didn’t know who she was. Sadly, my respect is waning with every dumb remark she makes that appears to stem from trying to seem current and hip. She’s too good for this kind of try-hard.
I don’t beleive Kim ever felt pressured to tweak her body. She did it because she only ever got attention for her body, so she exaggerated it for more attention and it’s worked. JLo and Salma introduced us to not only the curvy behind buth with pride in her eyes. Kim is a ridiculous blow-up doll with nothing but vacancy in her eyes.
She is also teaching a generation of young people that there only value is their physical beauty. Honestly, she may be ” focusing on the positive” here, but she’s really doesn’t understand the immense amount of damage Kim is doing at the same time. Kim is everything I loathe.
Society teaches young women that their only value is their beauty. Kim is just playing the system to her advantage.
And being a horrible role model for her daughter. You don’t think when North get’s older, she’s going to feel ugly because she has her Dad’s nose or her mom’s original nose? Or because maybe she won’t have a shelfy butt? You can pretty much bet money that that girl will be begging for plastic surgery before she hits her 20’s…..just like Kendall and Kylie did because they were watching their older sister do it and get a ton of attention for it.
I just can’t believe our great Helen Mirren drank the Kardashian Koolaid.. What next the Zombie Apocalypse??
I have a large butt. Kim did not allow me to have a large butt; genetics did. Not much I or anyone else can do about it.
I also wear what I want. I don’t wear coats on hot summer days. I don’t prance about in a bustier in public because I live in a place where winter happens and being cold is uncomfortable and boobs are distracting. I wear flats when walking outside because bricks and cobblestones ruin heels and break ankles. I don’t wear long, tight skirts because I like taking a natural stride and sometimes I have to take the bus. Despite these choices, or perhaps because of them, I think I’m a strong woman. I also think I look really good on most days.
Man the f*cking cobblestones in this city are brutal, aren’t they? Back in my twenties I lost many a heel in Faneuil Hall from those effin things.
They’re insane. Pretty and full of character but insane. And the brick isn’t much better. I snapped a heel off in the bricks in front of the BPL. And I know so many who have sprained or broken ankles. I have lots of beautiful shoes but I carry them and go outside in flats, then change when I get where I’m going. The Adams courthouse has stone benches right outside. I call them the “shoe change benches”
J Lo is always the person who springs to mind for me as far as making it acceptable to have a round derrière. I used to cover mine up with long T shirts until the early 90’s when J Lo burst onto the scene. Suddenly I didn’t feel so self conscious anymore. I definitely don’t thank the Kardashiand for this phenomenon. As far as I know J Lo’s body is not a product of plastic surgery. Feel free to correct me if Im wrong about that.
Helen Mirren is name dropping Kim because its a cheap ticket to attention. Helen’s recent face lift has given her a severe case of accordion face.
her face looks terrible. why do women do this to themselves.
Every black woman in the world just shook their head at this stupid statement.
Yeah, it must get really, really old.
It does.
It really, really does.
Words cannot even begin to express…
Beyond old and exasperating every time I see a headline stating some white person made some cultural trend we’ve had for ages “popular”
SO old. We need a white stamp of approval for our bodies too. Man. NO.
I REEEEAAAALLLY need for her to go sit in the corner with Damon, Streep, Swindon, Caine, Rampling, Arquette,…DANGIT!…I’m running out of chairs…
And if Kim “allows” her big butt, why all the coats, waist wraps, photoshopping, strategic walking (to not get caught on camera from behind), and spanxing to the gawds????
the Kardashian’s didn’t allow any woman any where to feel better about themselves. Let’s not give this family credit where credit is certainly not due.
OMG. I can’t. Black women have been proudly owning their NATURAL curves in public spaces for a LONG TIME, but it’s a Kardashian that has “allowed” women to have a big butt??
Beyoncé and her backup singers were already extolling the virtues on the BOOTYLICIOUS booty since before Kim became relevant, before she even became Paris’s sidekick, back when she was still Kimberly Kardashian. And you also know that Jennifer Lopez got attention for her booty because she was WHITE. Go and ask Saarjtie Baartman how she felt about being a knack woman with a booty
I literally came to say the same thing. That Candy Crush Saga commercial with Bootylicious playing in the background is on as I’m typing this. Like come on Helen Mirren. Out of all the people she could have picked like Serena Williams, all natural, she decided to go with Kim Kuntrashian? SMDH
I just don’t understand why people act like big asses were completely unacceptable before the Kardashians. Eh, Beyonce and JLo both are more succesful than the K’s and they came around a whole decade before Kim. Baby Got Back, booty anthem, came out in the early 90’s. Marilyn Monroe, arguably the most iconic sex symbol of American culture, was quite a full lady herself.
+++++1
How many flowers will Kim send her for this?
😩 Not touching this one. I’ve done it before. Loving the comments though!
I’m a blonde haired, blue eyed Puerto Rican that has always had a bubble butt (from genetics not the doctors office) and always proud of it and I’m about to turn 43. So please spare me that these losers made it acceptable. Rolls my eyes.
I was always proud of my big butt and curves. When I was growing up in thr late 70’s/early 80’s, there was this Puerto Rican icon named Iris Chacon. She got a lot of attention for her very voluptuous body, thick thighs and bubble butt. Janet had a curvy body but it seemed that at one point she was more ashamed of it and trying to get Hollywood thin. You also had countless hip-hop acts who began using curvier women in their videos. Then there was Selena Quintanilla, then Jlo, who just so happened to be the first authentic A-list Hollywood celebrity to show up and be unapologetic for her round butt that Hollywood used to body shame us for. So I credit J-lo more-so for the mainstream exposure she gave to big butts and also Sir -Mix-A-Lot who practically made a movement over it and literally gave that movement a theme song! Then it became about the video Vixens like Buffy the Body, Melyssa Ford, Gloria Velez and Vida Guerra. Helen, I like you but you need to sit TF down for this one. WOC didn’t need Kim to tell us to be proud of our big butts. We already were!
And let me not forget Serena Williams, for all the haters that used to talk about how a big butt meant you were FAT. Except Serena is AAAALLLLL muscle to shut down all the haters!
Helens never heard of Beyonce then i take it?
I know there’s a huge argument that the K’s have appropriated their body types from black culture. I understand it and the reasons people are offended by it – that said, I don’t think those concerns are mutually exclusive with the fact that they HAVE done a lot for body positivity. I’m white, but I’m Greek, so I have a huge butt. When I work out enough, it reaches Pinocchio butt proportions! I did ballet for 12 years so I had major insecurities about it. JLo was definitely a start at making me feel better about my body when I was younger, but in recent years, seeing curvy figures as the norm, and sexy, has made me feel so much better about embracing my body, and erasing some of the real issues I had with body image because of dance. So thank you Kim!
If there’s a norm, then someone is always going to lose.
Hello Helen, KK isn’t the fir st woman to have a butt. Do some research!!!
Please can we finally stop the “oooh isn’t she wonderful – why can’t everyone age naturally like her”. She’s obviously had as much work done as everyone else. & I find her “down with the kids, sweary schtick” really wearing.
Not a national treasure in my house.
Loved this part:“When I was growing up, it was thought to be unbelievably sluttish to even have a bra strap showing. Everything was about women conforming. I love shameless women. Shameless and proud!” and “Women were controlled by being shamed. I love women who have claimed their own bodies.. They all raise their middle fingers to this epithet of ‘slut’. They wear what they want to wear, behave as they want to behave.”
There’s something so gross to me about the openness with which people judge and discuss women’s bodies (not just celebrity bodies).
It’s like there are no boundaries. It would be nice to go to the grocery store and have people say, “What a fine morning! Have you tried the new ice cream by Ben & Jerry? It’s delicious. Oh and pretty dress.” Instead of “Look at your waist! If I had that body I’d wear a dress like that all the time.” Too personal, total stranger!
“Look at your waist! If I had that body I’d wear a dress like that all the time.”
People really say that? Everyone I know and have known throughout my life, collegues, students, friends just comment on the clothes. “Lovely dress!” ” You look pretty today”, “teacher, I love your dress / T-shirts, trousers, where did you buy it?”, things like that..
In the real world, where most every one else lives; we’ve been used to butts of various shapes & sizes for millions of years now. So, no Kim didn’t invent the butt. She did invent a big, fake, ugly, mis-shapen butt we’ve never been used to. So there’s that
LOL
Well I for one am eternally grateful to the lovely Kim, as I cannot tell you how trying it was becoming sitting on my hands and sh***ing out my ears. Truly I thank you Ms Kardashian West for allowing me my posterior, it is proving most useful.
WOOOOWWW….Helen had her face stretched recently. I wish she hadn’t done that. It is not a good stretch.
It must be an issue of countries where white people are majority, then. Here in Brazil, big butts are like an aim for young girls, so my reaction towards this whole “butt worshiping” is pure disgust, since “ass” is unfortunatly part of our sexist culture. And how easy it is to be “shameless” when your looks still fit the standard big tits/small waist/no belly/big rear? As long as we keep on praising women whose main trademark is their looks, young girls will keep on feeling bad about themselves. To me, the best example for body acceptance nowadays is Adele. She’s the only huge pop star I can remmember that doesn’t fit in the standard sexy stereotype. Seriously, I can’t name another one.
Kate winslet?
I mean among the mainstream pop singers we have currently.
It’s always been a good thing in the black community! Not some fad.Real butts!!😂😂😂
how much was she paid by kris jenner and helen is officially cancelled