Back in March, Kim Kardashian caused a commotion when she published a nude selfie on her social media. She actually put black bars over her business, but the commotion still reached a fever pitch. I’m really, really tired of talking about it at this point, but here’s my little recap: some people went really crazy, basically saying that Kim is terrible role model and an awful mother just because she posted that photo. Some other people then reacted and defended Kim’s right to do whatever the hell she wanted with her body without moralizing pearl-clutchers body-policing her. Kim made the argument that she’s a feminist and she should be able to do whatever she wants as long as she doesn’t hurt anyone. She basically said she was empowered by her nude selfies and that there’s nothing wrong with a woman having sexual agency.
Well, Kim is still talking about it. Because who would have thought that one of the biggest pop culture moments of the year would be Kim getting naked yet again? Not even Kim realized that the selfie would become such a big deal. Kim chatted with the Recode Decode podcast on Monday, and she talked more about it:
She still doesn’t get why that selfie was such a BFD: “When I posted this photo and I had blonde hair and I put the two censor bars, I truly was baffled when people still cared and the response that people gave. They have seen me naked 500 times!”
So why was it a BFD? “Some people were outraged because I am a mom, some people were so supportive […] I just think it looks good, I am really not trying to cause a reaction… My personality has never been, ‘I’m such a feminist and follow me and be naked!..’ If you are conservative and that’s how you are comfortable, more power to you. I respect you. You don’t have to look at what I do.”
She actually thinks she’s more discreet these days: “Pre-marriage, pre-babies, the answer would have been everything was shareable. After, I would say I keep a good 30 percent to myself.”
She doesn’t mind how she’s portrayed in the media: “I don’t have a problem with people reporting on things, except for when it’s not accurate. I’m so open. There are so many ways to get to me to find out if it’s accurate or not… Old journalism used to be so accurate, and it’s just not like that anymore […] that’s what I love about social media. Now the journalist doesn’t have the final say. If you want to, you can refute what’s being said about you that’s not true and clarify it.”
“If you are conservative and that’s how you are comfortable, more power to you. I respect you. You don’t have to look at what I do.” That’s what I never got about all of the anti-Kim outrage. Like, she’s just doing her thing. She posts semi-nude selfies regularly. She’s vapid and superficial and she doesn’t pretend to be anything other than that. But she’s also never said that women should be more like her, or that people should follow her lead on nude selfies or anything else. Kim does Kim and she hopes that you do you. Live and let live, peeps.
Hey New York pic.twitter.com/HRZIv5VErd
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) June 6, 2016
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I know it has been said 100 times already but that space between her upper lip and nose is crazy.
That was my first reaction as well – her nose is vanishing!
That nose is crazy looking
Woman sends out message to live and let live without malicious tone… let’s make fun of her face.
I’ll show myself out.
She’s never malicious. She just sends out fake messages of peace and love while representing materialism and vulgar consumerism and narcissistic self worship for all she’s worth. So bye.
She’s just fake. If you watch her show for 5 minutes, you will see how she really is. She’s always on her phone, taking pictures and she’s not a nice person. This easy going harmless persona is something her publicist has created. But she’s really a mean, selfish, self-absorbed woman who gets other people to do her dirty work so she can keep her public image clean.
@Justvisiting-So just because she’s not “malicious” that means we shouldn’t be allowed to have an opinion? Nobody’s stopping her (clearly) from posting nudes, you know?
My issue with Kim isn’t about her need to post nudie pics, my issue is with her wrapping her narcissistic, self-promotional bullsh-t in a feminist bow as a way to inoculate herself against public backlash.
If it validates her and makes her feel good about herself to post nude selfies, that’s great, whatever. But to say that it’s a message about female body empowerment is disingenuous and insulting to those of us who really care about these issues.
Except it is not her face. At least not her original one.
That’s not her real face, though. She paid for that mess, so it’s fair game.
I agree
Overdone philtrum surgery. It’s affected her ability to smile, too. She hardly does anymore. I’m still laughing about her claims that her rack is real and the “proof” she provided. Hilarious. She mustn’t think the public is very swift or something when it’s incredibly obviously those ain’t real! Also:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3360879/Celebrity-dermatologist-insists-Kylie-Jenner-Kim-Kardashian-hips-butts-undergoing-numerous-surgeries-faces.html
Her first husband paid for her boob job.
Her nose has creeped into Michael Jackson territory. She’ll be doing corrective surgery if she doesn’t stop.
Her mother’s nose has already started to deteriorate and does not look good in the least. In fact it looks like hell.
I can’t believe that the things she said made sense… Whoaaaa
Point is she keeps posting how it’s all natural,contouring…When u sell lies n it affects young girls we will call her out. So yes,she is bothering us, she sells lies
How exactly does getting nude empower women?
By reclaiming something “the patriarchy” deemed shameful unless it was hidden, by enjoying the way her own body looks and wanting to brag like hell about it?
I mean it’s not my cup of tea but if she’s that body-comfortable… god bless.
So she is challenging the patriarchy by displaying herself nude. Decency is no longer a thing i guess.
But that gets twisted to me when you surgically conform your body to blow up doll proportions whuch is tailor made for the male gaze. its speaking out both sides of your mouth in that sense. Nudity doesn’t bother me, but she the fact she literally hid her body post pregnancy and only puts it on display once she is back to those specific proportions is the opposite of empowering to me.
But she’s NOT truly comfortable with her body, that’s the issue. If she either did all these naked shoots without the benefit of all the Frankenstein plastic surgery OR admitted that for many years her “look” has been achieved thanks to a sh!t-ton of cosmetic help, then people could at least respect her honesty. It’s the fact that she thinks people are stupid and can’t see that she has been nipped and tucked into oblivion that rubs most of us the wrong way. I think Kim is low class because she is a liar, not because she has posed nude.
Empowerment in one area doesn’t mean a person can’t have any insecurities or failings in any other area, but I agree with the point that she’s not fully comfortable with her body.
@Eternal Side-eye and GNAT: I sort of agree with you two about the whole free the nipple thing. Topless equality doesn’t feel like one of our biggest concerns. But as long as it’s an inequality, I’m totally in support of people drawing attention to it.
It doesn’t. It’s just an excuse for women who get attention by getting naked. Kinda like the girls who kiss their best friend at the bar so they can get all the guys attention.
It doesn’t. I work in Times Square and when those nudie girls come out with painted breasts and G-strings and nothing else, I don’t see empowerment. I see pathetic.
It doesn’t. She pulls the feminist card whenever she is criticized. It’s her default response.
Sure, if she wants to post something she feels she looks good in, right on….I just have an issue with all the photoshopping. These are not authentic images, they are contrived. Don’t post a nude selfie, claim empowerment and not acknowledge the team of people blurring and shaving away all your imperfections. I’d have a boatload of respect for her if she posted a nude selfie totally untouched, no contouring makeup, no cellulite blurred away, no exaggerated thigh gap courtesy of photoshop. That is empowering, to me. Ultimately, I respect and defend her RIGHT to do this, but I don’t have to like it or support it.
This woman could dance naked on a street like an orangutan high on LSD and i could not care less. But don’t equate that to feminism and women empowerment. Like someone above said, it is just a card she likes to misuse often.
I am not a prude. The most precious thing i ever possess is this little naked porcelain figurine of a girl my father brought me from Norway. It is very beautiful and so is a human body. Women have a right to get naked and i have a right to get offended and call it indecency.
I honestly don’t know sometimes.
Women’s rape cases are still defined in court by how much damage will be done to the perpetrator’s life so no, I don’t believe all the free the nipples in the world are doing anything but being background nose against an unchanging system.
I guess I see the point of free the nipples, I just think it’s such a minor ripple in an ocean of problems that it’s not worth the time. Let’s work on justice for rape victims, as you said, and equal pay and sexual harassment and women having a larger voice in business, film and politics and childcare and maternity leave and stuff. Then maybe worry about people hating our nipples.
To some extent I agree. I however feel if there was a lot more female nudity and open female driven sexuality it would be harder to judge women by what they wear or how they might act.
The idea of ‘a lady’ acting or dressing a certain way has a judgement that is attached to it that is used against us if we don’t or are found coming up short of that ideal. This must change.
When it comes to rape or sexual assault it isn’t about the messages read by someone else over our clothes or actions – it is the assaulter or rapist that is the problem
If we all could all get to the point where we can chose to wear whatever we want and act however we chose without someone else’s judgement over it our lives as women would be much better
I mean this to include dressing in a very revealing way or a ultra conservative way. It is purely choice.
It’s not empowering other than those who crave attention and get it probably do feel powerful because they’re manipulating. It works so why should they stop?
I would like to address her statement that if she’s not hurting anybody, it’s okay. A woman in this day and age purposely exploiting herself is harmful to all women and it’s harmful to her children. I affects sons who don’t want their mother to be seen like that or perceived that way. It affects them. No daughter of a woman who does this, especially at the level Kim does, will come out of it unschathed. Daughters look to their mothers to learn how to be a woman and they see what works and what doesn’t. She’s kidding herself if she thinks her daughter is going to grow up with all of this and not be affected. I feel sorry for daughters of celebrity women who can’t stop going under the knife. These girls will grow up feeling they aren’t good enough just the way they are – thinking I have my mom’s natural nose, but she got her’s shaved down to nothing = my nose is ugly. My mom must think I’m ugly. I must be ugly.
But sure, keep saying she’s not hurting anyone because it’s not physically hurting any one. It hurts young impressionable kids. It hurts true feminism.
There are enough cases of real exploitation in the world for the definition of the word to not be turned into ‘any time a woman decides to do something with her body that we’re opposed to’, and it’s definitely not Kim K’s or any other woman’s responsibility as a woman or as a feminist to avoid presenting herself in any way that sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, religious leaders, politicians, or others don’t want us womenfolk to be perceived (as in, it’s not our job or even every woman’s goal to make sure other people know that we’re Not That Kind of Girl), but there is good reason to worry about North West thinking she’s ugly and wanting to get work done at a young age. I don’t agree with the argument that a woman getting work done hurts all women, their children, and true feminism because if that’s the case, where do we draw the line- are women supposed to abstain from dieting to maintain a certain weight, tanning, living by any sort of traditional value concerning sex and her physical appearance, or making certain reproductive decisions in the hopes that no other woman or girl will have any kind of pressure to make that choice? But with the Kardashian-Jenner family, there’s a history of plastic surgery being both allowed and encouraged at an early age, AND her family gets a lot of work done, AND there will be a lot of media attention on her as a kid and teenager, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if North West does grow up with these insecurities and want work done really young.
I think that you can be a mother and still have agency over your own sexuality. I do not run my life over what may children may or may not one day think or feel about my choices
If you do that is fine but I don’t.
I think trying to live a life for how my kids might feel in the future is futile and involves a level of mind reading that I am not capable of or keen to undertake.
I am also willing to bet that KK’s kids will think that she owned the internet to some extent and that she looked cute embarrassing cool ridiculous in the same way that our kids do for lesser thing
Equally I am not affected by the cosmetic surgery the Kardashians or any other tv personality has. I am happy with myself and my life. I don’t upgrade and renew myself. Realistically I also don’t have people, women in the majority, pulling me apart in generally v mean ways daily. She is still just a person trying to find her way. She is only one of a tribe of many
Posing nude, or however you like, does have a feminist ideal behind it – the woman’s right to choose what she does with her body.
It’s not the feminist battle I’d choose if I had a platform of her magnitude. But it’s her choice to make.
Personally, I think she’s an idiot. All those people looking at her and up to her, and she has the power and the choice to present any message she wants. So she presents superficiality, narcissism and tits and a$$.
When this family pays every media publication like the DM and others to broadcast their tackiness, it’s a little hard to not look. It just comes at you. Kim and her idiot husband are a joke.
I concur.
She’s so dumb. Old media was so accurate. Please. Old media was a propaganda tool and didn’t report anything unsavory about famous people. It’s just inaccurate in a different way now.
She now keeps a whopping 30 per cent of her life to herself? Whoa, give her a medal!
IKR? I read that and thought wow, her lucky kids will only have 70% of their lives put out there for public consumption.
If Kim wants to take nude or semi nude selfies because she is happy with her body go right ahead. Frankly I prefer that to seeing some of the horrible fashion choices she wears.
Kim and Kompany better hope there is never a collapse in modern technology. Could any member of that family survive without smartphones and Instgram/Snapchat? The thought of waiting one hour to develop film would terrify them
Haha, so true. I also prefer to see her naked than wearing those horrible unflattering clothes. 😀
You don’t have to speculate. Just check out how Kim reacted to reduced internet access while in Cuba recently….
While I do agree with the whole If you don’t like it, don’t look but this family are rammed down our throats as a brand and something to look up to and be and, I see so many young girls aspiring to be like them, and yes they do encourage their lifestyle by shilling clothing, make up, apps etc. so it’s not as simple as saying just ignore us, they’re influencing popular culture, love it or hate it.
(I didn’t like the nude selfie mainly because it just came across as the usual attention seeking, the empowering thing only came when she was called on that but all the crap about her being a mum and put it away was not on)
Yep
Agree. Kim posted her nude selfie because she’s a narcissist. Then people defended her saying she was a feminist and she suddenly found herself a heroine. She glommed onto that for all she was worth – uh yeah! It’s uh empowering and I’m like uh a feminist so uh like live and to each his own.
Can’t believe people bought into it.
I have never understood why she reacted so badly to the Bette Milder joke. If the Divine Miss M tweeted a joke about me, I’d dine out on it for years.
Completely agree. There isn’t a feminist bone in her tucked and nipped, altered body–she has no desire to empower, enlighten, support, or be a voice of strength or change for other women. Nor does she demonstrate any alliance with them.In fact, I think she’s the type who, for the most part, views other women as two things: harmless to her, or as competition. Kim is all about Kim: the most extreme “celebrity” narcissist I’ve ever heard of. (That’s essentially ALL she’s known for, actually: her abundant self absorption.) And, like others have pointed out, she IS most likely going to deeply psychologically harm her daughter, by all this worship of cosmetic surgery in the pursuit of physical “perfection.” There is simply no way her daughter won’t be scathed by that.And her son will certainly be effected by Kim’s vision of sexuality and womanhood, too. So, she’s hurting no one? How about her own children?
It’s not that we ‘don’t’ have to look at what she is doing, but she and her family SATURATE everything. You can’t look away even when you try.
I can’t use Instagram without being forced to see what she is doing (same goes with Beyonce, I can’t escape her on Insta…).
I can’t go on websites anywhere without being forced to see something cardashian related.
I should be able to enjoy what the internet has to offer without being forced to be updated on this vapid group of useless people only out to sell things and (without saying it directly) aiming to direct the way people look, talk, think, behave and BUY STUFF to ‘look like them’ or ‘have the life the cardashians have’). To say this woman ‘isn’t telling people they have to be like her’ is kinda silly, because they don’t have to ‘say it’ for it to be true. That is what celebrity is, especially in this womans case because she hold no other talents. She’s not selling a book, or music, or her acting skills…she’s selling herself and her image and wants you to want it too (so you buy the stuff she promotes).
The fact that I would have to sign off of the internet all-together to avoid anything related to this stupid family makes me sad.
It also makes me sad that every time she opens her mouth, she’s talking about herself. I just don’t see the true cultural value in people like that, especially ones that make so much $$ doing so. It’s a symptom of a sick society in some ways and maybe that’s why people dislike her so much: she represents the worst in us. (IMO)
@missmerry – if you are visiting a site that does not charge, you are not the customer. Social media sites need money to operate and they make it by selling ads. Sadly, the Kardashians are click bait so you are never going to escape them.
Sorry but i don’t get this line of reasoning. The internet doesn’t owe you anything. I specifically don’t use Twitter or Instagram because they are so annoying and celebrity focused. It’s called a CHOICE. You have one.
When I see the Slightly Open Mouth on various celebrities, all I see is “Huh? and Duh.” with a dash of blow up doll. The Olsens are great with the drawn down upper lip, although Emily Blunt has that simian look also.
Don’t forget Falcor Rhymes!!
She is sooo desperate for attention. On that night Beyonce dropped Lemonade,p and when everyone went crazy on social media, Kim posted sexually suggestive fotos of herself on IG and twitter, cos god forbid someone else gets all the attention! I follow her snapchat, she always positions her camera low so we can all see her huge fake tits. She cracks me up. So transparent n desperate lol
Yeah even the above pic is like, “Hello Kim Kardashian’s rack.”
Something to aspire to in being an Instagram sho I guess.
a guy-friend who had liposuction once told me that when you start to gain weight again, it will show up in different places than before. odd places sometimes. i think that’s what we’re looking at here. it pains me to see her body, or khloe’s, or blac chyna’s. not trying to be mean, i do respect their hustle, but they look deformed.
This is true! Years ago, i had lipo on my chin because of a hereditary double chin that had always bothered me. Then at some point I gained weight, and because the fat cells had been removed from that area under my chin, they just settled lower down in my neck instead. So now I don’t have a double chin but have a fat neck (until I lose the weight). There’s always a downside to everything!
She doesn’t get it.. She says I don’t see why it was a big deal people have seen me naked 500 times.. THAT was the point!! That was why she had backlash it wasn’t because she was nude.. It was because she was nude AGAIN!
The ‘controversy’ began because some other celebrities on Twitter basically rolled their eyes at her and said enough already.. Not that there is anything wrong with posing nude just doing it over and over and over to an obsessive degree from every angle possible, presented every time as if you are reinventing the wheel.
It isn’t a feminist argument at all. If anything it’s a criticism of narcissism or excessive self-love.
Kim just took the ennui expressed with her nude selfies and turned it into completely misplaced feminist outrage. Then the controversy grew as a debate over how much Kim mis appropriated the term, not a debate between people who support her and people who want her to stay covered. No one is on either of these teams.
My personal ‘feminism’ is that women are equal to men and should be treated as such. Meaning if some tool bag wants to pose nude selfies of himself naked all day I would think just as little of him, and he would be equally ridiculed in the media because rampant narcissism should be called out and checked.
It’s literally just “showing off” hidden behind buzz words like branding and image and platform.. She is just showing off and deserves to be taken down a peg or two or ten.
Yes this times a million!!!!
Totally agree. And I’m struggling to think of a well known man who routinely posts nude selfies, except I presume professionals on porn sites, who aren’t household names. I note Kanye doesn’t feel the need to empower himself by showing us his meat and two veg (thankfully).
i think it manifests differently for men, like I tend to think of that “bro culture”…guys on insta without shirts on, flexing, sitting on a yacht. But seriously, IMO, I find men’s bits and pieces not as attractive as women. Penises look kinda weird and while I enjoy what they’re for I don’t want to look at them. I find women’s bodies quite beautiful and even as a straight woman I can appreciate and envy another woman’s curves. Penises, eh…thanks but it’s not something that excites me. I guess all woman are different but most women I know are along the same lines as me. I’m not sure there’s a demand for nude male selfies, but I guess there is one for the greased up flexing ones since those are the ones I tend to see more of.
Closet one that comes to it is Bieber. He posts butt nudes and tight undie pictures where he is holding his junk.
Yeeaaah…. that’s not how it works. When you make sure your face is everywhere and your lifestyle is shoved in people’s faces all day long, you can’t really turn around and say “Well, you don’t have to look.” The K’s are doing everythig in their power to MAKE people pay attention. Also, she can do whatever she wants. But let’s not pretend she and others like her don’t have an effect on young people. They’re selling themselves and their lifestyle. Hard. And then we have to battle that idea of fame and money for nothing. That whole Instagram generation scares the crap out of me.
I like to use the example of those super skinny heroin chic models in the 90’s as an analogy because I was a teenager with serious body image/eating issues back then. No, I didn’t have to look. … Are you kidding me? The fashion industry and media made sure I (we) did. So this whole “You do you and let Kim do whatever she wants.” is okay for me now, as an adult. She has no effect on me. But damn if there aren’t still days where I have a fleeting moment of “I’d love to be THIS skinny just once.”
That’s why I like her. Live and let live whoever you are, pushing nothing (except her own nudies) and just relishing what life has given her. Now if she’d just please stop messing with her face before it’s too late…but her own unapologetic vapidness won’t allow for that. Wonder what she’ll look like in 10 years.
I actually agree with her
And she does what exactly?
OMG! She didn’t say “like” or “literally” once in her answers. Are you sure that was her?
It’s not her, it’s the words her publicist wrote.
Actually, no, I DO have to look at what you do because the papers, news, and social media are infiltrated by your crap. You do something and for some dumb ass reason, the Toronto paper reports on it. So no, I don’t have a choice in the matter.
She is not empowering anybody! She has no confidence herself. Posting selfies is a way for her to get attention and comments but she is a very insecure person!
She is not a role model whatsoever. I wish they would go away.
Me too. And to think, I used to wish Paris would go away. I’d take her now in a heartbeat. At least Paris is still similar to how she used to look when she was younger. Not like miss Catface, on face number 3001.
Why is this still a thing? Why not just let it go and not answer any questions about it? Most of the criticism came because she was empowered, flaws and all. If she was so empowered she would have shown her current body and not one pre-baby.
Yes she doesn’t do those nude selfies when she’s heavier. If she was fat, you’d never see her naked. She’s so full of it.
Lindy79, missmerry, littlemissnaughty and GNAT, ALL pretty much covered what I wanted to say.
And this is the last bit of attention, I’m going to give to the raging narcissist that is Kim Kardashian.
Kim isn’t empowered. An empowered woman doesn’t go around with a coat on in 80 degree weather.
Kind of strange how on the internet she’s all about nudity, but in real life she wears floor length coats even when it’s 80 degrees outside ! Only difference between the internet and real life is PHOTOSHOP.
Empowered women don’t feel the need to take and post nude selfies!
Because what’s empowering to you must be empowering to all other women?
This.
If they want to prove a point desperately, they’re not empowering. Let’s not pretend there’s not a specifical context here.
Proving a point can be a part of someone’s empowerment. (Not saying Kim’s specific photo was done ‘for feminism’ and not attention or anything else).
What would Kim do if she lost her looks for some reason and literally had no means to continually perfect herself? I believe she would curl up in a ball and be beside herself. She is all about VANITY and nothing else.
Sure Jan, excuse me. Sure Kan.
Oh please. She posts nudes for one reason only, the REACTION. She’s lying.
Enough with the labels! Let Kim do what she does. She is what she is; vapid, shallow, beautiful. If you don’t like it, as she said, don’t look. Life is short!
She is selling her body to the media as her career. Is that feminism? I am not sure.
It seems like narcissism.
To me feminism is: raising children, working full-time, cleaning your house, mowing the grass, doing the dishes, accepting your body as is, living on a budget, loving who you want, living within your means, being humble, helping the world be a better place—in some way, and believing that women and men are equal in every way and have the same equality and rights for wages, housework, child-rearing, and sexual freedom.
To me, feminism is to raise your hand first when professor asks you a question, especially when said professor exhibits sexist tendencies.
A million likes to what you wrote because that is feminism in the real world, where we have to constantly prove our worth, compete with boys and beat their bony arses!
I’ve never liked Kim, but I have a hard time understanding why people are still analyzing her posture on feminism, when she literally said she’s not trying to pass herself as one.
I don’t have must respect for Kim, but I actually have nothing bad to say about this interview. I still think her overall schtick can be criticized, though.
I kinda liked this interview for one thing, where she goes “you don’t have to look what i do” basically being honest as in, what she is doing isn’t worth seeing. That is true indeed.
I don’t entirely understand Kim’s obsession with posting naked photoshopped selfies, but I’m pretty sure it has absolutely nothing to do with feminism. She often does it as a distraction from something else being revealed or some dumb thing Kanye and said or done. Maybe it’s an expression of her total self-absorption, though. She doesn’t seem truly comfortable in her own skin or else she wouldn’t do so much Photoshopping.
She’s not a bad mom because she gets naked publicly, she’s a bad mom because she exploits her children for financial gain – all of those Kardashians do, every last one of them. That’s what they don’t get about this.
I actually really like everything she has to say here. “Old journalism used to be so accurate, and it’s just not like that anymore.” Yep.
I repect you too, Kim. But don’t you belittle our intelligence: you wanna attention, but it has to be positive. And just for the record, anyone who calls her a “slut” is an idiot. People forget about moral boundaries.
There’s alot of things that Kim doesn’t have to say. Her actions say it all. Please stop promoting this woman. It’s not like she’s doing her thing and minding her own business by not sharing her naked body all over social media. No no.. homegirl knows exactly that what she does affect all of American’s way of thinking in our society. So let’s not try to make her all innocent.