Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know who Kim Kardashian is and why she’s famous. She has built an empire for herself and her family from scratch, all of it beginning with her sex tape leaking in February 2007. The sex tape is now worth a reported $65 million. Kim's most recent scandal is an Instagram post where she’s posing nude in front of her bathroom mirror. The caption underneath the photo reads, "When you're like I have nothing to wear LOL".
The selfie is actually from a year ago, when Kim dyed her hair blonde and self-reportedly weighed “25 pounds less.”
The selfie generated not only a lot of heat from everyday people like you and I, but from celebrities as well – including
Bette Midler, Chloë Grace Mortez, Piers Morgan, and P!nk.
Of course, in the mix of all the haters, there were a few celebrities who stuck to Kim's side - Chrissy Teigen, Sharon Osbourne, Demi Lovato, Emily Ratajkowski, and her own sisters Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie Jenner. Osbourne and Ratajkowski even posted nude selfies themselves in honor of celebrating Kim's post.
Miley Cyrus also randomly decided to weigh in on the Twitter feud, posting a Kimoji of Kim K's derriere to her Instagram page with this caption:
Miley brings up a couple interesting points in her Instagram post, but mainly that International Women's Day should hold aside what the individual woman deems appropriate for herself and celebrate all women as a whole for the individual choices they make to better themselves in whatever way they so choose.
Many people dismiss Kim Kardashian and her sisters as uneducated, trashy, or self-absorbed. I think the absolute opposite. I see Kim Kardashian as determined, becoming, vulnerable, caring, and passionate about everything that she does. And when she took to her own blog to write about her emotions on International Women's Day, I couldn't have been more proud.
Kim writes, "I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin. I am empowered by showing the world my flaws and not being afraid of what anyone is going to say about me. And I hope that through this platform I have been given, I can encourage the same empowerment for girls and women all over the world."
As I follow all the Kardashian sisters on social media websites, I saw Kim's nude post right away. My first inclination was shock, because I personally would never post anything nude online.
But that's just it -- I personally wouldn't do it. I'm just as guilty as anyone else of scrolling down Facebook thinking "Why would she post that?" or "That just looks trashy." But then I take a deep breath and realize that I'm also somewhere in that mix of trying to figure out what photos and comments to post online myself. And I'm just one individual. I can't claim what morals are acceptable for everyone any more than the next person can.
Even though I consider myself a Christian, I don't always agree with every single stand-point in common Christianity. And one of them is a woman's need to be modest. Merriam-Webster defines modesty as:
- the quality of not being too proud or confident about yourself or your abilities
- the quality of behaving and especially dressing in ways that do not attract sexual attention
But what exactly is "too" proud or "too" confident? Where exactly is the line between knowing you're drawing sexual attention from others and not even being aware of it? (In the case of say, being a girl in high-school having to avoid wearing ripped jeans because they might attract attention from other boys your age or male administrators.) And even if you are aware of the sexual attention you're drawing, who's to say that that isn't merely an expression of the control you have over your body to say "yes" or "no" to whomever comes near it?
Because Kim had been deemed by some as an unfit mother and negative role model for girls around the world, Kim answers this question about individualism versus a general representation of modesty and empowerment through part of her blog post:
"I will not live my life dictated by the issues you have with my sexuality. You be you and let me be me. I am a mother. I am a wife, a sister, a daughter, an entrepreneur and I am allowed to be sexy."
Sometimes our religions (like Christianity, and other religions championing "modesty" and "purity" of women) cause us to view other women in a negative light; however, just as quickly we can turn this light on ourselves and recognize many ways in which we've failed our own standards of certain morals. Whether religious or not, we've all been judgmental of others' morals when they don't quite match up with our own.
But as women, if we don't realize that we can't generalize the idea of modesty, we're going to drown in a never-ending argument about small, singular details we each deem important and lose our sense of fighting for the rights of women everywhere. Once we lose the sense of individual entitlement toward defining standards for all women, we can support every single woman for having her own moral lines clearly drawn, without diminishing our own.
