I’ll be the first to admit that the Kardashian clan is a bunch of self-righteous women who contribute very little to society. I have never been a viewer of their show, "Keeping Up With the Kardashian’s," nor did I run out to buy Kylie’s lipstick collection. I do not follow any of them on any social media; however, that does not stop them from coming onto my Twitter feed, especially whenever they are involved in some type of drama.
This was the case with the recent Instagram photo Kim Kardashian posted. As I do not follow her on Instagram, I did not see the photo until it was all over my Twitter feed. I was bombarded with women and men, fans and non-fans, calling her a whore amongst other things. The image (shown below) shows Kim Kardashian in the nude with her boobs and genitals blurred out with the caption, "When you’re like I have nothing to wear LOL."
Amongst the many who tweeted backlash at her were Chloe Grace Moretz, Pink and Bette Midler, to which Kim K responded to each of them in their own respective tweet. The tweets sent to her (shown below) mentioned how Kim needs to cover up and use her brains instead of her body to further herself in Hollywood. Bette Midler even referenced Kim’s sex tape that went viral in 2007, regardless of it being filmed in 2003 without the intention of it being leaked.
So, why does this matter? Since the backlash at Kim started, many feminists have posted on several social media sites the differences in the way the female body is treated when photographed in the nude versus the male body photographed in the nude. These images included photos from Justin Bieber and Liam Payne (shown below).
The female body is treated as something to be hidden from outsiders. If, however, the woman decides to show her body, as Kim K did, she is labeled a whore. Whether it be posting a blurred out nude on the Internet, or posting a photo of a mother breastfeeding with slight nipple exposure, the woman gets labeled. Furthermore, the idea that Pink perpetuated that a woman can't both be known for her brains and display her body is severely misguided and wrong. Yet, it is OK for Payne or Bieber to be known for their body and their talents. We should instead strive to teach young girls that their body is not something to be ashamed of. While I do not think 12-year-olds should be posting blurred nudes like Kim K did, I do not think their body is something they should grow up being told to be ashamed of.
I did not write this article in an attempt to persuade you, the reader, to suddenly sympathize with Kim. Nor did I write it to say that what Kim did it for everyone. Instead, I wrote this to focus on the differences in the way we treat the female body and the male body, whether we acknowledge this difference or not.
