As many people know, Kim Kardashian is not one to shy away from boldly speaking her mind not only on her successful reality show, but also on social media. As an enormous public figure of our generation, she has used her platform to speak out against body shaming and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. But, when Kardashian was asked to give the keynote speech at the BlogHer 16 conference in Los Angeles, she said something that came as a shock to many. When the talk of feminism was brought up in the discussion, she distanced herself from the term all together. “Everyone always says, are you a feminist?" Kardashian said. "And I don’t think that I am. I don't like labels. I do what makes me happy, and I want women to be confident. I am so supportive of women. I love nothing more than when I'm with all my friends, and I love to support women, but I'm not a 'free the nipple-type' of girl. If you're not comfortable with that, don't do it you know? I'm not about the labels. Just be you, and be confident in you. And if you’re not...be you. No hate."
By definition, feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and access to the same opportunities as their male counterparts. To acknowledge oneself as a feminist has always been unpopular because of all of the false misconceptions attached to the word. Feminism is not a movement that is inclusive to only women, nor does it mean that all people that support feminism hate men and want power over them. It is about correcting the unfair power balance that exists in society and actively fighting for the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Therefore, any real opposition to that means you support sexism. There is no way around the fact that if you are not a feminist, you are just plain sexist. So, how exactly is Kim Kardashian not willing to label herself as a feminist when she openly supports women making a name for themselves, being confident in who they are, and being successful?
Kardashian is the first to label herself as a model, mother, wife, business mogul, and fashion icon. But, when it comes to identifying herself as a spokesperson for gender equality, she is the last person that wants to identify with that label because she has no idea what it even means. She has condensed feminism to a “Free the Nipple” political rally and has entirely failed to see that a lot of her core values actually align with what feminism stands for. As a society, we need celebrities and people of great influence in our generation to stop treating the label “Feminist” as a dirty word and start standing by what it actually means in order for us to see significant social change for women everywhere.
