She got what she asked for! Last week, Kim Kardashian made headlines as she posed fully nude for the cover of Paper magazine, an artistic, independent magazine that prides itself on running photos of “tastefully” nude celebrities and almost anything related to pop-culture. The cover that reads, “Break The Internet Kim Kardashian”, is allegedly Kardashian’s attempt to display her post-baby body to the world. The photo of Kardashian balancing a champagne glass on her rear end is a re-creation of a piece that was taken by the same photographer, Jean-Paul Goude in 1976.
It is astonishing that something that is so objectifying to women is being plastered on almost every page of the Internet. Even if the reasoning for the photos is to display herself for having the perfect body after having a baby, what are photos like these teaching young women? Women have a hard enough time trying to fit into society without having a sex symbol that has more than likely been Photoshopped in these photos. Kardashian aids in the ongoing trend of a societally altered view of what a woman should look like, but also of what a mother should look like.
According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), “47 percent of girls in 5th to 12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.” The women in these statistics are the same ages as the women that keep track of the media empire that are the Kardashians. By posing like this, Kardashian is only amplifying the already unrealistic image of what a woman should look like. This is ultimately influencing young women’s perception of body image.
Not to mention, what do these photos suggest about the moral standards of Kardashian herself? In a 2011 episode of the popular reality show, “Keeping Up with The Kardashians”, she stated, “I feel so taken advantage of, I’ve definitely learned my lesson, and I’m never taking my clothes off again, even if it’s for Vogue.”
Despite this claim, Kardashian still made the choice to pose for these provocative photos for the entire world to see. Perhaps she did mean this statement at the time, but then later decided to publicly sell herself out to feed her own need for recognition. Either way, she is not only lying to the fans that are loyal to her, but she is decreasing the value of the way that women are already viewed in our society.
