By now I’m assuming most people have seen the photos of Kim Kardashian for Paper magazine. The internet has been split about how to read these images. Some criticizing her. She has a young daughter and is posing nude. Additionally years earlier, she has been quoted saying “I’ve definitely learned my lesson (on posing nude)… I’m never taking my clothes off again, even if it’s for Vogue… I don’t want people to be like, ‘All she’s good for is, you know, being naked'”. Kim has already been questioned for the source of her celebrity status. Critics like Chelsea Handler have used this magazine cover to bring up issues not only of what seeing Kim’s body all over the internet, but also issues such as Instagram’s policy of nudity. Chelsea has previous uploaded a picture of herself topless riding a horse, mimicking Putin. After it was deleted, she re-uploaded the picture and criticized Instagram for allowing male nipples and not female nipples. The photo was again removed. Handler now uploaded a picture comparing her body to Kim’s revealing her own butt to the world. In Handler’s caption, she questions the realness of Kardashian’s butt. Natalie Portman also recently posed topless in a magazine. She insisted that the pictures remain untouched, specifying the size of her breasts remain the same. There has been little backlash for these pictures aside from a few journalists criticizing her for attempting to draw attention to herself. To me, being the center of attention is the point of being on the cover of a magazine so I don’t see these arguments as wrong but just irrelevant. Where the discussion becomes interesting to me is the response that these three celebrities receive. Natalie Portman received very little coverage for her stand against photoshop, Handler’s act was seen as nothing more than a sarcastic response, and no one has decided the societal response to Kardashian’s butt. Is it because Portman was trying to make a statement about self love that she recieved the least amount of coverage? Why won’t people take Handler’s criticism more seriously? Because of her personality or because of a desire to ignore the criticisms? Why are we all so fascinated with Kim’s body? Is there something damaging about her image? If so who is she damaging? Where do all of these images fall under feminism and post-feminism?
The main critique of Kardashian’s photo shoot was the hype around it, many news articles claimed it would be the “Photo that broke the internet”. However in light of recent events it seems asinine to discuss kardashian or her photo shoot this obviously due to the fact that we landed a mining probe on an asteroid over the weekend.
Numerous articles I read lambasted the news media corporations for blowing Kardashian’s photoshoot way out of proportion in light of the Rosetta mission’s success. The fact is that Kardashian is a terrible role model and her relevance to popular culture is determined entirely by how often she makes headlines. She’s not an actress who can rely on films to stay relevant or an author who can turn to books. She is a reality TV star and that really doesn’t amount to much in terms of impacting society.
The Rosetta mission mon the other hand is actually world changing news. However because of the way the news is run and because sex sells numerous news outlets chose to cover Kardashian’s photos rather than the monumental scientific break through that was just made.
So in response to your post directly it’s not that people overlooked the critical response to Kardashian’s use of photoshop or her desire to stay socially relevant by exposing herself. The lack of response was simply because there were more important things going on than another photo of Kardashian and quite simply, no one cared.
Complete Side note:
Aside from another Kardashian’s useless relevance, this photo shoot not only places Kardashian in the “You’re out of tricks” catergory but, also brings up a racist dimension that most overlook. But what is even more irritating is that the racial element brought by photographer Jean-Paul Goude is not even the uproar of the controversy but rather that HER ASS WAS PHOTOSHOPPED.
http://perezhilton.com/2014-11-14-kim-kardashian-paper-magazine-cover-off-course-it-was-photoshopped-editor-says
http://www.inquisitr.com/1607308/kim-kardashian-photo-controversy-paper-magazine-cover-has-allegedly-racist-origins/
(^ literally the first two articles)
I mean I don’t know how much farther from progress this actually is, there is nothing empowering or admirable from this. The light that is trying to be shone is just on the fact that Kim has a body and people can super impose meanings and images onto said body. As far as I know Kim Kardashian isn’t a woman but rather a commodity born from ‘its’ body image.
The article I’m posting below claims that recently we have had “two instances of publicized nudity that have highlighted just how fucked up we really are in this country.”
http://www.pajiba.com/think_pieces/alyssa-milano-questions-public-reaction-to-her-breastfeeding-vs-kim-kardashians-nude-photos.php
Alyssa Milano responds to critique of her posting an instagram of her breastfeeding her child. She asks, “why are people fine with Kardashian’s ‘booty cover,’ but are offended by my breastfeeding instagram?”
While I agree with Milano’s opinion that it is ridiculous for people to be offended by her publicizing her breastfeeding… I in no way agree with her statement that people are “fine” with Kardashian’s Paper magazine cover… I think people are far more horrified with Kardashian than they are with Milano.