Why there was nothing wrong with Kim Kardashian’s nude photo shoot
There are no ifs or butts as to what Kim Kardashian is famous for. Her photoshoot with Paper magazine clears it up once and for all.
OPINION
I’m sick of people saying that Kim Kardashian is only famous for being famous.
She is, this week at least, famous for her buttocks. Her nude and partially-nude shots for Paper magazine this week have got everyone talking almost exclusively because of her shiny, pert bum-pumpkins.
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Not about the words in the accompanying article (which are relatively benign). Not about the fact that one of the photos by Jean-Paul Goude is a pose-for-pose copy of his 1976 shot of Caroline Beaumont. Not even, incredibly, about the fact that one of the pictures is full-frontal, Kim’s comparatively demure pose the only thing restricting more graphic visual access to her female everythingness.
That’s right. People are talking more about her bottom than her vagina.
There’s no doubt that Kardashian has a remarkable bottom, Photoshopped or not. That the hullabaloo over her derriere is easily drowning out the hoo-ha over her hoo-hoo is not surprising.
Even if her lady-parts are well above par, they are not as instantly comment-worthy as her beauteous gluteus. It’s a rare instance in which we collectively say “Meh, vagina”.
That said, cries that Kim Kardashian is damaging her brand or setting a bad example for young girls or being a bad mother are two things: inevitable and weird.
Inevitable because hello, have you met the internet?
Weird, because Kardashian is only doing those three things if you take her seriously.
Is she damaging her brand? When you’re famous for your buttocks and actively publicise them, especially when you’re giving them priority over any other talents you may have, then you’re
actively showing the world what you think you’re best at. Kim uses her back end to increase her back end, because we the public will snatch it up like the last gossip magazine in a gynaecologist’s waiting room. If anything she’s being true to her brand.
Is she setting a bad example for young girls? Sure, if consensual nudity and having control over your own image is bad. The worst girls will learn from this is that nudity garners attention,
which is certainly nothing new. That message delivered in isolation, without qualifiers or context, is bad. However they’re also likely to learn that if you have talents outside of nudity or buttocks, then nudity and buttock-exposure won’t be necessary. Kardashian knows that her non-posterior skills won’t pay the bills like these photos can, but the exact same shots by someone with true
acting or singing talent, for example, would be more scandalous. People would tut and say that
you don’t need buttocks to sell a movie or an album. Kim Kardashian is using buttocks to sell
other vehicles by which her buttocks can again be featured. And handbags.
Is she being a bad mother? Three skin shots does not a bad mother make. Not even her sex tape, filmed before North was even a twinkle in Kanye’s eye, makes her a bad mother, although perhaps a bad cinematographer. If all mothers were made to feel bad about things they did before they’d even thought of getting pregnant, then all mothers would feel bad. Plus these photographs are playful and barely erotic, unless the mere glimpse of a nipple makes you go a bit squizzy, in which case get a hold of yourself. Mummy did not feed her baby deep-fried whale fat. Mummy did not leave her baby with a crack-addicted neighbour. Mummy did not even up-size her baby’s fries or let baby watch M-rated movies. Mummy let an artistic photographer of considerable renown take pictures of her most famous things after asking if that was okay. Mummy can buy baby anything baby wants for the rest of time to make up for the mild embarrassment baby might feel.
Kim Kardashian is not doing anything deep, but she’s also not doing anything worth an explosion of think-pieces all over popular media (with the exception of this one, obviously).
She’s only dangerous if we take her seriously, and even then only maybe. If we keep our comments as meaningful and important as anything Kim Kardashian is doing, we could sum things up in one word.
Butts.