So let’s talk about Kim Kardashian’s international women’s day post.
Before anyone begins reading this article, let me first
clarify that this is not meant to
slut shame anyone and the general message can be applied to most influential
female ‘celebrity’ figures. I don’t believe putting pictures of your naked body
up online makes you a slut. I don’t care what one woman does with her vagina,
be that whether she offers it up to many sexual partners, or whether she guards
it like her prized possession for the majority of her life.
I do not think Kim Kardashian has done anything so horribly
shocking that she should be publicly flogged for her mistakes forever. The sex
tape for me isn’t an issue. In fact, I wholeheartedly agree with you, Kim. It’s
not your fault that a sex tape you made with a trusted partner got leaked to
the entire internet. I agree, you should not be made to feel ashamed for performing
fellatio on your boyfriend at some point in your relationship. I’m sure many of
us are guilty of doing the same (Not me obviously, am shining beacon of
chastity).
But what you are guilty of, I’m afraid, is being so
self-absorbed that you can’t even see why you annoy people so much.
So we come to your international women’s day post. Can I just start by asking what platform you think
you have provided to young women anywhere that has been so rewarding for them? Of
the suffocating weight from the media on young women, yourself and your
aesthetically pleasing family are probably prime contributors. Admittedly, not
your fault. However, are you honestly so naïve to think that the hundreds of
young women pouring over your photos wishing their boobs were a bit bigger,
their waist a little smaller, their lips just a tiny bit fuller, come away from
watching your TV show feeling empowered?
As Pink said, “Kudos to you Kim, for feeling sexy as a
mother, daughter and a wife”. You should do. You’re very lucky that with your
team of personal trainers, nutritional experts and army of beauty moguls that
they can give you all the advice you need that you can get back to your
personal best after your pregnancies. I
am so glad that you are empowered by your body and proud to be a woman. I am
also proud to be a woman. But not because I have a vagina, or (admittedly)
painfully average breasts. Because I know, as a woman, I am not disadvantaged.
Because, I too, have been brought up by empowered, brilliant women who have –admittedly
– told me I am beautiful. They have also taught me that there are no limits on
what I can achieve. That my sexuality does not define me. That I can be whoever
I want to be.
Can we think, just for a second, about the women who aren’t
empowered by their body? Those women who have suffered any form of sexual
assault? The women who are so psychologically scarred by their experience that
they go on to self-mutilate, to blame themselves? To resent themselves for something
that they could not prevent. The women who feel, not empowered, but imprisoned,
by their sexuality? A woman who cannot see themselves as anything more than a body. People work every day to protect those women and
to teach others that may suffer in future that is not your fate or your duty as
a woman to come to expect the blatant derogatory comments and inappropriate
advances.
What about the women that society labels ‘ugly’? I don’t
resent you for being attractive at all, but I wonder how empowered you would
feel if you were considered ‘ugly’? Were
you really always that self-confident? So self-confident in your body that you’re
so terrified of ageing and the natural aesthetic that you botox yourself into
oblivion? Real women get older. They get wrinkles. Their boobs sag. That is
real. That is embracing your sexuality and all it is to be a woman. It is
looking at yourself in the mirror one day and realising you’re not 18 anymore,
and you don’t look like Claudia Schiffer, but that’s okay. Because you have
more to show for your life than a portfolio of 300000 selfies. Why aren’t you
posting your naked selfies and telling women that this is how you look, but this
is not the only version of beautiful that exists? I appreciate that for you, it really is about your body. But if you want to
start earning respect from other women, why don’t you try using your fame and
fortune to spread a greater positive vibe?
You have a captive media audience on international women’s
day, as you do every day. A massive influence (for reasons I cannot fathom) on
millions of women. So what do you decide to do with your influence? This is your chance to use your massive ‘social
platform’ that you speak of to do something good. If you had asked each one of your
loyal followers to donate 1 dollar to any charity, support of domestic abuse
victims, women’s aid shelters (The example used is a female charity in keeping
with the theme of the day, but it could have been anything). You have 41.6 million followers. Imagine the
capital you could have generated to put towards a beneficial cause.
And that is why
Kim Kardashian, you annoy the ever loving crap out of me. Because on international
women’s day, you chose to put up a small essay that was so thinly sprinkled
with girl power it was almost laughable. I don’t berate you for being
beautiful, Kim, I berate you for having the power to spread a message so far
and so wide, and instead, using your ‘platform’ to once again validate
yourself. No, you should not be slut shamed. But you should be ashamed, that you have the potential to
give so much back to your fellow woman, but you don’t.
Do you know what Kim? I hope you are so naked and happy every day of
your life. May you never have to buy a single item of clothing to cover your
hooha ever again. But for goodness sake, can we all stop pretending that you
getting your chesticles out is for the benefit of women kind everywhere? Because I have to admit, lovely, no woman I've met as of yet feels directly empowered by your cheeky nip-slip on the back of ol' Kanye's motorbike.
In the words of the great Biebs, if you like the way you
look so much, maybe you should go and love yourself. In private. Because you are doing my 'ed in.
