Everything it Means to be a Woman?

By: American Decency Staff

Everything it Means to be a Woman?

Kim Kardashian. Essay. These are words we don't often see sharing the same sentence. She's a queen of pop culture, the quintessential socialite, a fashionista, and business mogul, but the reality TV star has reportedly decided to add a bit to the thousand words a widely publicized picture from earlier this week may or may not have been worth.

On Wednesday, the day before International Women's Day, Mrs. Kardashian-West shared a naked picture of herself with her Instagram followers. Black bars covered the parts that would have made the social site close down her account, but little is left to the imagination.

Of course, as one of the most visible celebrities of our time, chaos ensued. Criticism was justly given and encouragement was enthusiastically shared and then Kim waxed academic on her website, which you have to pay to have access to, so I'll just be quoting snippets from reports.

In her piece, Kardashian-West refers to her original claim to fame, which preceded the infamous, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" TV show: a leaked sex tape with someone called Ray J.

"I lived through the embarrassment and fear, and decided to say who cares, do better, move on. I shouldn’t have to constantly be on the defense, listing off my accomplishments just to prove that I am more than something that happened 13 years ago. Let’s move on, already. I have…"

What's interesting is that Kardashian-West doesn't seem to realize how far she has slipped from even a few years ago. Assuming that Kim's embarrassment and, dare I say, shame at her launch pad to celebrity status is authentic, and I, personally, give her the benefit of that doubt – her first purposeful foray into exposing herself came in the form of a magazine photo shoot in 2011.  She was nude in the shots, but even at this point, when the magazine came out, she claimed surprise at how revealing they were on her television show.

"[The magazine]promised me I would be covered in artwork on top of me. It was so uncomfortable. I'm really honestly freaking out."

She later explained to the viewers (remember the context is a reality show),

"I obviously knew what I was getting into, I was posing nude. I just don't want people to be like, 'All she's good for is — you know — being naked."

And that brings us back to 2016. It can be tempting for those of us on the opposite side of the screen from her – her audience, willing or not – to laugh at the self-inflicted shame of Kim's choices, even when she is so foolish as to not realize that she should be ashamed.

Keep in mind that quote above, her rejection of being reduced to the value of her naked body, and then read her justification for sharing her nakedness with the world, and passing that "confidence" on to her daughter,

"…I want her to be comfortable in her body. I don’t want her to grow up in a world where she is made to feel less-than for embracing everything it means to be a woman."

In 5 years, Kim has gone from "I just don't want people to be like, 'All she's good for is — you know — being naked," to her physical appearance being, " everything it means to be a woman."

Honestly, that's hard for me to read. Whether Kim Kardashian-West is more victim or master-media-manipulator, it remains true that every big moment in her life has been on account of her body. How could that not affect your self-worth?

What's even more tragic is that Kardashian-West is representative of girls and young women across the country. I don't just mean that she's their role model, I mean that her life runs parallel to theirs, only they have cheaper clothes.

Every day, images of women, teens, even preteens, are passed around from computer to computer, or cell phone to cell phone. Sometimes they are shared with their consent, sometimes without. Sometimes they're used to blackmail girls into sexual slavery, sometimes they're just used to humiliate them. Sometimes they're shared out of pride, but they always tell the same lie, the one that 2011 Kim feared: "All she's good for is being naked."

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