Why You’ve Got It All Wrong About Kim Kardashian-West (circa 2016)
Foreword
Yes…I’m doing it. I’m going to attempt to do the impossible…I’m going to convince you hate Kim a little bit less. Keep in mind, I never said you’d like her, but if you keep an open mind & stick with me, you’ll at least know her better & understand the qualities, people such as myself, admire her for.
Who You Think Kim Kardashian-West is…
Fake, obnoxious, plastic, slut, whore, skank, ho, shallow, dumb, self-centered, talentless…these are all words you’re familiar with being associated with Kim Kardashian & wrongly so. Kim’s ode to fame is commonly & unfairly credited to her infamous leaked & sold sextape with ex-boyfriend & singer Ray-J. A sextape she knew was being recorded, but never knew or initially consented to having sold. Kim isn’t the first person to have private moments of intimacy exploited against her wishes, but is possibly the first to have so done on such a grand scale. The way releasing footage works is, as long as the person who’s recording a scenario signs over their rights & all persons in said footage are of legal age, all footage is fair game, whether the subject(s) of said footage agrees to it’s distribution or not. So basically Kim had 2 choices. 1) Pout & let the film come out, while receiving no money, since no legal action could be taken, or 2) Take it as a learning lesson on whom she should & shouldn’t trust romantically & receive the $5m she did, in which a portion of went to charity.
“It definitely puts you in a category that I would wish upon no one, your reputation is all that you have & if people pre-judge you over something that you did, that sticks with you a long time.” — Kim Kardashian (via The Tyra Banks Show, 2007)
Aside from her 2007 scandal, Kim is still often viewed as having a “promiscuous” or “slutty” nature for her level of comfort being nude & “self-centered” for her love of selfies & self promotion. People’s main argument is the fact that she’s already rich, famous & a mother, so she, more than anyone, should not be constantly putting her body on display for all the world to see, no matter the sum of money, digital likes or audience she can acquire from doing so. People are apparently concerned with what her daughter will think once she comes of an age of understanding.
Once again, these are all things you are conditioned to think you know about her, when there’s so much more to her than that…
Who Kim Kardashian-West Actually Is…
Kim Kardashian is actually famous for being the daughter of the late Robert Kardashian the lead lawyer in defense of his client & friend, OJ Simpson during the Nicole Brown murder trials. Robert died in 2003 of throat cancer, leaving behind his family & side business, Movie Tunes Inc. a music marketing company. Along with a large amount of inheritance, Kim inherited this company, managing it as one of her first business ventures, before selling it in 2007, to focus her energy on founding & managing a joint business venture D-A-S-H, a fashion & beauty boutique, with her sisters, Khloe & Kourtney, since they were constantly warned they couldn’t “live off the family dime” after the age of 18. Their boutique showcases & sells the stars’ favorite brands & trends, which they wear & heavily influence pop culture. Around the same time the Kardashian-Jenner family also agreed to a reality tv series, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, developed by mom & manager Kris Jenner & family friend, Ryan Seacrest…all before the sextape scandal. The show showcases the sisters’ hands-on development & management of their many business ventures, which include boutiques, cosmetics, cosmetic accessories, workout DVDs, ready-to-wear clothing lines, styling, and their latest venture mobile apps, which Kim recently mentioned her mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, earned her $80m. Doesn’t seem like many of these accomplishments & well-managed business ventures would be possible for someone “dumb” or “talentless”.
Why Kim Kardashian-West is Important
Generally speaking…women are regarded as the more mature & classy of the male & female genders, but in reality we’re equal. Guys commonly fly off the handle in a physical manner, while girls tend to fly off the handle in an emotional manner…neither is more or less mature than the other, yet it happens. Girls are generally competitive & petty. They usually want to one-up each other & have the higher regard & social status, through things like appearance, money, body image, etc. My theory as to why Kim is so widely-hated, yet so widely loved & lusted after, is because she awakens the fears all women have within themselves…Insecurity, shame & self-hate. I believe the core-reason most women hate Kim so strongly is because she’s inherited, earned & accomplished most things every girl wants in life & they can’t necessarily one-up that. She’s rich, famous, has a successful husband two beautiful kids & is 100% self confident in her physical beauty in any scenario, clothed or unclothed, makeup or no makeup.
Kim is hated because of her strength & sense of self-worth. Even in the periods when women commonly feel self conscious or ashamed of their bodies (before, during, or after pregnancy) she remains confident & proud in what some feel is an uncomfortably public manner. So in essence, the hate is actually flattery & admiration.
Kim’s power is in her beauty, status & platform of fame & influence.Things people will try to convince you are the aspects of her that are shallow & to be hated. What’s regarded to as Kim being a “slut” I call empowering, business savvy & financially smart. First of all, the term “slut” gets thrown around so casually, so often, is that really even a diss anymore? Kim has every right to pose nude if she wants, as well as post that to her accounts for her fans. People often complain that they don’t want to see it, she should quit, or that she’s a bad mother for it…Everyone has the option of blocking any & all content on their pc screen. If it’s in their face & they don’t follow her, it’s because an alternate source has went out of their way at some point to her profile to grab said content & post it. Not her fault. Who’s to dictate how one should celebrate their body? And what makes being proud of who you are in your natural form “slutty”? Kim celebrates her body the way she enjoys, the way that makes her feel good, the way her fans enjoy seeing her & if money comes as a result of that…so?! If she’s constantly naked in magazines, you know what that means? There’s high demand & a market for it! So really, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or your own hate-click to the content, the content is getting hits & some part of it falls back on you. Kim is a product of America’s lust & the digital-era’s obsession with perfection. I mean, seriously it doesn’t matter if she’s clothed or not, this woman has curves that can’t be hidden.
People who are concerned with what her daughter will think fail to realize something…Kim is an inspiration to curvy girls everywhere. When Kim models it’s contract modeling or print modeling, not runway. Kim would never be accepted in high-fashion in regards to runway, because according to the standards of that industry, she’s too short & what they’d consider “overweight”, so in that regard, she’s technically considered (even if barely) plus-size. Kim is a trailblazer for women of curves. Our digital-age Marilyn Monroe (another often nude beauty, whom is celebrated & immortalized, not slut-shamed). In celebrating herself, she’s celebrating everyone else of similar body form. Think about it…this body size wasn’t always popular.
Kim grew up in times where people like Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, Elle Macpherson & others who dominated runways with size0 to size3 waists were the norm & what was advertised to America as “sexy”. Her best friends were Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie, also popular 90s & early 2000s celebs with pencil-thin frames. In case you’re unsure of how genetics work, more often than not, girls typically will come close to inheriting the body type of their moms, the same way all of the Kardashian sisters have. That being said, North, more than likely will grow up & develop a body similar to that of her mom’s. So being that Kim’s body type has become the new standard for what’s “sexy”, because of promotion & lust through social media & the hip hop community, other trailblazers like Tyra Banks & Ashley Graham who are plus size models, or through her self promotion & self confidence, North will be proud. North will have her mom to thank for being a leader in popularizing a body-image that she will inherit & have to grow to love. Could there be a better gift than a mother making her daughter feel loved, comfortable & desirable in her own skin?
Then, there’s the topic of her butt. Is it real? Is it fake? I ask, who cares? McDonald’s food is fake, it’s still widely considered delicious & is the #1 fast food chain in the world. The really yummy, good looking syrup you see poured so perfectly over pancakes in commercials & ads is actually motor oil, cause it flows slower & looks more visually appealing, therefore giving the photographer more time to shoot the perfect shot, while wasting less product, does that make the real syrup any less satisfying or desirable? No. It doesn’t matter. America angers me with it’s ability to be so two-faced on so many matters. Any surgery affecting the appearance of your physical being is considered cosmetic. That being said, there’s a long standing stance on physical appearance as far as popular opinion in America goes. One second “Be proud of what God gave you!” the next “If you don’t like it, fix it, it’s your body!” or “FREE THE NIPPLE!” then “Ugh, Can Kim Kardashian PLEASE keep her clothes on?” CHOOSE ONE. Once again, who is to dictate the manner in which someone chooses to celebrate their own body & appearance? Not sure if it’s worth mentioning, but there is an episode of KUWTK where Kim gets her butt x-rayed & confirmed by a doctor to prove to the general public that no cosmetic surgery was done. Once again, you can believe it or not. My point is be hot or cold, there is no lukewarm. If you’re for it, great, you’re for people empowering themselves by whatever means they deem necessary. If you’re against it, you’re also against people getting braces to fix their smiles (which 1/3 of Americans do), lasik surgery to improve vision & surgeries that help transgender people to embark on a journey to be the person they know they were meant to be. So many people are judgmental of someone wanting a bigger bust or butt, but claim to be completely for someone undergoing extremely physical & invasive surgeries to transform the entirety of their being. Let’s let it be that person’s choice.
What Kim Has Taught Me
Finally, Kim has even taught me to be a little less judgmental & more accepting of girls’ body types. When I was a young kid I was brainwashed with these images & advertisements that were force-fed to everyone & branded as “sexy”, so with that in mind I grew up liking skinny girls. I remember being in middle school & for the first time being attracted to a curvy girl & I confided in a close friend at the time about said crush & he & another friend teased me, cause they said I was attracted to a “fat” girl. I’d even had the chance & considered dating her at one point, but I was so weak-minded back then that I cared about what others thought & let myself get bullied out of it, cause they’d secretly call her things like “Ms.Piggy” when we’d walk past her in the halls. I was so afraid of not fitting in & not dating someone who was traditionally skinny that I let it change my character as as far as what I considered attractive in women for years. And what’s really stupid is, that girl wasn’t & still isn’t “fat”, she’s still curvy, attractive & has an attractive personality. But people with my former friends’ mentalities are damaging. Luckily I grew up & learned to think for myself, but what if that ignorant train of thought permanently sticks with the next kid & now they grow up thinking anyone with a waste bigger than a size5 or boobs bigger than a c-cup is “fat”? Not only that, but that also says to young girls as well that they’re not attractive or desirable. I mean I can’t even imagine what that person thought of me totally flirting & infatuated with them one second, to basically ghosting them & dating skinnier girls like my friends, like a follower. Then, as mentioned before, people like Ashley Graham, Kim Kardashian-West & Tyra Banks, came along, championing bigger body types & making it acceptable for girls to be themselves no matter what size. These are the things Kim helps fight for, but no one wants to talk about, cause it’s more popular & gets more ‘likes’ to dilute her character. I applaud her for everything she’s done for women & for helping change my mindset, to where I now appreciate women with curves & was celebrated for having a (now, ex) girlfriend with thighs, hips & a big butt. Things like that weren’t so easy before. Kim is a valuable celebrity to have our day & age for her empowerment of women. For women, you should celebrate her for celebrating you.
STORY BY: Trevor Thompson (@interwebTREV)
