Kim K Broke the Internet

Kim K Broke the Internet 

*This post contains semi nude photos*

As I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed, I was bombarded by images of Kim Kardashian and her naked behind. Although, not shocking, it is so pervasive right now that I feel the need to 'talk' about it. 

Kim appears on the cover of Paper Magazine (has anyone else never heard of this before today?) with the caption "Break the Internet Kim Kardashian". This made me think, what counts as 'breaking the internet'? So I Googled it... some answers included when Beyonce dropped her surprise album last year, and the recent #AlexFromTarget Twitter phenomenon. I guess breaking the Internet in this sense means having a huge influx in traffic or going viral that disables a certain website?

This clear social media obsession made me think of Chia's study, “How Media Contribute to Misperceptions of Social Norms About Sex” which found that, “students tend to overestimate the sexual permissiveness of their peers students,” and that “students form erroneous impressions of peers partly according to their estimates of media influence on peers and their own attitudes (Chia 2006). It is impossible right now to go on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram without seeing mention of this image. Even if you had a clear mission to avoid it at all costs (which I now do) it would be near impossible. This infatuation with the image of a sexualized woman is clear and easy to see how college students bombarded with other images of the like may assume that sex is more pervasive than it is in reality. 

This second shot, is the alternate cover which is the one that has caused the Internet sensation. 

“For our winter issue, we gave ourselves one assignment: Break The Internet,”wrote Paper. “There is no other person that we can think of who is up to the task than one Kim Kardashian West. A pop culture fascination able to generate headlines just by leaving her house, Kim is what makes the web tick.” - Editor of Paper 

Throughout her career Kim has been depicted as a sex symbol. She is beautiful, voluptuous, curvy, often wears promiscuous clothing, and leads an outwardly glamorous lifestyle. 

Kim is rarely regarded for this wide range of positive aspects, whether you like it or not she does have a few (animal rights activist, author, beauty mogul, business woman) but she is depicted primarily as sex symbol. In many ways her celebrity is centrally focused around her perceived promiscuity. This brings me to Ferguson’s findings that when the stereotype of promiscuity is activated individuals perceive a victim of sexual harassment as less traumatized and more responsible for the event (Ferguson, 2005).  Kim's portrayal in the media is very much based on the principal 'sex sells'. However none of us really know how Kim conducts herself in her personal sexual encounters. After all she is a new mother and wife. 

The choice of Kim K showing her behind isn't all that surprising or even shocking to me. After all her major claim to fame was a sex tape in 2007. Since then she has posed for many naked photo shoots. Additionally 2014 has been a year filled with booty, as one of my early blog posts touched upon (just think 'Anaconda'). In fact Bill Maher has deemed millennials as "generation ass". 

 This lead me to consider the results Aubrey and Taylor’s article concluded  that men who saw a photo of a woman alone were more self conscious than those who didn’t (Aubrey 2009). Pictures of beautiful, successful women such as Kim and Nikki could replicate this effect causing men to feel inadequate. 
 I took to social media once again to gauge how people were reacting to this. It was curious to see that these images have gotten a wide range of reactions from both men and women ...

However, my favorite reaction by far came from actress and comedian Tina Fey. 

 "But I think the first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty...And then, what felt like moments later, boom—Beyoncé brought the leg meat...And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful. No. I’m totally messing with you...Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes." - Tina Fey 

I thought that this was a really truthful, witty, and a socially responsible interpretation. No matter how you may feel about this particular incident, it is clear that images like this are not going anywhere anytime soon. What does this mean for the young men and women who are growing up and learning and exploring about themselves and their sexuality in a culture that is obsessed with the objectification and sexualization of the female body? 

Cheers to drinking champagne the old fashioned way, with a glass in my hand, not on my a**.

Bibliography 

Aubrey, J. S., & Taylor, L. D. (2009). The Role of Lad Magazines in Priming Men’s 

Chronic and Temporary Appearance‐Related Schemata: An Investigation of 

Longitudinal and Experimental Findings. Human Communication Research, 35(1), 

28-58.

Chia, S. C., & Gunther, A. C. (2006). How media contribute to misperceptions of social norms about sex. Mass Communication & Society, 9(3), 301-320.

Ferguson, T., Berlin, J., Noles, E., Johnson, J., Reed, W., & Spicer, C. V. (2005).    

Variation in the application of    the “promiscuous female” stereotype and the nature  

of the application domain: Influences on sexual harassment judgments after  

exposure to the Jerry Springer Show. Sex roles, 52(7-8), 477-487.