Kim Kardashian has never been known for being modest. Before her pregnancy, the reality television star loved to flaunt her curves, not to mention that she began her career in a porn film (not that there's anything wrong with that). After the birth of her daughter, she wanted to prove to the world that she had her figure back, so there was that infamous belfie (butt-selfie) that took the social media world by storm.
At the time, what bothered me the most was all the backlash that came at her for posing provocatively now that she was a mother. The outrage that Kardashian should dare present herself as sexy after taking on the role of saintly mother--how dare she!
Umm, as far as I know, the Kanye baby was not a virgin birth. The woman had sex; that's how babies are made. Why should she change herself all of a sudden because she's a mother? Moms can be sexy, too.
So as Kardashian continued her social media barrage of workout selfies to document her baby weight loss and to show the critics how she can still be rocking a bikini, I felt proud.
Way to fight the fight for moms everywhere! Look! We can still feel sexy and proud of how we look and feel. We are all beautiful!
And then, this. Her latest selfies with her friend Blac Chyna seem to show Photoshop manipulation to make her appear a more "ideal" shape. Now we see that the reality of Kardashian's figure is just about as real as her reality television show.
Really, celebrity people? Even in your snapshots you have to look good?
Like you don't have enough advantage to looking beautiful already over us mere mortals with your hairdressers, makeup artists and image consultants?
So instead of posting snaps where you could inspire millions of women to love themselves the way they are by showing how you actually look, you're going to try to weasel us into thinking we need to look like you? But you don't even look the way you really do?!
Kardashian said, "Everyone was really not the nicest with me when I was pregnant and you lose sight for a second, like, "Wait, what if I never get my body back to normal again?"
First of all, what is "normal"? How many women get their bodies back to what they looked like before giving birth to a human being? Why should there be any pressure to looking the way you looked before? You are older (and hopefully wiser).
Yes, of course, work out, eat right, live healthy, take care of yourself, but just to look the way you used to define normal? Why not strive for a new normal?
"I always worked out, but it was a challenge for me. And so because I stuck through with it, I was so proud of myself for doing that, that it really upset me when people would always try and make it into something else of why I lost the weight."
So basically Kardashian has been caught again in her own lies. Instead of being honest and saying, "Hey! Look at this photo of me! Aren't I rocking and beautiful? Yeah, I have a few more pounds and curves, but I have a baby! I love myself just the way I am! And you should too, ladies!"
What an inspiration Kardashian could be! By sharing photos where she doesn't have a perfect hourglass figure, she could show other moms struggling with loving their post-baby bodies that while it's normal to feel that way, as women we should come together to find ways to love ourselves just the way we are--regardless if we choose to spend hours of our lives sweating it out.
Kardashian could use her celebrity status to make women actually feel like it's okay to love themselves regardless of what their bodies look like. She could use her position and notoriety to show what she's learned, to help other women struggling with body image issues.
But instead, she's photoshopping herself into the place she's already carved out for herself.
Kardashian continues to perpetuate the beauty myth that we can't be beautiful or accepted until we fit an ideal, until we can be perfect. She perpetuates women's feelings of inadequacy all for stroking her own ego.
How can women break free of the illusion that our self-worth is based on what we look like when we're constantly presented with perfected images? We need women to lead the way for us. We need strong women to show us what being beautiful really is all about.