entertainment

Kim Kardashian posts a new naked selfie. And this time, she brought a (very beautiful) friend.

 

With middle fingers held aloft, Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski are making a statement.

I’m just not quite sure what it is.

In what looks like a public bathroom, the two women divested themselves of their tops, gave the finger, and snapped a mirror selfie for posterity.

Kardashian wrote, “When we’re like…we both have nothing to wear LOL,” and Ratajkowski also posted the picture, with the comment: “We are more than just our bodies, but that doesn’t mean we have to be shamed for them or our sexuality. #liberated.”

When we’re like…we both have nothing to wear LOL @emrata

A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Mar 30, 2016 at 11:57am PDT

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Ratajkowski, a model and actress best known for that Robin Thick Blurred Lines video, previously came to Kardashian’s defense when she was under fire for another nude selfie.

She posted a naked picture of herself and wrote, “Love when a man comments on a woman’s decision to post a nude photo. Her body, her career. Sexist bullshit.”

Kardashian sent her flowers and a thank-you card for her nude solidarity.

Here’s Kim Kardashian talking about her husband and daughter… Post continues after video.

What both abled, conventionally attractive women don’t seem to grasp is that by posting flattering pictures of their perfect naked bodies (and then being indignant when not everybody is supportive of it) to social media they’re sending the message to women and especially young girls that being happy within yourself and your body depends upon the praise and approval of other people — mostly men.

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You could argue that Kim Kardashian already killed the word “empowerment”, robbing it of any meaning as she uses it to justify anything she feels like doing.

Emily Ratajkowski’s nude solidarity. Image via Instagram.

“I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin. I am empowered by showing the world my flaws and not being afraid of what anyone is going to say about me. And I hope that through this platform I have been given, I can encourage the same empowerment for girls and women all over the world,” she wrote in an essay about that previous, infamous naked selfie.

Of course, to access that essay, you would have to pay for a subscription to Kim Kardashian’s personal website. Kardashian profits from her naked form and her sexuality. A teenage girl who decided she felt similarly empowered in her body and posted a naked photograph of herself to Instagram? She would not profit, not now and definitely not into the future.

The selfie that caused the furore. Image via Instagram.

Girls who grow up bombarded with sexualised imagery and extremely narrow ideals of femininity are going to have a tough time feeling empowered when they feel their only value lies in their appearance.

Men don’t post naked pictures of themselves, telling the world it makes them feel “empowered”. They simply are powerful. We’ll truly be equal when women don’t feel the need to perform sexually for the approval of others.