There are many things I’ll never have in common with Kim Kardashian West.
For starters, she drives a Ferrari, while I catch the bus. She has her own iconic reality television show, while I have Instagram Stories. She has millions of dollars in the bank and I have a bowl of spare coins at my front door. She has a love of nude selfies, whereas I spend large periods of my days dreaming of how great living a life in a slightly more chic version of a nun’s habit would be.
But, in a turn I didn’t expect this week, it just so happens that we have one major thing in common other than a love of Kanye West, and it’s cellulite.
Or, more specifically, bum cellulite.
Released around the world on Tuesday were images of the 36-year-old on holiday in Mexico with her older sister Kourtney Kardashian, and in them, we see Kardashian West loudly and proudly displaying her “flawed” behind (Piers Morgan’s description of her assets, not mine), wearing a g-string bikini bottom and smiling gleefully towards the cameras.
(Mamamia does not publish paparazzi images. As such, those wishing to look can find the photos here.)
And while it’s not known if Kardashian West staged the paparazzi photos, it’s clear she knew about the photographer’s presence and that she was more than okay with it because in some images she can be seen looking directly into the lens and smiling.
And for someone who has built an empire on her flawlessness and unattainable beauty, this is a big deal. It marks a new era in the public entity that is Kim Kardashian West.
Listen: Of all the Kardashian shows out there, The Binge has a big problem with this one. Post continues…
Since being released, countless media outlets have attached shameful headlines to the pictures and many a social commentator has had their say on what we should think.
Discussing the images on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, host Susanna Reid said, ““I think we should celebrate cellulite, it’s a fact of life for, I’d say, 90 percent of women.”
But the show’s guest, Piers Morgan did not agree.
“Why would we celebrate it? We put up with it, tolerate it, but not accept it,” Morgan said. “Flaws should not be celebrated.”
Messages like these are common to women. We are constantly reminded that if are not perfect, we should cover up, be quiet and apologise when and where necessary. We should not, as Morgan and society more broadly would like to remind us, be seen to be animated, happy with our lives, enjoying our bodies and what they offer us, or unapologetically flaunting said imperfections.
But it’s precisely because of this exhausted and hateful rhetoric that we needed to see these pictures so badly.
Back in 2008, while Kardashian West still had just one surname and was in the early stages of making her rise to fame, Paris Hilton famously described her then best friend‘s bum as “gross,” adding, “It reminds me of cottage cheese inside a big trash bag.”
Clearly, Hilton’s words cut deep because within months Kardashian was slimmer, more toned than ever and devoid of all cellulite.
In the years that followed, Kardashian West frequently talked about her gruelling workout sessions and promoted diets. After giving birth to her two children, the tech mogul spoke candidly about feeling the pressure to get back her pre-baby body and put those who had body shamed her in their place.
Top Comments
I have nothing against the Kardashians - not my thing, but if you're into them, cool. But I am just sooooooooo sick of seeing pictures of her bloody backside everywhere. Actually, not just hers. Bums in general. I know they're 'in' at the moment, and I'm all for loving your body and empowerment blah blah blah. But enough of the bums pics. Especially the ones where they have a wedgie.
Well observed JadeB. I do wonder whether they realise not only the effects they have on those that become slaves to their social media posts & the effects that their constant changes of heart have, of how they think they are projecting their image onto vulnerable young women. It is often contradictory, & hypocritical as they are wanting to control their own images but when they do get caught out a la naturelle, Kardashian-West acts like its no big deal. Yes she maybe 9 years older & wiser, but is she truly aware of the affects her "brand" has on young minds, & the truth of what she is really all about. This is questionable at best, therein lies may be the problem with having your own self image as a "brand," it can be problematic as we age or change. You're right, those fillers are ridiculously big & they look silly it seems strange that she has a huge ass in contrast to the rest of her body, it seems strange that the rest of the world is busily trying to lose theirs, yet Kardashian-West has artificially made hers disproportionately bigger but then in most of the pictures that she posts she insists on altering every image that is posted. This is clearly why people are passing comments, because she wants to have it both ways. ummm.