Why Social Media Cares About Kim Kardashian's Weight Gain
It's not that people are making fun of Kim Kardashian and her healthy pregnancy weight gain. It's that people don't believe any of it is true.
Thanks to social media, Kim has become a media force to reckon with. She is unbelievably powerful because people have paid attention to her during a cultural era where a person's attention is the ultimate commerce. For one reason or another, generally speaking, people are interested in what she is doing at any given time. In doing so, the notoriously famous-for-doing-nothing family has grown very successful. It may have all started with a sex tape, but somewhere along the way, her torrid affairs turned into a story worth turning in for.
And that "somehwere along the way" is simply one place: social media.
Social media has made it easy for Kim to pump out content in quick and real ways. Social media has allowed this pretty girl to post more images, behind-the-scene photo's and images of her own behind than ever thought possible. And then, somewhere along the way, all her stories started turning into planned media opportunities. All the rich believable exclusive content turned into one paid endorsement after another. It quickly got the point where she didn't have a point and all people knew was that she got paid. To do anything.
And then she was pregnant.
Why would her carefully crafted rules for social engagement change just because her body is changing? Why should her fans (both positive and negative) all of a sudden have to cover up their feelings when she can't even seem to cover up her swollen belly? Then, of course, there are other questions that need to be asked. Is she getting paid to gain weight? Will she get paid to lose it? Did she get paid to have a baby? Will she get paid to abuse that privilege? These are all valid questions from an audience who spent so much of their valuable time to support her popularity in the first place. To act like these ideas can thrive separately is not fair.
Kim Kardashian makes money off her actions; including regular old actions like going to the gym or shopping for toothpaste or extraordinary actions like having a baby.
For my longtime feminist hero, Gloria Steinem to say that our bodies are never public property is not fair IN THE CASE either. Kim Kardashian has treated her body -- and all female bodies -- in a way that damages and belittle women as a group. To ignore that is ignorant. And furthermore, for Gloria to say that it's not acceptable to shame a woman when she's pregnant is not acceptable IN THIS CASE. Kim decided to shame herself when she filed the sex tape and quite frankly, when she wore these see-through pants.
The real people hurt in this is not the celebrity who will be paid to gain and paid to lose. It will be the new mom who doesn't have the always-on support system to help her through those moments of panic and anxiety that are sure to come. It will be the mom who berets herself for not gaining enough, gaining too much and otherwise not being happy with her pre-, post- and during pregnancy body. It will be the working mom who returns to work before her body is ready and it will be the stay at home mom who needs more emotional support as she battles to find her own identity. It will be women everywhere that question if they should do it, can do it or even want to do it. This mostly affects the regular women who do something extraordinary every day. For those reasons, I agree with Gloria. As a group, women need to do a better job of supporting each other.
Thanks to social media, Kim has become a media force to reckon with. She is unbelievably powerful because people have paid attention to her during a cultural era where a person's attention is the ultimate commerce. For one reason or another, generally speaking, people are interested in what she is doing at any given time. In doing so, the notoriously famous-for-doing-nothing family has grown very successful. It may have all started with a sex tape, but somewhere along the way, her torrid affairs turned into a story worth turning in for.
And that "somehwere along the way" is simply one place: social media.
Social media has made it easy for Kim to pump out content in quick and real ways. Social media has allowed this pretty girl to post more images, behind-the-scene photo's and images of her own behind than ever thought possible. And then, somewhere along the way, all her stories started turning into planned media opportunities. All the rich believable exclusive content turned into one paid endorsement after another. It quickly got the point where she didn't have a point and all people knew was that she got paid. To do anything.
And then she was pregnant.
Why would her carefully crafted rules for social engagement change just because her body is changing? Why should her fans (both positive and negative) all of a sudden have to cover up their feelings when she can't even seem to cover up her swollen belly? Then, of course, there are other questions that need to be asked. Is she getting paid to gain weight? Will she get paid to lose it? Did she get paid to have a baby? Will she get paid to abuse that privilege? These are all valid questions from an audience who spent so much of their valuable time to support her popularity in the first place. To act like these ideas can thrive separately is not fair.
Kim Kardashian makes money off her actions; including regular old actions like going to the gym or shopping for toothpaste or extraordinary actions like having a baby.
For my longtime feminist hero, Gloria Steinem to say that our bodies are never public property is not fair IN THE CASE either. Kim Kardashian has treated her body -- and all female bodies -- in a way that damages and belittle women as a group. To ignore that is ignorant. And furthermore, for Gloria to say that it's not acceptable to shame a woman when she's pregnant is not acceptable IN THIS CASE. Kim decided to shame herself when she filed the sex tape and quite frankly, when she wore these see-through pants.The real people hurt in this is not the celebrity who will be paid to gain and paid to lose. It will be the new mom who doesn't have the always-on support system to help her through those moments of panic and anxiety that are sure to come. It will be the mom who berets herself for not gaining enough, gaining too much and otherwise not being happy with her pre-, post- and during pregnancy body. It will be the working mom who returns to work before her body is ready and it will be the stay at home mom who needs more emotional support as she battles to find her own identity. It will be women everywhere that question if they should do it, can do it or even want to do it. This mostly affects the regular women who do something extraordinary every day. For those reasons, I agree with Gloria. As a group, women need to do a better job of supporting each other.
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