I'm with Kim on this one

International Women’s Day is an annual celebration of womens' social, political and economic achievements. Naturally, Kim Kardashian recognized this day by posting a nude selfie on Instagram. We should expect nothing less of Kim. This is her role, the job we have all collectively assigned her and she is going to keep doing it until we stop watching. It was just Kim being Kim, which is exactly what she gets paid (obscene amounts) to do.

To be clear: I am no great fan of Kim Kardashian. For all her time in the limelight, she hasn’t said much of consequence. She’s mostly used her own tautological celebrity as a platform to promote herself and her friends. Granted, she’s built herself into a powerful and lucrative brand. But I think that says more about her mother’s ruthless marketing chops and society’s weird priorities than it does about Kim’s business acumen. Her continued relevancy is largely the result of her association with other celebrities: OJ Simpson, Paris Hilton, Ray J, and now Caitlyn Jenner, Kendall Jenner, Kanye West. She’s also very beautiful. But it’s my general feeling that someone who believes themselves to be the most interesting thing in the world is almost certainly a boring person, and Kim is a shining, shellacked example of that.

So it’s not like I was tearfully slow clapping her nude selfies last week. But I was dismayed by the backlash they got. It came from some unexpected places: Chloe Grace Moretz (one of the most exciting young actresses around right now) tweeted “I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than just our bodies.” Pink, who I admire, also took to Twitter encouraging women to rely on their brains and talent, “It may not ever bring you as much ‘attention’ or bank notes as using your body, your sex, your tits and asses, but women like you don’t need that kind of ‘attention.’”. And Piers Morgan decided that his thoughts on this topic were so essential they merited a whole Daily Mail article. He wrote:

“I found it all a bit depressing, Kim’s 35 now, and the mother of two very young children. She still looks fantastic, and of course has every right to post as many naked pictures as she likes. It’s her body, her life. But it’s hard to escape the creeping suspicion that this new frenzied and frankly rather desperate attempt to ‘break the internet’ is happening because other younger members of her family have been grabbing at all the scantily-clad attention recently, notably half-sister 20-year-old Kendall ‘Instagram Queen’ Jenner. Every super model, movie and pop sex symbol (with the exception of the increasingly grotesque and embarrassing Madonna) knows there comes a time when you have to hand the baton onto the next generation, however reluctantly.”

That was the passage that sent me shuffling grudgingly over to Team Kim. Pink and Moretz were arguing that women who promote their sexuality can’t be good role models (which I disagree with, but fine). Morgan is implying something far more abhorrent: once a woman is past a certain age, and a mother, her sexuality becomes something shameful. He seems to be saying that women only show their bodies out of insecurity. And that insecurity is acceptable in a childless 20-year-old. For a 35-year-old, it’s “frenzied and desperate.” In a 57-year-old, “Grotesque and embarrassing.” Piers Morgan, who is in his fifties himself, seems to suggest that “scantily clad” is exclusively the purview of current and recent teenagers. To sexualize a woman not yet old enough to legally drink is just standard industry practice. To sexualize a woman in her 30s is “depressing.”

I’m sure he’d prefer we interpret his words as something like “Come on, Kim, don’t advertise yourself as some bimbo sex object. You’re so much more than that!” But his subtext is much more sinister. Saying a woman shouldn’t post nude selfies because she’s married, or a mother, or over thirty, etc. is akin to archaic religious laws exerting control over women by insisting they dress in accordance with their sexual or marital status. In this system, the patriarchy decides when a woman becomes desirable, when she stops being desirable, and when her desirability belongs to her husband. Which may seem like an extreme comparison, but where else did Piers Morgan get the idea that he has the right to make sweeping claims about when women must “pass the baton”?

In conclusion, do I love that Kim Kardashian celebrated International Women’s Day by celebrating herself? No. But I will defend to the death her right to do it.