Raising a Daughter in a #KimKardashian World

Let me start out by saying – if this blog post contributes in anyway to “breaking the internet” for Kim Kardashian, I will slap myself.

It is truly crazy to me how much I analyze things now (even more so than before, if you can believe it) that I am a parent. Especially of a daughter. The rhetorician in me would have always analyzed (negatively, of course) Kim’s magazine cover…but now, on top of it being a rhetorical nightmare for women, I have to worry about explaining that shi*t to my kid – because she WILL see it (maybe not “it” as in this particular magazine cover, but there will be others…). Lord. I am not prude, but here we go.

As I scan my Facebook news feed and start thinking about how many times I have seen Kim Kardashians round, photoshopped ass – I get a little sick to my stomach. Not to mention, after her ass and about 30 parodies of her ass (thank the Lord for folk’s with a sense of humor) show up in my feed, I THEN have to see more pics of her further photoshopped entirely naked body. I never asked for it, but I had to digest it over and over and over…. And then I wonder – hum, how many young girls on Facebook are inadvertently seeing these photos on Facebook and thinking….THAT is what I should look like.

It hurts my heart. And it ENRAGES me.

AND THEN, I think. This woman is a mother. Not that being a mother all of a sudden makes you some kind of untouchable woman who is no longer allowed to make those kinds of decisions about how and when to show your body – but that despite raising a daughter who will 100% see those photos someday – she still did it. Like catching champagne in a glass on your gratuitously photoshopped ass is something you want your daughter to look up to you for. So much puke in the back of my throat right now.

But this is so systematic of what young girls see all the time. It is systematic of how our society puts women’s bodies on display like a circus act. It is our misguided perception of beauty. It is the idea that we must always submit to the male gaze. Did Mrs. West want to show off her “post-baby body” (a term I loathe)? Was she trying to show the world that her breasts are still desirable? Was she trying to make her husband look like a bad ass because he ‘owns’ that? I can’t think of one good reason that makes any sense in my head. Does she want her daughter to think that taking your clothes off in front of a camera, no matter how editorial, is something to strive for? That her body is something to be bought and sold? That her body is something to be viewed by consumers?

HELP ME PLEASE. I DON’T UNDERSTAND IT.

And, I will do everything in my power to soften the blow that things like this will surely have on my daughter. Thanks, Kim Kardashian, now I have to go and undo all the crap you just did. But hey, you look super happy with yourself – that pathetic, wide-eyed, brain-less, oil-drenched, face you are pulling just makes you seem so fulfilled as a woman and person. Good job.

<I will not insert a Kim Kardashian photo here>

Instead, here are a few photos of other women on magazine covers to look at.