During Kim Kardashian’s semi-nude photo controversy a few weeks ago, Ariel Winter was one of the celebrities publicly defending Kim. Kim managed to change the narrative from “Kim posted another body-exposing photo, for attention” to “Kim is empowered by her body.” I did believe that some people were body-policing Kim, and I also believed that it was difficult for many people to admit that Kim sort of had a point because so many people dislike her so much. In any case, Ariel Winter defended Kim, and Kim sent her flowers and a hand-written note as a thank you. While Ariel was in Australia this week, she did a radio interview and she was asked about the whole incident. She was still really nice about Kim.
She thinks Kim is promoting body positivity: “I think she’s promoting body positivity. You know, young girls being able to express that they don’t have a stick-thin body – they’re curvy… Stick-thin bodies are amazing, you know, those girls are amazing too but I think that everybody’s body would be celebrated no matter what it is and I think that it’s great that she’s so comfortable with herself and that she’s able to post out there what she wants to and post and if she wants to post a nude selfie, she can.”
The double standard between men & women posting photos: “We’re not able to do the exact same thing and I think it’s really upsetting to be in an industry where that’s happening, so I really decided to stand up for her because I thought it was so ridiculous. If somebody doesn’t like the post, they can unfollow them. There’s no reason to go on and publicly bash them and I think, you know, she’s promoting body positivity instead of being a bad role model.”
I understand what Ariel is saying, and I do think we sometimes miss the fact that younger women (pre-teens and teenagers) are looking at women like Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Ashley Graham, Christina Hendricks and more as examples of body-positive curvy women. Hell, I’m curvy too, and I look at those women to see how they own their bodies, how they dress and style their curves, and what sort of reactions their bodies get online and in society at large. While Kim is a problematic example of body-positivity overall, I think Ariel’s point still stands: “everybody’s body would be celebrated no matter what it is.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
People are using Kim’s obsession with selfies for all the worng reasons. She is self obsessed. She doesn’t promote anything else than that.
Exactly. Plus her body is 80% fake, so how is that a postive body image?
^^This^^. How is it promoting body positivity when ever square centimeter of your body is jacked, botoxed, inflated, smoothed, shaved, lasered or whatever can be done to it to change how you originally looked? Not that she can’t do it. It is her right. But don’t shove a “love your body” message down my throat when she’s done everything possible to obliterate her body.
She’s part of the reason why Brazilian butt lifts and other surgical enhancements are gaining so much popularity.
And yes, I absolutely know that some women are naturally built with a tiny waist and large booty but Kim is not one of them. So she’s promoting a body type that many young women are aspiring to have via plastic surgery. I just can’t applaud that.
Precisely. She seems to be deeply unhappy with her body to the extent of undertaking major surgery every few months. That is not a positive message. In fact it underscores the need for “perfection” or whatever that bullshit construct implies in the mind of girls and women today.
Seeing a picture of KK from the mid 2000s next to a picture of her from today and I would have trouble telling they were actually relatives let alone the same person.
Ariel: “I think she’s promoting body positivity.”
Me: I think you’re stupid. And Kim, Kim’s stupid too.
Kim is promoting plastic, which is polluting our world. It’s fake and causes health issues (read Ariel’s delusional mind), we need to get rid of plastic, let’s start with Kim. No recycling, (I don’t want variations of Kim) that’s bad for us too.
Exactly! She has distorted her body and face to the extent that she looks pitifully plastic. This is not body positivity. She has no talent, no education, no skills and is not a role model for anything except fame-seeking attention-wh-ring. Enough.
Agree with all of you.Now some people,including Kim herself,is trying to be the voice of female empowerment.Ridiculous.
This. She promotes herself. That’s it.
I think the thing that is missing from this conversation is what teen girls are going through in regards to nude photos. They are now being pressured to take “noodz”, and send them to boys. If they don’t, they face negative consequences (targeted for ridicule, fake nudes being sent claiming it’s them, etc). They might feel uncomfortable with it, but are told it’s no big deal. The boys trade them with each other like baseball cards. They set up websites that have pictures of girls in their area.
In light of what teens are facing, is it good for Kardashian to spread the message of “it’s no big deal, it’s like empowering”? Shouldn’t we also have someone promoting the idea that it’s ok not to take nudes, it doesn’t mean you’re a prude?
There was a news story in the press recently about how sexting is leading to a massive surge in mental health and body image issues in children and teens, with even some 8 year olds being pressurised into sexting their boyfriends.
It makes me sad that girls are STILL taking their clothes off and sending their peers pics because of pressure by guys. It’s something that’s been a constant for the last 10 years and for some reason I thought this “girl power” teen generation would fly a middle finger at each other, and stop the ridiculously insane and outdated game. That’s sad they learned nothing and have to learn hard lessons.
Your observations plus 10000. Thanks for pointing out that the tween/teen girl faces real world consequences for engaging in this type of behavior, and it’s usually not ” celebrating curves”. Should that be the case? No, but as it stands now, that is the sad truth of the matter.
Those are definitely problems (although, teens face awful, unfair problems if they don’t sext and if they do- like teen couples basically being treated liked pedophiles for the pictures they choose to take of their own bodies.) I’m all for teaching that there’s nothing wrong with not sexting and that it doesn’t make someone a prude, but I don’t think teaching teens that it’s not okay for ANYONE to take nude photos either, or that the answer to not wanting children to do something should automatically be society banning it for adults to. Doing that would only encourage the sexual bullying and misogynistic responses that are popular whenever people’s nudey-type photos get hacked and puts the shame and blame on people doing a consensual sexual thing instead of on the people doing the stealing and the sharing of other people’s nudes without their consent.
I agree Otaku Fairy, that society shouldn’t ban adults from doing it. I am not suggesting anything like that. However, I do think people were shut down for anything less than a celebratory reaction to her photos, though. Chloe Grace Moretz, for example, didn’t say anything negative about Kim’s body, she just said think about the consequences of this kind of message for the large numbers of teens that follow you. And she was put down as a body/slut-shammer. Bette’s reaction was just an “again?” joke, and she was attacked.
I think by attacking anything less than a positive reaction to these photos, it sets up a standard that they are above reproach. That noodz are a form of empowerment and if you question it, you aren’t supporting women.
I have strong feelings for the right of females(or any human) to take photos of themselves and share them with who they want to. I think the celeb photo hack was a horrible sexual crime. At the same time, I also think that tweens and teens being pressured against their will to share images of themselves is also a sexual crime, and it is one that is being committed against far too many girls without consequences. As Kimbers notes above, it has been happening for YEARS now, and no one is addressing it.
@Tiffany: I disagree about Chloe Grace Moretz (nude photos in and of themselves aren’t setting a bad example to teens whether it’s Justin Bieber or Kim K doing it. Male privilege just protects the Justins, Johnnys, Jareds, and Adams of this world from having the “Won’t somebody please think of the children” card thrown at them when they want to take their clothes off in an attention-seeking photoshoot), even though Chloe’s comment wasn’t nearly as bad or hypocritical as Pink’s. But I had no problem with Bette Midler’s comment at all, and definitely agree with the rest of your comment.
I think the difference is that tween/teen boys aren’t being pressured by girls to share naked pictures of themselves. This is a trend that is focused on young girls. The power dynamic is really pronounced, with photos of boys being fully clothed and participating in accomplishments; girls have to be naked and posing for sexual approval.
When a guy posts a shirtless selfie, they do it with a sense of agency over their body and how it is shared.
I don’t think Kim has any obligation to not take and share naked photos of herself. I do think, however, that if she was a considerate person, she might acknowledge what is happening with teens. I just wish someone with some influence would stand up for these girls because this trend has been victimizing girls every single day for years.
Thank you, someone really understand. May I add that there is nothing wrong with nudity whether man or woman, as long as it’s for a reason that make since. This woman does nothing but make a career out of sex and nudity, and people have become sick of it. This is another reason why people will continue to throw the sex tape in her face. I am not saying she should continue to be thrown under the bus with shame. She need to admit I made a poor choice and try to live life differently. We have young females and males that watch this mess. She is a mother now and acting like a teenager. Kim does not try to focus on other things to really build a solid career on as well as for her kids to be proud of. Even though mothers can get nude and be sexy too there is a limit with all that. The End
Who says young guys are not pressured into nudes? Or at least making the mistake of sending them? Boys don’t just send pics of their chests. There are guys sending d*ck pics, and the consequences impact them as well. However in the media grown male bodies are viewed differently from women @OTAKU FAIRY has got that right.
Exactly!
Exactly. She is not promotinganything apart from herself. It would be an entirely different thing if she actually was comfortable with her body. The extent of photoshopping and plastic surgery behind every photo speaks to the contrary. I am all for all us women from all walks of life celebrating our bodies, but I do not see Kim being one of them. She became famous by exploiding her body, so it’s a complitely different thing than celebrating your body. All it says to younger generation of women is that you can succeed in life by being sexy and objectified. She is so obssesed with nude selfies because it is the only way she knows how to stay relevant
*Sigh* I though you were the smart Dunphy, Alex!!
Another child left behind.
Right?!?!
LOL!
Oh good god. Please. Sit the F down. For the millionth time this was not about empowerment or embracing curvier bodies, but a way for Kim -once again- to get attention and validation by using her naked body to do so. It’s a cheap trick and these women are fighting for the wrong cause. Kim
Is not some women’s rights/ body empowerment superhero. Oh and let’s not forget this woman’s (Kim) body isn’t even naturally like this. So what are we promoting? A woman with so little self esteem she needs to constantly modify her own body (and then deny she has even done so) and get naked for attention? Ok. So many flaws in this way of thinking.
If she were truly promoting body positivity she would not be covering up her body with the large coats she wears. She would also not wait to debut her body until it was “perfect” (in her eyes).
If she was so empowered and wanted to empower others, she wouldn’t be posting pics from before her last baby as if they were current shots. ….. she wants to encourage us, show is a pic of her now. Bumps and all and so hiding under 3 pairs of spanx and coats until she can unveil the post baby body 100k in surgeries bought her.
Why do they keep talking about the double standard when it comes to nudes? Guys who constantly post noods are creepy.
Question (and not being snarky) is: How many men out there feel they have to post near-nudes or nudes on a consistent basis as Kim does (or Miley – not as often now but did)?
How many congressmen lose their jobs when they do it, though.
There is definitely a veil of shame over the male body, much more so than their is over a woman’s body. If anything, a woman’s body is too easily commercialized and commoditized, not marginalized.
@Heather, women have lost their jobs because of posting semi-nude and nude pictures also.
if kanye posted the same pics as his wife he’d already be institutionalized.
Lol. True. The world would think he was a skeevy perv.
LOL, that would be awesome. I might actually respect Kanye if he did that in support of his wife.
When male celebrities take their clothes off (whether in magazines, selfies, or album covers) there’s little to no controversy. People will comment on his sex appeal or lack thereof, maybe call him an attention-seeker, and be done with it. Whenever a woman celebrity does it. it becomes this drama of “Won’t somebody please think of the children”, “The woman’s movement has been set back 80,000 years by this immodesty,” “No True Feminist”, “That’s something intimate she could be saving for someone special/private, how sad” (yet no talk about what Justin Bieber and Adam Levine haven’t ‘saved for their wives/future wives. Hmmm), a few derogatory sexist slurs, and false dichotomies. It doesn’t get left at just “Wow, what an attention-seeker” or “weird” like it does for the guys. But for regular people who’s nude photos get hacked, the punishments (and I don’t think there should be any for any gender) may be more equal, except the women may be called things the men aren’t.
+1
Yeah, that’s what she’s promoting. That’s what all narcissists are promoting, right?
Spot on!
Actually, Kim promotes narcissism and plastic surgery.
But….Kim isn’t comfortable in her own body. Even before kids, she complained about her weight and she shoves herself in spanx and leggings and butt converting jackets. And we all know she’ll have a doctor fix those things, so she can get back to posting new butt naked selfies and claiming she’s liberated instead of bought and paid for. I don’t think this message is “body positive” at all.
“Stick-thin bodies are amazing”
Does this woman not understand the irony in that statement? Saying something is “amazing” does not negate its insulting description. If I tell my local coffee shop that my bland coffee and stale croissant were amazing, I doubt he’ll be pleased.
You read the script well Ariel, check is in the mail. BTW having a curvy body and posting nude shots of that curvy body on a regular are two different animals…..I think we covered it all a thousand times. NOT SHAMING…..but isn’t it a shame so many people are obsessed with Kim flipping Kardashian with all of the positive female role models in the world.
For Ariel Winter I don’t think it’s a matter of being on Kim K’s payroll. She speaks up about stuff like this regularly.
I was being satirical but wouldn’t put anything past the Kardashian family. Ariel is speaking up for her, but is in the same playing field as Kim, so those who feel as I do about the Kardashians won’t really care about her opinion.
Ariel has had some issues of her own with this, and I do see where she is trying to go, but championing Kim isn’t the way to do it. I think Leo D should be applauding Kim for doing her part by using much of the world’s plastic on herself.
She is so wrong.
How is torturing your own body with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of painful surgeries and procedures in order to achieve a false aesthetic a score for the acceptance of “curvier” bodies? How is shilling for bogus waist trainers that could potentially harm your internal organs promoting body acceptance?
Kim exemplifies self body shaming and extreme insecurity and vanity.
I get Ariel is young but this IG narcissism in my opinion gets confused with self acceptance. People show off their bodies to get positive ego stroking and for others to give them superficial sense of self esteem.
It’s not the nudity or the size of a person but it’s the need for strangers to give you some overused watered down sound bytes of encouragement in order to be granted the permission to accept who you are.
Your last paragraph is pure genius.
LOL @ Ariel or anyone else claiming Kim sends a message of body positivity. Kim and her sisters are constantly in a cosmetic dermatologist’s office getting every single imperfection lasered away or cut off. Kim has been extremely vocal about having all of her body hair permanently lasered off, and they’ve all been filmed getting cellulite/stretch mark removal procedures. How in the world is that a body positive message?
Hate or love Chrissy Teigen, but I loved it when she posted a picture of her stretch marks on her thighs because when I got some during puberty/a growth spurt, I cried because I thought my body was ruined because men and women alike spoke about them like they were the worst thing that could ever happen to someone. Whether one likes Chrissy or not, THAT was a body positive message. Body positivity is owning your flaws, not spending millions to correct them because you literally live in the mirror and obsess over yourself and your appearance.
I seriously don’t like that this family is just completely accepted by everyone now because they don’t spread anything positive, and they’re single-handedly responsible for an increase in plastic surgery procedures. All it takes is one look at the Kardashian family plastic surgeon’s IG to see the plethora of young girls who tag their friends and say they want to save up for these procedures to see the kind of message this family really sends. The Kardashians have definitely changed the world, but it hasn’t been in any positive way.
Kim was doing it for positive attention. When it became negative, she decided to reframe it as empowerment. Beyotch please. We see through you
I see there are lots of people here who want to crap on Kim.
Yeah she’s plastic. Her body presented as ‘normal’ is just as problematic as the models who are calorie restricting to the extreme. When they talk of how they just have good genes or eat healthy it’s the same lie. It’s just easier to identify what is considered ‘unhealthy’ in Kim.
Despite that, no one should be shamed for their body. we celebrate women with nose jobs, women with lipo, women with more ‘tasteful’ augmentation. Why draw the line at butts and boobs? It seems to me this is another way to promote one look as best.
There is definitely differing value placed on naked bodies based on their shape. Chrissy Teigen gets naked all the time and she’s never faced the same ridicule. Same with Gisele and all the VS Angels.
I think this is where Amber talked about ‘classism’. This is also probably why Ariel is chiming in. When you have big breasts the way you show them is deemed by the world at large to be a barometer for your sexuality. Show too much and you are a man hunting slut. Show too little and you are a prudes do uptight. Definitely don’t show naked pictures. If you aren’t skinny your body can’t be art. It’s always for the male gaze. Such hypocritical bs.
The conversation about sexting is confusing too. Maybe if nudity wasn’t such a big deal the fallout from nude pictures wouldn’t be so shameful? Creating a value and a limit on when and how you share your body, beyond legality, is part of the problem. The end result puts a value on chastity.
Kim is not pressuring youngsters to send nudes. Typically young boys with no idea of consent and crap attitudes about female sexuality are the culprits.
Ariel Winter has a better idea of what the real problem is than some of the adults commenting on CB.
+1. Although, a while ago Chrissy Teigen was talking about being slut-shamed for some nude photoshoot, but I agree with the rest of your comment. You bring up a good point about how physical features play a part in something being judged for the male gaze- to some people, woman + immodest automatically = “She’s doing that for the male gaze”, but with other people it seems to be woman + femininity or physical features considered extra feminine+ immodesty= “She’s doing that for the male gaze.”
I don’t see the Kardashians really as promoting body positivity- and it’s not that I think in order to promote that, you can’t have ever had any work done at all. A person probably can have an insecurity or two about their body at some point in life, get a little something done, but afterward come to love their body, have a more positive attitude about body image in general, want to promote that, and not get more work done. But the Kardashians seem to keep getting all kinds of procedures to the point of not looking like themselves anymore (especially Kim, but a little bit with Khloe and Kylie too) and grew up being told by their mother (and probably other people too) that they should get work done. Plus their body-shaming of other people. So the Kardashians aren’t a very good example of people promoting body-positivity, even though I agree that seeing women who aren’t a size 0 or 2 being down with celebrating their (even partially artificial) bodies in the same way some thin model would can be a body-positive thing, since those who don’t have the model look are told they need to ‘put it away’ or dress in a way that hides the fact that they don’t have a certain body type. But I just love and respect Ariel Winter, even if she’s a little wrong on this one.
Kim body shames Rob all the time. It’s only now that he’s lot some weight and is getting a lot of media attention that’s she’s willing to be seen with him.
I like Ariel too but like you I think this is not the best example. I chalk it up being young and that’s not a slam, but I think the understanding of nuance develops with age due to simply having more experiences. At least she’s thinking about it and speaks her mind and I like that.
Puh lease. Body positivity would be showing her NATURAL body. Look at old photos of Kim. She did not have that ridiculous ass. I mean, I can’t even get into how many surgical and non-surgical treatments she gets done on the regular. She is promoting something that does not exist in nature. Yes, women have curves, but these curves often come with “imperfections”. We get cellulite and saddle bags. Kim’s lipo’d thighs stay thin right up to the point that they connect with her fake ass. If Kim was so proud of her natural curvy body, she wouldn’t be taking all of these steps to “correct” it. And don’t even get me started on the PHOTOSHOP.
I like Ariel she seems like a smart young lady… but i cannot agree with what she says about kim. Kim doesn’t feel ashamed or even shy about her body.. she exposes it in every and anyway and the added fact that it’s mostly fake… well i’m sorry but it’s not positive…
How hard it is to find a woman with huge tits and ass, a very small waist and zero belly fat? And a skinny woman without curves? In the end, it’s just about “now I can look hot too”. Ironically, I think this Ariel girl is much more into body positivity than these instagram freaks (Kim, Beyonce, Minaj, Disney’s offsprings).
My niece has large breasts, and Kim K’s nudes make her feel better about herself. The only images you really see of women with breasts as large’s as Kim’s have very, very perky implants. Kim has implants, but they have a much more natural, less gravity defying shape. My niece used to hoist her breasts up with a too tight push up bra, straps digging into her shoulders so badly they left permanent indents. Since she saw Kim’s selfie’s she’s stopped doing that and is much less self-conscious about her breasts.
I don’t think Kim’s aim is body positivity, but anyone with a different shape putting themselves out there is helpful. Kim K’s body may be fake, but there are many women out there with breasts like that, a butt like that etc., so seeing it represented makes a difference.