‘My advice
to those who think they have to take off their clothes to be a star,’
observed Mae West, ‘is once you’re boned, what’s left to create the
illusion? Let ‘em wonder. I never believed in giving them too much of
me.’
I thought of this when Kim Kardashian
posted another internet-breaking nude selfie last night, showing off
her voluptuous torso just three months after giving birth to her second
child.
‘When you’re like, I have nothing to wear. LOL,’ she captioned the photo.
I chuckled, as I often do at Kim’s antics.
She’s
a smart cookie who, like her rapper husband Kanye West, knows exactly
how to set the world agog with apoplexy with a single tweet.
Every supermodel, movie and pop sex
symbol knows there comes a time when you have to hand the baton onto the
next generation. That moment of truth has arrived for Kim Kardashian
who posted another internet-breaking nude selfie last night, showing off
her voluptuous torso just three months after giving birth to her second
child
Of course, nudity has been a key part of her brand ever since she first burst into public consciousness via a leaked sex tape.
Since
then, Kim’s ruthlessly exploited every crevice of her body in a way so
spectacularly successful that it’s turned her into a multi-millionaire.
Until
recently, I’ve had no problem with this. She works hard, has a keen eye
for fashion and beauty lines, and has proven herself to be a skilled
self-publicising marketer.
When
she first broke the internet in 2014 by baring her champagne-dangling
derriere for PAPER magazine, I defended her amid the inevitable
‘slut-shaming’ onslaught which instantly erupted.
When she first broke the internet in
2014 by baring her champagne-dangling derriere for PAPER magazine, I
defended her amid the inevitable ‘slut-shaming’ onslaught
I
wrote then: ‘Kim doesn’t take drugs, get drunk, fall out of clubs,
cheat on her man, or do any of the other insanely louche things that
stars with far greater ‘talent’ often do. She’s good to her fans, and is
by all accounts a good, loving daughter, sister, wife and now mom
herself.’
My
conclusion read: ‘Kim Kardashian-West’s laughing all the way to the
bank. And all you lazy, snide, snobbish, patronising and hypocritical
critics can go kiss her a*s – there’s plenty of room.’
But that was then.
After
she tweeted her latest nude picture last night, I replied by saying: ‘I
know the old man’s $50 million in debt, Kim (a jokey reference to
Kanye’s preposterous recent claims of financial hardship) ‘but this is
absurd. Want me to buy you some clothes?’
She wasn’t amused.
‘Hey
@PiersMorgan,’ she retorted, ‘never offer to buy a married woman
clothes. That’s on some Ashley Madison type s**t. #forresearch’.
I got off lightly.
Minutes
later she ripped into Oscar-winner Bette Midler, who had also mocked
her photo by saying: ‘Kim Kardashian tweeted a nude selfie today. If Kim
wants to see a part of her we’ve never seen, she’s gonna have to
swallow the camera.’
‘Hey @BetteMidler,’ snapped Kim, ‘I know it’s past your bedtime but if you’re still up and reading this send nudes.’
Her
next tweet to Bette was brutal: ‘I really didn’t want to bring up how
you sent me a gift awhile back trying to be a fake friend then come at
me..’
After she tweeted her latest nude
picture last night, I replied by saying: ‘I know the old man’s $50
million in debt, Kim (a jokey reference to Kanye’s preposterous recent
claims of financial hardship) ‘but this is absurd. Want me to buy you
some clothes?’
She wasn’t amused. ‘Hey @PiersMorgan,’
she retorted, ‘never offer to buy a married woman clothes. That’s on
some Ashley Madison type s**t. #forresearch’.
Ouch.
But
Kim’s real venom was reserved for 19-year-old actress Chloë Grace
Moretz, who tweeted this response to the nude selfie: ‘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.’
‘Let’s all welcome @ChloeGMoretz to twitter,’ Kim sniped back, ‘since no one knows who she is. Your nylon cover is cute boo.’
All
of this was a little odd since Kim’s usually very nice and polite on
social media, in direct contrast to Kanye whose Twitter rants have grown
steadily more insane and abusive in recent weeks.
In
fact, the tone and wording of the tweets led me to suspect Mr West may
have seized her phone, a fear exacerbated by another chest-beating
exclamation which read, ‘Sorry I’m late to the party guys, I was busy
cashing my 80 million video game check & transferring 53 million
into our joint account.’
Pure Kanye.
But
until or if we hear otherwise, we must assume it really was Kim who’s
now morphed into a bragging, taunting female version of her other half
In one final act of Kimye defiance, she unleashed a second nude photo with the hashtag: ‘#liberated.
Hmmmm.
I’m not so sure any of this is very liberating.
+3
The tone and wording of the tweets led
me to suspect Kanye West may have seized her phone. But until or if we
hear otherwise, we must assume it really was Kim who’s now morphed into a
bragging, taunting female version of her other half
In fact, 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 all the
scantily-clad attention recently, notably half-sister 20-year-old
Kendall ‘Instagram Queen’ Jenner.
Every
supermodel, 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.
Nobody
is a better illustration of this than Cindy Crawford, who still
commands huge attention as a model but has moved to a less-flesh
business model with great style, dignity and commercial benefit.
It’s
not so easy perhaps when your brand is so indelibly linked to your own
nudity, but it’s essential if you don’t want to fall into the trap of
becoming an ageing parody.
That moment of truth has arrived for Kim Kardashian.
As
Chloë Grace Moretz so rightly said, does she really want young girls to
think the only way to succeed in life is by flashing their naked flesh
in tweets to the gawping, salivating world?
She
can surely be a far more powerful role model to them, and indeed to her
own daughter North, by now proving she can be just as successful in
other less prurient ways?
The time has come for Kim to consider the unthinkable and actually start putting her clothes back on.
