Break The Internet, Not Conventions

On the 12th of November 2014, Paper magazine hit the internet as a bomb after publishing a picture of Kim Kardashian on their cover, taken by renowned photographer Jean-Paul Goude. The cover photo was accompanied by a series of (semi)nude pictures in which Kardashian shows off her oiled-up body looking directly in the camera and an article that is supposed to be a view into the mystery that is Kim Kardashian. Only 34 years old and Kim was already a well-known television personality. Goddaughter of football player OJ Simpson, her entry into fame began with the reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. After the success of the show, Kim posed for Playboy and continued her way towards fame, making media appearances and participating in films, series and TV shows. Growing in her role as celebrity, she saw the opportunity to venture into the business world by launching several products, becoming a successful entrepreneur. Kim's fame and beauty were not the only reason for all the fuss generated by Jean-Paul Goude’s photo. In this post we will further investigate the different ways Kim Kardashian’s image impacted the media, relating aspects such as eroticism, feminism and exotism.

Never was a campaign so openly directed at going viral as the ‘BREAK THE INTERNET’ cover photo of Kim Kardashian. Immediately, social media exploded with the images being shared by admirers and critics alike. As Paper Magazine touches upon this in the article, Kim Kardashian represents a new kind of fame, created by social media, that demands ‘agreeable omnipresence’. Kardashian takes the notion of reality celebrity to a new level, because ‘being is her act’. As Paper Magazine points out Kardashian ‘is variously seen as a feminist-entrepreneur-pop-culture-icon or a late-stage symptom of our society's myriad ills: narcissism, opportunism, unbridled ambition, unchecked capitalism’. Not only was the image shared on social media, it was also recreated by an astounding number of people through various media outlets and thus recontextualized. Some tried to follow the original as closely as possible, but there were also images that created a dialogue with other cultural tropes like Disney and the Simpsons. This way, the image created a network of recreation, recontextualisation, and reappropriation.

The Paper Magazine photo shoot spiked and reaffirmed Kim Kardashian’s omnipresence in the media and the debate about her person and image was rekindled with a new vigor. And so her shoot provoked a lot of reaction. One of the critiques that is often heard on the Break the Internet image is that Kardashian displayed her sensuality in order to profit from it. Through this she degrades both herself and women in general, because there is no well thought concept behind it.

Many people criticized Kardashian for objectifying herself and thus ‘perpetuating a culture where women are seen only as sexual beings’. Many criticisms focus on traditional feminist concepts like the ‘male gaze’ (originally introduced by Laura Mulvey). However, Kardashian’s shoot can also be interpreted in another feminist view. In opposition to the traditional feminism from the 1960s and ’70s a new wave of feminism argues that women shouldn’t deny pleasure to fight against the male dominance but, in contrary, be at a perspective where women can embrace and explore their sexuality without being coined negatively. The phrase “Do-me feminism” was used by Tad Friend from Esquire to describe the group that fought for this cause. In an heterosexual relationship, women then shift from being a victim harassed by bullies to recognizing a sexual life. Kardashian’s attitude might be explained by this logic. She recognizes her own sexuality and chooses when and how to display it. She decides to show her nudity. In this sense, she is no longer a victim of the male gaze, but a woman taking control. However, the photographer Jean-Paul Goude chose to recreate his image of Grace and it was not Kardashian herself who decided this. It is through Goude’s gaze, who is a white middle-aged, heterosexual man from western Europe, fitting every aspect of the patriarchy, that we see Kardashian. The male gaze, framing the image and creating the perspective, is forced upon the viewer. In this way we are not looking at an image of Kardashian breaking the norm, but her not fitting into it.

From this perspective of pleasure and feminism working in parallel, we change to another view that is more emotion-related when related to women’s position under a male-ruled society. According to Robin James, there is a traditional idea of ‘good girls’ that was propagated by a white supremacist patriarchy that is based on fragility (James, 2013:80). It forces on women the concept that their fragility doesn’t allow them to have their own intentions. Going beyond that, James argues that now this perspective has evolved to the idea that ‘good women’ will realize this ‘damage’ and overcome it through resilience. Important to her train of thought is that this overcoming has to be shown to the world and therefore is displayed as a spectacle. In this sense, resilience doesn’t mean a challenge to the dominant hegemony, but an affirmation of it. It is the discourse of a white supremacist patriarchy that keeps women in their place: a place of spectacle. Following James thoughts, how could we interpret the critique Kardashian received stating that she objectified herself with the Paper Magazine photo shoot? Is it in line with the traditional idea of fragility and the overcoming process? As an example of damage James points to “the negative body image that women internalize from the media” (James, 2013:84). Coming back to Kim Kardashian’s image, if she had a more activist profile and a performance less focused on her physical attributes that would actually challenge the strength of patriarchy by showing an unresolved issue. Following James, Kardashian has a damage as a woman which could be for example the negative body image. So from this point of view Kim’s sensual figure is practicing resilience because she is showing off her body proudly, overcoming the damage that she as a woman has. When asked about objectifying herself she mentioned the Paper magazine cover and agreed that media shows women in degrading images. But she also said that she feeds off the power from voluntarily objectifying herself: “I do what I need to get done”. She displays this overcoming by posing (semi)nude in Paper Magazine. The image is a deliberate intention to capitalize and get value under white supremacist patriarchy and neoliberal capitalism (a recognition of post-feminism), but still perpetuates the dominant hegemony in this process. As Kardashian followed this process of overcoming, the cover photo is the way she shows the world the process is done: ‘Look, I Overcame!’. That is the moment when resilience is performed explicitly, legibly, and spectacularly (James, 2013:88).

But the white supremacist patriarchy also scapegoats supposed ‘inferior’non-bourgeois subcultures like working-class black men and Muslims, among others. From this idea Kim Kardashian’s image received another kind of critique. Blue Telusma from The Grio, calls to attention that the photo is a recreation of an earlier photo that Goude took of his at-the-time girlfriend Grace, reflecting his fascination with ethnic minorities. This photo was published in Goude’s book Jungle Fever with other pictures depicting, for example, Grace in a cage growling animal-like at the camera. Telusma emphasizes the suggestive name and points out that just because Goude and Grace were lovers at the time, it doesn’t mean these pictures aren’t racist. On top of this, the pictures call into mind images of Saatjie Baartman, who was exhibited as a human zoo attraction in the 19th century because of her exotic appearance, mainly her large buttocks (a state defined as ‘steatopygia’). In this way Kardashian takes advantage of several hundreds of years of black female exploitation. It’s interesting that when looking for the term ‘steatopygia’ in Google images, the search provides lots of images of the referred primitive cultures but also includes images of Kim Kardashian.

Related to all these exotism, we already mentioned Kim’s photo as a re-creation from a previous photo and Jean-Paul Goude ‘Male Gaze’, a concept where the camera gives the male protagonist more power; or a way that shows women as objects through exposing close-ups of their body. This brings the possibility that Jean-Paul Goude’s gaze as a male could surpass his gaze as a photographer to make Kim’s image more suitable to white supremacist patriarchy. This didn’t happened with exact close ups, but for sure such a talented photographer could bring this concept with other techniques using light, composition and production. All these ingredients, including Kim’s shining body, hair design and jewelry could definitely give a huge contribution in this achievement. Actually, if we take a closer look to Kim’s hair, it resembles some women feather hats and even bring remembrance of exotic tropical birds. On the neck, the pearls disposed circularly over and over also references to oriental exotic tribes. The oily body, gloves and black dress just finish the work, completing the vision of a luxury pack. Once more the eroticism play an important role but this time it seems that is not Kim Kardashian’s merit.

It appears that Kim Kardashian’s reputation is beyond physical attributes. As mentioned before, she showed the talent to profit from her celebrity life and at the beginning of 2015 her fortune was estimated at $53 million. This condition relies on several factors but is clear that the way she behaves and depicts herself is a mandatory aspect in the mediation of her success as an actress and entrepreneur. It is clear that the controversies will not end and the control on subjects like eroticism, feminism and exoticism will continue to be a negotiation between Kim Kardashian, women in general, and the media.

B.L., E.K., L.C., N.R., R.H.

Thesis proposal

Deconstructing the message; how powerful is the active audience?

Literature

James, Robin. "Look I Overcame ." In Resilience & Melancholy: Pop Music, Feminism, Neoliberalism, by Robin James, 78-124. John Hunt Publishing , 2015.

Henry, Astrid. “Not my mother’s sister: generational conflict and third-wave feminism”, by Astrid Henry. Indiana University Press, 2004.

Websites

http://www.alternet.org/story/103035/%22do-me%22_feminism_and_the_rise_of_raunch