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Celebrities posing #naked while #pregnant began as a fiercely defiant and provocative stunt. #Demi_Moore’s 1991 Vanity Fair cover—an undeniably confident woman fully #nude, cradling her pregnant belly—was #progressive in its mere existence: the overt #sexualization and #celebration of a #bodyImage that the #American public had, generally, been taught not to think of as #sexy.
It was a transgressive moment in its #controversy (in 1991, many more #conservative people were none-too-pleased to see a nude pregnant #woman staring at them from the shelves of the grocery store cashier aisle), but also in how it paved the way for the image to eventually become #uncontroversial almost entirely; to be #normalized.
(Go figure something as #natural as a pregnant woman’s body needs to be normalized. #Humans are awful.)
In the decades since Moore’s cover, the nude pregnant #photo has almost become a rudimentary rite of passage for celebrities, especially those whose careers were built on—and at times #exploited—their sexuality. #Christina_Aguilera, #Jessica_Simpson, #Britney_Spears, #Nia_Long, #Cindy_Crawford, #Claudia_Schiffer, #Mariah_Carey, #Monica_Bellucci: the nude photo shoot evolved from #progressive act of #rebellion to an #essential part of the Pregnant Celebrity Publicity Tour. As essential, even, as the “Check Out My Post-Baby Bod!” photo shoot that would typically follow.
It’s easy—and at this point #lazy and #unoriginal—to #attack any news Kardashian makes as a #shameless ploy for more press. The fact of the matter is that Kardashian has built a #career as an expert #manipulator of a #realityTV genre that’s mandated that #media take its stars #seriously, because the many #fans of these shows already do.
She’s an aficionado of #branding, a polarizing #fashion maven, and, after years in the public eye, a bona fide #cultural #influencer.
As such, Kardashian’s treatment of her #celebrity spotlight has #matured along with our #perception of her #influence. She’s no longer the #girl made famous by the #sexTape, but a #person with a #platform who is given a megaphone to speak about #feminism, #sexism, #sexualizing, and, god help us, real things.
There’s something sort of #admirable about this #evolution.
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