5 Things That Are Wrong with Kim Kardashian's ‘Break the Internet’ Photos

By now, we have all seen the photos from reality star Kim Kardashian's nude photo shoot with Paper magazine. Here's what's wrong with Mrs. Kardashian West's pictures. It's the 'Butt' of an Ongoing Racist Joke The series of photos is, in fact, a recreation of photographer Jean-Paul Goude's 1976 photo "Carolina Beaumont" also known as the "Champagne Incident." The original photo shows a naked, smiling Black woman, balancing a champagne glass on her butt in a half-squatting position. The photo was part of a larger photo book titled "Jungle Fever," that fetishized Black women and sometimes made their bodies appear animalistic. Goude had a sort of obsession with Black women, which perpetuated the ideals that Black women's bodies were objects. Author of "Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture," Janell Hobson notes that in one part of "Jungle Fever," Goude compares the backsides of Black women to those of "race horses." It Further Promotes Black Women as Objects to Be Stared at The "Carolina Beaumont" and the nude shots of Kardashian are very reminiscent of Hottentot Venus in the late 18th century. Born Saartjie Baartman, Venus was working as a slave in Cape Town, South Africa, when British doctor William Dunlop happened upon her. According to Lucille Davie, author of "Sarah Baartman, At Rest at Last," he then persuaded her to board his ship for London under false pretenses. In Europe, Venus was used as a public sideshow for white audiences, who gawked at her because of her large rear. Humiliation and sexual abuse were routine parts of Baartman's life. Baartman died at 25 due to venereal disease, and even then she was dissected and her body was preserved so that she could remain on display for decades. Baartman wasn't properly buried until 187 years after her death. Black Women Can't Be in Control of Their Own Bodies Recently, some Black female celebrities have taken matters into their own hands and tried to show off their bodies in a celebratory manner, on their own terms. The backlash that these women experienced due to their photos is in complete contrast with the amazement and approval for Kardashian's photos. Singer Rihanna, in particular, tried to post her topless pictures from her Lui magazine photo shoot to Instagram in April. As a result, her account was deleted due to nudity. Meanwhile, Kardashian's nudity is praised and promoted on multiple Instagram pages. Iggy Azalea It Promotes 'Columbusing' Blue Telusma, a journalist for theGrio.com, used the term "columbusing" to refer to a group of people "discovering" something that's already been around. With the Kardashian photos, big butts are essentially being "columbused." "Kim Kardashian gets to represent black bodies that black women don't get to represent themselves," Telusma said. London-based journalist Yomi Adegoke seconds Telusma's notions claiming that the "big bum," frenzy is a good example of columbusing in her article "Why Does a Black Butt Only Look Good in White Skin?" With rappers like Iggy Azalea coming forth and accentuating their butts in popular culture, Vogue announced, "We're officially in the era of the big booty." Like braids and hair wraps, big butts are among the things that were "previously lauded in black culture and then make the cross to the mainstream, completely ignoring the fact it has roots in black culture," Adegoke said. Grace Jones It Justifies the Exploitation of Black Women The photographer of both the original and the Kardashian remake, Goude was known for his almost obsessive fascination with "ethnic minorities" and "black girls," as he told People magazine in 1979. "I had jungle fever," he said in the interview. During his career, he publicly dated Black singer Grace Jones. On the cover of "Jungle Fever," Goude poses Jones in a cage next to raw meat. He was able to do this under the guise that she was his girlfriend, so there was no way it was disrespectful. "There's almost an animalistic leaning about the way he describes black women, even when he's admiring them supposedly," Telusma said. "It's fetishism in its purest form." This animalism, fetish kind of thinking opens the gate to all forms of sexual and verbal abuse of Black women.

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