There’s absolutely nothing wrong with looking up to Kim Kardashian

tips

babe  • 

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with looking up to Kim Kardashian

She’s not a bad role model, so why do so many women hate her?

Female role models are one the most highly contested elements of growing up. Who your role model is, and who you look up to, can often define what attributes you take on as a teenager. For young girls, women to look up to outside of the home are so important. They teach you so much about life outside of your immediate world, and they become a serious part of who you are as an adult.

It seems that there’s an acceptable trend in young feminists in bashing the Kardashians for being “bad role models”, like it’s acceptable to pull down some women to build up others. But it couldn’t be more wrong.

Hair flip & eye roll at the same damn time!

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 30, 2016 at 7:19am PDT

Kim Kardashian is an excellent role model for young girls everywhere. She runs a multi billion dollar business, which is constantly expanding, in a mans world she has turned an outrageous and vile act against her trust, into the most successful social media platform ever. So why, do women still hate her so much?

Recently, the headteacher at the prestigious Wimbledon High School suggested that young girls should look up to historical and fictional heroines like Cleopatra. Apparently, Kim Kardashian, who in a poll at the school was one of the women girls look up to, was not a good enough role model. The project, said that girls should focus on women who have made it in a mans world – because Kim Kardashian didn’t turn a man’s betrayal of her trust, into a multi million dollar business?

COMING SOON! @wonderlandmag

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 12, 2016 at 10:28am PDT

The problem with this attitude is it is still pitting women against each other. Instead of supporting women, this project teaches these young girls that certain women are better than each other. It reinforces this idea that women are in competition against each other, something that is incredibly unfeminist, and downright sexist.

No woman has the right to tell another woman that her legitimate actions are invalid. This idea that some women are fundamentally better because their actions is a system put in place by the patriarchy, and by arguing that because of the image she presents to the world is wrong, this is just reinforcing an archaic idea.

The project creates this idea that Shakespeare’s women embody power and rally against men. Don’t get me wrong – they do. She quotes Viola, Beatrice, Rosalind and Cleopatra, as better role models than Kim Kardashian. All these women are excellent role models, but they are fictional. There is no Rosalind waltzing around the Forest Dean, pretending to be a man, in real life. There is no Viola searching for her long lost brother and dressing up as a man in order to protect herself from men.

Do you know who there actually is? Kim Kardashian, women who did not let a man tear her down, but instead made her more powerful and more successful than he will ever be.

Fundamentally the problem with telling these young girls that they should look up to these women, is that they were created by a man for a fictional play. How can young girls model themselves on characters that’s actions aren’t real? Instead, I think any role model a young girl has should be celebrated.

Major side eye ?

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Sep 19, 2016 at 9:17pm PDT

Young girls look up to these women because they recognize attributes that they want to embody. Instead of telling young girls that their opinions on people are wrong, we should be celebrating the different role models, and encouraging girls to express whom they admire.

Kim Kardashian is an excellent role model for young women, and teachers should be encouraging girls to look up to them, as well as encouraging them to look at the fabulous feminist icon of Cleopatra.