Last week, the MTV Video Music Awards were held in Los Angeles. In attendance to receive the Video Vanguard award for lifetime achievement was rapper Kanye West, accompanied by pregnant wife Kim Kardashian.
Kanye wore his slouchiest best, paired with Yeezy Boost 350's (in a new colourway!!! ...people lose their damn minds over these shoes) while Kim wore a bespoke lace up gown designed by Olivier Rousteing of Balmain. Personally, I thought Kim looked beautiful: love her or hate her, you have to admit the woman has some damn good genes. Plus, she's pregnant, and I think every pregnant woman is gorgeous.
But apparently, I am in the minority.
Here is just a sampling of some of the delightful comments that have been floating around since the ceremony:
OK. I'll be blunt: If you are making fun of a pregnant woman's body - REGARDLESS of who the woman is - you are being an enormous tool.
I understand the Kardashian family inspires strong reactions in people; B was not impressed when my younger sister asked for the DVD sets for Christmas: "We have to spend our money on Kardashians?!" I get it. I tend to fall on the side of "tolerating" them: I'm not going to pretend that there aren't better role models out there for my daughter, but I also don't think they are the four horsewomen of the apocalypse.
I also know that Kim's fashion choices aren't always everybody's cup of tea; her style has become far more, shall we say, "experimental" since she began her relationship with Kanye. It only takes a cursory glance at the Kim Kardashian tag on Go Fug Yourself to realise that the woman wears A LOT of stuff that people tend not to like. And never more than when she's pregnant, it seems. Cast your mind back to the Met Gala of 2013, and the Givenchy dress that launched a thousand memes...
...I mean...Yeah. That wasn't cool either. A woman has zero control over how her body carries a pregnancy, so you're ridiculing her for something that she can't change, even if she wanted to. It's not like she can just diet that belly away! It also has to be said that Kim is quite small: she's only 5'3" so a pregnant belly has the potential to overwhelm her figure more than it might on a taller woman.
"But Jess, why then would she choose to wear such unflattering clothing?" Well here's the thing: Pregnancy does not suddenly negate your right to wear what you like. A SHOCKING CONCEPT I KNOW. And when your body is changing in ways it never has before, when you feel exhausted and uncomfortable, the clothes you wear can feel like one last little thing in your life that you still have control over. As I was pregnant over an Australian summer, where I could barely handle the feeling of fabric on my skin, I spent A LOT of time in bikinis. When I actually had to leave the house though, my wardrobe choices were often flowing and/or elasticated. Comfort all the way!
Conversely, you also have women like a friend of mine who kept her pre-pregnancy wardrobe - 5 inch stilettos included - in rotation well into her third trimester. It was only once her seams literally split that she relented and bought some maternity gear. And that's OK too - at the end of the day, it's whatever you feel comfortable in. If you feel good in caftans? Awesome! If you would rather rock a more tailored maternity wardrobe? Sweet! And if anyone tries to tell you something isn't "appropriate" or "flattering," then fuck that noise. YOU DO YOU, BABES.
(Another point I'd like to add quickly: Your body can change SO quickly during pregnancy, so there is always a chance that in the time between Kim's final fitting and the VMA's, her shape changed and affected the fit of the dress. I can vouch for this happening, after putting off buying a dress until the last minute for an event when I was around 5 months pregnant, then finding it fit differently only days later. Super annoying.)
Anyway, at the end of the day, Kim is just another pregnant woman, who is probably uncomfortable, exhausted, and incredibly sensitive about her appearance. And when you consider the awful jokes made at her expense during her first pregnancy - a pregnancy in which she suffered preeclampsia resulting in an early delivery and was apparently such a terrible time for her that she was unsure if she could endure it again - I can only imagine how she must feel seeing these kinds of comments being made once more.
Play the ball, not the player. If you hate Kim's Balmain dress? Then say you hate the dress. That's cool. Fashion is art is subjective, after all. But if you're cracking jokes about her body?
You're just being a dick.
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