People keep talking about the Kardashian butt pictures on the internet. The conversations mainly follow five themes, and they are all stupid. Here they are, in order of stupidity:
5. KIM KARDASHIAN'S BUTT DOESN'T MATTER
Yes,this is fluffy entertainment news. Yes the pictures are shamelessly packaged for a forced viral internet response. But they do matter. Because they introduce a new beauty "standard" for some girls. Whereas before a girl may have accepted that she's never be able to have a Barbie doll figure, now there's a new, impossible-to-obtain beauty standard that's closer to their body types for them to fret about.
4. KIM KARDASHIAN'S BUTT ANNOUNCES THAT BIG BUTTS ARE IN!
Are bigger butts now in fashion? Anatomical body types coming into and out of 'fashion' is just moronic. Body features can't be changed like a pair of capri pants, nor should they be. There are people who will find women of any body type attractive, and their attraction factors are so hard-wired in their brains that bigger bootys on magazine covers isn't going to change them.
3. KIM KARDASHIAN'S BUTT IS INSULTING TO AFRICAN AMERICANS
The 'champagne pic' is an iconic 1976 photo of model Carolina Beaumont, who is black. Somehow, this led to a conversation about Saartije Baartman, an African woman displayed in Victorian freak shows because of the size of her hind quarters. Frankly, I don't see the connection. Kardashian copied the pose, and the pose was the creation of a French graphic designer/photographer.
2. KIM KARDASHIAN'S BUTT MAKES HER A BAD MOM
People are upset that Kardashian allowed nude pictures of herself to circulate in a medium that her kids might see. Actually, I don't think this story is stupid. (Yeah, I'm not following my clickbait title of presenting dumb stories. Clickbait titles are supposed to lie) This story made me think - Is there an evolutionary basis for people feeling queasy about this? In a tribal society, promoting sexuality in front of the kids might lead to higher rates of incest. Incest can lead to inbreeding which would weaken the tribe. So public disgust over someone being overtly sexual in front of their children might be a genetically selected trait. It's an interesting thing to think about.
1. KIM KARDASHIAN'S BUTT vs. THE COMET LANDING
The internet is offended that people are paying attention to Kim's butt when we just landed a craft on a comet. Quick comparisons have been made to show that (thankfully) there have been more comet Twitter posts than butt posts. But the two stories do have one thing in common - neither one is likely to have a direct impact on your life. Meanwhile, there are dozens of news stories about events that could impact your life going on right now that both comet and butt are overshadowing. Picking the popularity of these two stories as a bellweather reading of our intellectual well being is kind of a random draw from a hat.
And besides, I'm happy that some people are paying more attention to Kim Kardashian's butt. Absolutely overjoyed. Some people aren't interested in science, don't understand it, and probably should pay attention to other things. Because some people can't handle science. It's dangerous when they try. The cults of global warming denial, anti-vaccination, and GMO panic are all examples of people who don't quite get how science works trying to get involved in science. If someone's not willing or able to understand the basis of science, we're probably better off if they just stick to softcore pornography.
readherring
