It’s the celebrity feud that just won’t stop.
The one about nude selfies and body positivity and (unsurprisingly) Kim Kardashian.
It all started when Kim posted (unsurprisingly) a nude selfie to Instagram.
Chloe Grace Moretz then warned that Kim should instead teach girls that women “have so much more to offer than just [their] bodies.”
Kim retorted by dissing Chloe, then wrote an essay claiming her selfie was about “body positivity.”
Enter Ariel Winter, who echoed Kim’s statements.
Fast forward a couple months, and Chloe tells Glamour magazine that she stands by her previous remarks, insisting that Kim’s selfie was not about body confidence, but about sexualizing herself for attention, likes and comments.
Back to Ariel and present time.
The Modern Family star took to Instagram to denounce Chloe’s comments to Glamour and defend Kim’s and her right to post revealing selfies in the name of, yep, #bodypositivity.
Here’s what she wrote:
“Many have asked about my opinion on a certain interview … all I’m going to say is this:
“If you take a photo in which you feel CONFIDENT about yourself and think it spreads a positive image, then GO FOR IT.
“The ‘background’ doesn’t matter – what matters is the message you are putting out there is true to what YOU believe in – not what anyone else says about YOU.
“I do what I can to create a positive light for my fans and I’m sure other celebrities are doing it in THEIR OWN WAY- no need to put one another down.
“No picture is the exception to someone else’s rule. Even if some people ‘know who they are.’ Live life on your own terms.”
This conversation exasperates me, because, frankly, I think they’re both correct to some degree.
Women have fought for decades to be thought of as more than mere sexual objects.
And let’s face it, Kim was positioning herself as a sexual object in that selfie.
She wasn’t saying, “My body doesn’t meet society’s standards of beauty but I love it anyway,” she was saying, “Look at how hot I am.”
Which is fine, theoretically speaking. It’s her body, and if she feels good about it, post away.
But it irks me that she’s trying to disguise it as some sort of feminist statement when we all know damn well her motivation had nothing to do with feminism or woman empowerment.
Chloe wasn’t slut-shaming Kim.
She was trying to suggest that it’s important to teach young girls that there is so much more value in being a woman than a sexy body and your ability to generate likes on social media from it.
Sorry, Ariel. I get where you’re coming from, but I’m Team Chloe on this one.
