Language in the News: The Kim Kardashian Nude Pictures Scandal

Kim Kardashian. What has she done now? Posing naked for her photo shoot under the request of Jean-Paul Goude, the photographer, has caused a stir in the media.

I have picked two different sources that talks about this scandalous topic that had everyone talking and questioning. Both of these sources uses language to make us see different viewpoints of the way how people reacted. 

On November 14, 2014,Victoria Hoff from elle.com talks about how hilarious the media has reacted to Kim's pictures. She writes in her article "Kim Kardashian Tries to Break the Internet; Internet Responds Hilariously (NSFW)", "Chances are you woke up this morning to a lot of booty on your news feed—Kim Kardashian's booty in particular. (Happy Hump Day?)" Hoff brings up this topic by using sarcasm but at the same time uses ambiguity. She clearly states that all that "booty" on your news feed must be no other that Kim Kardashian's herself! The writer is not trying to mislead us in anyway and of course, even if she tried to mislead us we would automatically think about Kim because in reality, everything in our news feed was about her pictures (which was also painful to see posts after posts of the same topic; too much repetition can lead to irritation).

Then Hoff decides to talk about Kim's hashtag (if you don't know it already): #BreakTheInternet. She calls out Kim by saying "...we're happy to report that the Internet did not break..." and then Hoff adds, "...the probability that you'll come across a stranger's bare *ss on Instagram just got way higher..." and start showing pictures of people making fun of Kim's nude pictures either reacting it or photo shopping it. This is partly a double speak. The objective of this whole article is to talk about the people's reactions yet at the same time calls out Kim and shows pictures that humiliates her. Hoff tries to use sarcasm and satire to show the negative and the irresponsible things that Kim has done. Her sarcasm and satire is quite misleading at first but eventually will show because of the pictures she includes in her article. Although she does not openly go against Kim, she is hinting at the fact that she is with these little remarks and her funny comments.

Another article that I chose to break down was by Nicole Pomarico from bustle.com. On November 13, 2014, after seeing all the negative comments, Nicole writes in her article "Kim Kardashian's 'Paper' Magazine Cover Brings Out The Worst In People", "This kind of bums me out...I feel like more people should be applauding how majestic it is that she can balance a champagne glass on her booty. I just slipped into the kitchen to find out if I could do the same to no avail. This woman has skill." It looks like this author likes and agrees with Kim more compared to the other author whose article I read and analyzed above. She doesn't seen misleading at this point; it seems as if she's on Kim's side of this whole situation. Nicole writes, "The “Kim Kardashian is someone’s mom” genre of tweets are the ones that p*ss me off the most. It’s as if people expect women to lose all sex appeal once they’ve birthed their first child." She seems angry and talks with ambiguity--not hiding anything at all. She's very clear about her opinions and it makes readers see that there are some people out there who would praise Kim for going all out on this photo shoot (I meant naked). Unlike thousands of other who completely hates Kim for doing this, Nicole is one of the few who will "back up" Kim and to also mention, her values really get worked up here. She seems very passionate about the "Kim Kardashian is someone's mom" saying, "Is it just me, or does that view seem incredibly archaic?" We can see that the writer values the individuality a woman has; even if everyone goes against her. We can also see that the repetition of being a "better" person because one has a child irritates Nicole. She values the abilities of women and their freedom of making their own choices without caring about the negative judgements.  

Throughout Nicole's article, she does not mislead the reader in anyway. She's open about her opinions and she is completely against the idea of changing yourself or being tentative of your decisions because you just gave birth to a baby and everybody would think you're crazy.  

Lastly before I go to bed, I want to give my opinions about this scandalous topic. I believe that a woman has control over their body and no one should try to change that or call them out just because you think it's wrong. It's their decision and if those decision has consequences, then let them learn by making those decisions. I believe that Kim did what she wanted and if that made her happy, then there's nothing we can do about. The pictures are already out there and there is no way of taking them down so people have to calm down and stop saying negative things about her. And hey, Kanye is okay with this whole thing so there won't be a gigantic feud between these two so really there's no use of saying negative things to Kim.


"Kim Kardashian Tries to Break the Internet; Internet Responds Hilariously (NSFW)"
http://www.elle.com/news/culture/kim-kardashian-paper-mag-cover 

"Kim Kardashian's 'Paper' Magazine Cover Brings Out The Worst In People"
http://www.bustle.com/articles/48858-kim-kardashians-paper-magazine-cover-brings-out-the-worst-in-people