Kim Kardashian Breaks the Internet

Remember when Kim Kardashian invented butts? Paper Magazine sure would like us to. When they released their scintillating cover issue of Kim K in a sequinned dress, balancing a champagne glass on her formidable silicone buttocks, Paper Mag declared: “Break the Internet Kim Kardashian” And break it she did. In this episode, Hannah and Maia trace Kim Kardashian’s transformation from trashy reality star to fashionista de jour. Since the Paper cover, and with the help of Kanye West, Kim’s body has become the subject of a twisted performance art. But it’s also generated controversy - creating unhealthy trends, grifting from the natural features of Black women, and now disappearing into what we everyone has deemed a “skinny renaissance”. Digression includes: Maia getting riled up about Timothée and Kylie’s fabled romantic union. 

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Intro and outro song by our talent friend Ian Mills:

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SOURCES

Joe Zee, “In Defense of Kim Kardashian and the Editors of Paper Magazine and Why This Cover Makes Sense” (12/11/14), Yahoo

Jake Hall, “exploring the complicated relationship between jean-paul goude and grace jones”, (21/04/16) i-D

David Hershkovits, “How Kim KArdashian broke the Internet with her butt” (17/12/14), The Guardian

Blue Telusma “Kim Kardashian doesn’t realize she’s the butt of an old racial joke” (12/11/14), the grio

Justin Parkinson, “The Significance of Sarah Baartman” (07/01/16), BBC

Janell Hobson, “Remnants of Venus: Signifying Black Beauty and Sexuality” (2018), Women’s studies Quarterly, The Feminist Press

Nolan Feeney, “Anna Wintour Implies Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are not ‘Deeply Tasteful’”. (19/11/14)

Cleo Gould, “From silicone implants and fat transfers to bubble butts and a high mortality rate, we investigate whether the BBL is the most dangerous cosmetic surgery of all” (2019), Dazed

Rachel Tashjian, “How Jennifer Lopez’s Versace Dress Created Google Images” (2019), GQ. 

John Ortved, “Paper Magazine, The Oral History: ‘They Were Wide Open’ (2023), The New York Times

Eric Wilson, “Kim Kardashian Inc.” (17/11/2010), The New York Times.

Natasha Singer, “The democratization of plastic surgery” (2007), The New York Times,

Harper Franklin “1810-1819” (18/08/2020) Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology.

Grace O’Neill, “How Kimye Changed Fashion Forever”, Grazia Magazine.

Rebecca Jennings, “The $5,000 quest for the perfect butt”, 2021, Vox.

Cady Lang, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians Is Ending. But Their Exploitation of Black Women’s Aesthetics Continues”, (10/06/21), Time.

Kylie Gilbert, “Backing Away from BBLs” (11/08/22), InStyle