Kardashian’s new bra is the stuff of women’s nightmares

KK’s new bra with a built-in ‘ultimate’ nipple is supposed to be empowering with a ‘sexy, natural-looking lift’. Just who do they think they’re kidding, asks Fleur Britten. Kim Kardashian’s latest addition to the SKIMS shapewear brand and the video to promote its launch had the internet’s head spinning. The slut shaming, prudish horror and ugly criticism over a woman creating a product (or simply having a little laugh at our expense, who knows) has been deafening online. The Ultimate Nipple Bra by SKIMS was launched over the weekend alongside a tongue-in-cheek video starring Kim as a faux climate scientist with a promise to donate a percentage of profits to One Percent for the Planet. But people seemed to care far less about Kim’s climate pledge than the bra itself. Specifically, the focus was on the “built in faux nipple for shock factor”.

“There’s literal ppl dying in the world and this is your concern… @kimkardashian you’re so dumb and it’s showing for all us to see” wrote one Instagram user. “Yeah let’s provoke and sexualize our body’s more. Boobs are not always perky and nipples not always hard. Get a grip.” [sic] Commented another. But some people enjoyed the launch and observed the significance of the product dropping during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One user commented, “Women who have suffered from breast cancer and want that extra boost of confidence, are going to appreciate this so much? Also girls who aren’t the happiest with the girls on their chest from having kids etc! This is pretty innovative if you ask me!”

Others simply thought the bra was another nonsense product marketed at women besieged by stranger and stranger beauty standards every day. Personally? I kind of love it. Mainly because I’ve always wondered why our smooth beige push-up bras and VPL pants work so hard to hide the shape of our natural bodies, and at times, I’ve felt embarrassed and ashamed about my own nipples showing through my clothes. Women spend so much time hiding the natural parts of their bodies to meet societal expectations, that to put a nipple on a bra and draw attention to a part of our anatomy that is so often associated with shame or “wantonness” feels like a fuck you to expectations, and I like that.

Of course, Kim isn’t the first person to design a bra like this, nipple bras have been around since the ‘70s. And there are already plenty of products you can place over your bra or breast to create the shape of a nipple – used primarily by people who have undergone surgery or by anyone who just likes the look of a nip. From the breast cancer community to drag artists, there are plenty of people who already use prosthetic nipples. Let’s not forget when Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones wore a silicone pair over her own to attract men in bars, telling the girls, “Nipples are huge right now, open any magazine.”