For a celebrity who reveals so much of her life on social media, it was perhaps an exposure too far.
US reality TV star Kim Kardashian has posed nude for a trendy magazine, revealing her famously large derriere in graphic detail.
The shocking image provoked an immediate backlash on Wednesday, with celebrities and social media users branding the pictures “vile”, “disgusting” and “pornographic”.
The mother-of-one, 34, was also accused of perpetuating impossible body images after some suggested the image had been heavily airbrushed.
Others simply poked fun at the picture, and posted “lookalike” jokes online.
All in all, the response was so huge that it was trending on social media on both sides of the Atlantic — no doubt much to Kardashian’s glee.
The shoot for next month’s cover of New York-based Paper magazine consists of two images by renowned photographer Jean Paul Goude, with readers able to select which one they prefer.
The first is a recreation of a famous shot from earlier in Goude’s career, which sees Kardashian in a black-sequined dress, popping a champagne bottle with the foam arching over her head to land in a champagne saucer balanced on her protruding posterior.
The second features Kardashian pulling the dress down with gloved hands to expose her buttocks.
Kardashian appeared pleased with the outcome, sharing the pictures with her 21 million followers on Instagram along with the comment: “And they say I didn’t have a talent...try balancing a champagne glass on your a** LOL.”
Her husband, rapper Kanye West, 37, also appeared to be pleased, publishing the pictures on Twitter to his 10.9 million followers.
The backlash, however, was also led by celebrities, such as Naya Riviera, 27, from hit television show Glee. She criticised Kardashian for posing in such a way when she has a toddler daughter. She wrote: “I normally don’t. But...you’re someone’s mother...”
Other celebrities took the opportunity to boost their own image. American talk show host Chelsea Handler, 39, who was once the victim of a sex tape leak, recreated her own version of the photo. She posed with her bottom exposed and then posted both pictures online with the caption: “Guess which one’s real.”
However, the general public seemed even more unimpressed. One Twitter user wrote: “That #KimKardashian photo is so disturbing. An ugly combination of silicon, surgery, make-up and Photoshop — with no human in sight.”
Various spoofs were also posted online. One superimposed a picture of a centaur on Kardashian.
Another posted a photo of a odd-shaped potato, suggesting it resembled Kardashian’s bottom.
Psychologist Deanne Jade, founder of the National Centre for Eating Disorders, suggested images like the Paper magazine shoot fuel very personal worries about body image.
She said: “Very few people have good body image now because we live in a very visual society and we are bombarded with lots of images of perfection.
“The trouble is that when something is trending — and we have all this on social media now — and girls sexting and boys looking at sportsmen like David Beckham or cyclists who have no body fat at all — the more they look at these images it’s like a drip feed, it seeps in and the stone of self-worth becomes eroded.
“These objects of desire are usually impossible, I mean you can’t have a body like Kim Kardashian’s unless you’re a freak. Even she doesn’t have that body. It shows how a little bit of Photoshop can make a big difference.”
