Apparently this photo is "proof women can't have it all."

A fun multiple choice for the weekend.

What do you think when you look at this picture?

a) My, motherhood agrees with that lovely Kim Kardashian. Doesn’t she look delightful?

b) Holy cow, they’ve really upped the dress code for mums and bubs’ club.

c) Bbrrrrr, it’s a bit nippy to be out without a vest, isn’t it?

d) I need a good lie down.

I vote D. It must be truly, truly exhausting to be Kim Kardashian.

In this photograph, she is not coming from a photoshoot with Annie Leibowitz, or even going to lunch with Anna Wintour. She’s not going to the Oscars, or trying on a costume for another tasteful flim clip with her husband, Kanye West.

No. Kim is going out for dinner with her sister. Her sister.

And dinner with her sister requires full hair and make-up, yards of Hollywood tape and a great deal of front.

Oh, and a pram. Because Kim is a mum now, and the fact she manages to look like this while still nurturing a small person (North turned one on Sunday), makes me tired, but it got some other people rather excited.

“This photo is proof women can’t have it all,” declared Time.

“Kim is the ultimate Yummy Mummy!” yelled the British tabloids.

But really, this photo (and many, many others like it), just tells us that for Kim Kardasian and other young women like her, motherhood (or pregnancy, or age, or time of the month) does not excuse you from being HOT.

Because being hot is still one of the most valuable things that a woman can be.

Now, before anyone thinks I’m taking life lessons from Kimye (ha, if you could see me, typing this in my pyjamas…), I am not.

But KK has 15 million Instagram followers. Think about that. 15 million. That, my friends, is called influence.

Her hotness, matched with a fearsome work ethic and one of the most ruthlessly brilliant managers in the business (her mum), has earned Kim a fortune of $45 million.

Kanye knows his wife is Hot. It’s his favourite thing about her, as illustrated by these amazing quotes:

” I couldn’t be with any girl but Kim, because she’s the girl I look at photos of the most and get turned on the most.” He told journalists this week.

“Y’all acting like this ain’t the most beautiful woman of all time! I’m talkin’, like, arguably of human existence — the top 10 of human existence!” he berated a host on radio last year as Kim nodded blushed beside him.

And at their wedding, he declared his bride “as beautiful as I am talented.”

Indeed, Kanye’s love is as deep as the ocean.

Yes, I know, these are not ‘real’ people. But these powerful, popular-culture figures have a big impact on the way we see women, and mothers, and ourselves.

And I’m exhausted because I wish there was a moment in a woman’s life where being Hot is no longer a relevant measure of her worth. As I peer into the mirror in the morning, wondering what level of industrial filler will hide my dark circles and whether I will be visually acceptable to the world if I don’t straighten my hair, I am measuring myself, even without realising, in the hotness stakes.

Kim Kardashian looking like she’s pushing a pram into Studio 54 is not about me, or you. But her dedication to hotness above all things is as clear a sign as you need that as a culture we still value beauty in women as highly as we ever has. That is, above all else.

And also that, babies or no babies, if you are a multi-millionaire workaholic trophy wife with a perfectionist husband and an reality TV empire to run, yoga pants are not an option.

And for that, I’m glad I’m typing this in bed, in my pyjamas, and nobody cares but me.

Has there been a time in your life where you’ve decided you don’t care how you look any more?

This article was originally posted on iVillage Australia and has been republished here with full permission.