However you might feel about Kim Kardashian West and her penchant for posting nude photos of herself online, there’s no denying the woman knows how to make an impact.
Last year alone she was the most Googled person on Earth. She has 70.4 million followers on Instagram, 45.5 followers on Twitter and more than 28 million people like her Facebook page.
It seems fitting then that she was honoured at this year’s Webby Awards, which celebrate outstanding work online.
She won the first-ever “Break the Internet” award, a wink-nudge reference to her Paper magazine photo shoot, which, well, broke the bloody Internet.
Her acceptance speech was only five words long (as is convention at the Webbys) but she managed to say a lot:
“Nude selfies ’til I die,” she proclaimed to cheers from the crowd.
It was this picture of Kimmy in her birthday suit taken in March, which sent the web into a tail spin:
Clocking 1.7 million likes on Instagram, it spawned hundreds of imitation photos and ignited furious debate among feminists.
“To put it simply, Kim Kardashian has mastered the Internet, she controls the Internet and I’m hoping she’ll announce her presidency right now because our choices are very thin,” tech journalist Kara Swisher said before presenting the award.
“Although hard working, savvy, sophisticated and family focussed, she’s become a media mogul for the new millennium.”
Kim rated several other mentions throughout the evening: Michael Moore used his five words to jokingly accuse her of stealing his spiel (“Kim Kardashian stole my speech”), while Jimmy Fallon’s speech simply listed the five Kardashian sisters.
Highlights of the evening included Nick Offerman dressing as New York stoop-dwelling viral sensation Pizza Rat and the Onion, Jessica Alba, Krysten Ritter, Lena Dunhan and an absent Kanye West all winning awards.
Top Comments
And I rest my case...the most irritating half wit on the planet. Shared by her charming other half, ego manic husband. Why would they even bother having an award for this?? Talk about irresponsibly encouraging young girls to follow in her self degrading self promotion of superficial nothingness.
I'll be interested to see what Kim does when the world is bored by yet another nude selfie. She's only going to get the 'break the internet' reaction for so long, then it will become old hat - oh, Kim's naked again, yawn. So, what comes next? We've already seen her having sex, maybe a guided tour of her next pap smear or colonoscopy?