Pregnant Kim Kardashian’s Media ‘Fat Shaming’ Criticized By Gloria Steinem

Kim Kardashian’s pregnant body has been tabloid bait ever since it started to change and even more so since the reality star’s baby bump grew large. Fellow celebrities have come to her defense, and now on her side is American journalist Gloria Steinem, who believes the scrutiny Kardashian is facing is wrong “under any circumstance.”

If some magazines are saying that she weighs more than 200 pounds, most others are saying she is purposefully putting on the pounds so she can snatch a weight-loss contract once the baby is born.

Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Helena Christensen and Jenna Dewan-Tatum have rushed to Kardashian’s side to defend her against those labeling her mom-to-be shape as fat -- and now, Steinem has joined the effort.

Us Weekly spoke to the eminent feminist on April 5 at the 4th Annual Diane Von Furstenberg Awards in New York City, where she talked about Kardashian’s ever-evolving curves and the way society generally perceives expecting women.

"Our bodies are never public property under any circumstance," the 79-year-old activist told the magazine. "It's wrong, and people in the street who feel the right to touch a pregnant woman's belly ought to be arrested for harassment. Our bodies belong to us, and if we don't invite touching, we shouldn't tolerate it."

Steinem added that criticizing a woman’s body, Kardashian included, not only hurts the victim but society as a whole. If others are mistreating women because of their bodies, it devalues everyone’s brain.

"If our bodies are treated as ornaments instead of instruments, that's because we are rebelling because it's an effort to distract us," she said. "So don't be distracted. Why bother getting caught up in that?"

It’s probably not so easy for the 32-year-old fashionista, who has been berated ever since announcing her pregnancy with boyfriend Kanye West in December.

"It's funny because Kourtney warned me that when I get pregnant, people's opinions will be on an all-time high and everyone will chime in!" she wrote on her blog last month. "So I now see what she means."