Kahlo vs. Kardashian: The Subversive Potential of the Female Self-Portrait

She, like Kahlo, can be considered a professional female artist. Where does the line between the self-portrait and the selfie fall? Both Kardashian West and Kahlo are masters of the form—suggesting that perhaps there is no clear line at all.

Kahlo began painting self-portraits after a bus accident that made it impossible for her to practice medicine as she once wished. Her highly sought after and incredibly well-respected portraits are an expression of her identity as she, the artist, perceived it—one often in both physical and emotional pain.

Self Portrait: A Cultural History,

Self-portraits are part of an important feminist tradition, one steeped in patriarchal norms of what it meant to be an artist and a woman. Up until (appallingly) recently being a practicing artist meant that somehow you had to break into an unwelcoming boys club.