This week, Kim Kardashian took to Instagram to share a naked photo of herself, something countless celebrities have done before her. But for some reason, we couldn't seem to accept a woman's choice to display her body publicly. Everyone from Bette Midler to Piers Morgan criticised Kim's nude picture - but the mother-of-two wasn't having it.

After taking to Twitter to post some tongue-in-cheek replies to her detractors, Kim then shared a longer essay on her website, calling out the hypocrisy of those "slut-shaming" her.

"I never understand why people get so bothered by what other people choose to do with their lives," she writes. "I don’t do drugs, I hardly drink, I’ve never committed a crime - and yet I’m a bad role model for being proud of my body? 

"I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin... I feel so lucky to have grown up surrounded by strong, driven, independent women. The life lessons I’ve learned from my sisters, my mother and my grandmother, I will pass along to my daughter. I want her to be proud of who she is. I want her to be comfortable in her body.

"It’s 2016. The body-shaming and slut-shaming - it’s like, enough is enough. I will not live my life dictated by the issues you have with my sexuality. You be you and let me be me. I am a mother. I am a wife, a sister, a daughter, an entrepreneur and I am allowed to be sexy."

In honour of Kim's words, we take a look at the other celebrities who have taken a stand against so-called slut-shaming - the act of demeaning and disdaining women for (God forbid) having sexual desires or a naked body, and being open about it.

Miley Cyrus has had to deal with an excessive amount of slut-shaming, with that MTV VMA performance a prime example. The media lambasted her onstage twerking and skimpy outfit, while Robin Thicke, who she performed with, was largely let off without so much as a raised eyebrow. 

In an interview with Marie Claire, Miley acknowledged the double standards in the music business, saying that the treatment of men and women are poles apart, and contributes to slut-shaming within the industry. "There is so much sexism, ageism, you name it," she said. "Kendrick Lamar sings about LSD and he's cool. I do it, and I'm a druggie whore."

In 2014, social media went into a frenzy. The reason? An anonymous 4chan hacker thought it was acceptable to leak hundreds of nude photos - private photos - belonging to celebrities including Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Kate Upton, Rihanna and Jennifer Lawrence.

A spokesperson for Jennifer said at the time: "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence."

Jennifer, shocked, outraged and angry that anyone would want to make a profit from her private photos, eventually spoke to Vanity Fair about the leak, saying: "It didn't feel right to make a public statement, but it does need to be talked about. And I was afraid that by sitting and doing nothing, that made it seem OK for other women and girls to just let it happen to them, because it isn't.”

In the interview, she called the hacker's behaviour disgusting, and made clear that she had nothing to say sorry for.

"Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this," she said. "It does not mean that it comes with the territory. It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world. I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for.

"I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years. It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you. It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change."

Lena Dunham also has plenty to say about slut-shaming, with one memorable tweet reading: 

Well said, Lena.

There aren't many women in the world who speak out against slut-shaming as defiantly as Amber Rose - just look at that statement outfit from the MTV Video Music Awards in 2015, and let's not forget her famous Walk of No Shame video. She started the Amber Rose Slut Walk to protest our culture of slut-shaming, telling the audience at the event:

"In 2009, I met a very famous man. He was about seven years older than me [in reference to her ex Kanye West]."

"Unfortunately, I was extremely slut-shamed. I was called nothing but a stripper. Why would he ever be interested in me, I’m just a bald-head stripper from Philly. I was a gold digger. Apparently you gotta take 30 showers after being with me. That’s what he said. So, I get that just washed all my sexy bald-headedness off of his ass."

Then, referring to her split from songwriter Wiz Khalifa, she said: “In the midst of being hurt, he went on to make a song saying that he ‘fell in love with a stripper, but fell out of love quicker.’ As you can imagine, him being the love of my life, regardless if we’re going through a separation or not, that was extremely hurtful.

"He came out with that song and that really hurt me. All I did was love him and gave him a beautiful son. To be told that I was nothing but a stripper. And it hurt. So I decided to have this slut walk for woman who have been through shit."

The Slut Walk was started by The Amber Rose Foundation, a non-profit organisation Amber launched to "support her core mission of uplifting, empowering, and enhancing the platform of women across the globe", and was influenced by a Toronto police officer telling a crowd of college women that "if they wanted to avoid sexual assault, they shouldn’t dress like sluts."

On her Go Fund Me page, Amber writes: "The money received from donations to this event will be used to bring this event to life with on-site services such as HIV testing, sexual awareness booths, food vendors, merchandise vendors and a host of other services. But most importantly, your donation will support our foundation and groups and organizations of women who have been subject to slut shaming, a lack of implication of double standards, sexual assault, and even rape."

Amy Schumer has long disdained any sort of slut-shaming, even dedicating a whole episode of her show Inside Amy Schumer to address the issue in typically hilarious style. Not so hilarious, however, was one fan's attempt to be funny, in which he slut-shamed Amy in the process.

After meeting an '17-year-old Emmy-winning film critic' on the red carpet of the Critics' Choice Awards in January, Amy posed for a photo with him. The critic then posted the photo on his Twitter account, writing: "Spent the night with @amyschumer. Certainly not the first guy to write that."

Amy responded with her usual razor-sharp wit, and the following Twitter conversation ensued:

A consistently strong advocate for women doing exactly what they want, when they want, without feeling that they should be held back by men, Nicki Minaj is an unashamed feminist. Not only did she donate thousands of dollars to Amber Rose's Slut Walk, but she's also spoken out about the culture of slut-shaming in several interviews over the years. 

She told Billboard of her controversial Anaconda video: "I went overboard with the video to show that I'm not going to hide. And those big-booty dancers I have, they're not going to hide. Black girls should feel sexy, powerful and important too."

Speaking to V, she said: "There’s nothing wrong with speaking my mind, as long as when the song cuts off I’m still a businesswoman and I still respect myself. That’s where the true balance lies in my life. Women should be allowed to be as hardcore and sexual as we want, because men do it all the time."

Singer Ariana Grande has never held back on what she thinks about slut-shamers. Although she often deals with it humorously, as in the video below, she's sincere about the feminist issue, as you can see by the impassioned Twitter post underneath, in which she questions the "double standards" and "misogyny" prevalent in our society.

Photos: Rex Features