Kim Kardashian Keeps Posting Scaled-Down, Family-Centric Photos: What Message Is She Trying to Send?

There is only one way to describe Kim Kardashian‘s return to social media after the Paris robbery: calculated.

Since the Social Media Queen started posting on Instagram again on Jan. 3, she’s been rolling out one photo after another from the same set, which Us Weekly reports was the brainchild of Kanye West’s creative director, Eli Russell Linnetz. In all the photos, Kim, with her Cher hair, and Kanye, who is depicted as a stable family man after his public meltdown, are wearing the same (boring) outfits. An oversize white T-shirt that says “Penthouse,” booty shorts, and tan ankle boots for her; a hoodie, shirt, sneakers, and a hat for him. (In one, he removed his hat to show his yellow ‘do and sweatshirt.) There’s no jewelry, no furs, no … Kimye flash. There’s also no spontaneity; they are professional, polished, and highly edited.

The newest photo, posted on Wednesday, is of chubby-cheeked Saint with Kim and Kanye in the background:

Earlier in the day, she shared this one of Kanye checking out her butt in booty shorts:

The photos by design are not showy. The couple who have been renovating their $20 million home for two years (putting in new features and ripping them out on a whim) are in a very stark house. The decor is dated. The kitchen is a relic. There are paneled walls. There are marks on the wall. Needless to say, there are no coffee table books about stud farms or other signs of staging. (Kanye has bragged about staging their Bel Air manse.) Seeing as they are the first photos Kim has shared since the robbery and her social media break, the scaled down bareness of them — down to their basic wardrobes — seems so deliberate.

Do you think Kanye would really own this couch? Ha ha ha:

There are lots of marks on the walls — another Kanye no-no:

North West has to be thinking, “Look, Mom — there is nothing I would get in trouble for breaking in this house!”

You know Kanye would rather hang out with Taylor Swift than own a kitchen with that pink tile backsplash and counter. And let’s not even get into the cupboards. No. Just no:

Ditto the paneled walls:

You know Kim had her assistant check her for bedbugs after this photo was taken on the weathered sofa:

Further, in light of all the rumors about their marriage (the passion being gone between them is the most recent), it isn’t lost on us that these are all very loving family photos. They’re all together. He’s grabbing her butt. They are giving the world access to the rarely seen Saint. These aren’t random, which was Kim’s pre-robbery MO for social. She’d take off all her clothes and snap a selfie. She’d post pictures of her jewelry. These are the opposite of all that.

No matching fur coats for this family snap:

While Kim keeps populating her social pages with these pics, she’s made no mention of the fact that 17 people were arrested this week in connection with the Paris robbery, during which she was bound and gagged and stripped of $11 million of jewelry. (If she travels with $11 million worth of gems, imagine what she has at home. Further proof that someone like that doesn’t make dinner in a retro pink kitchen.)

The Kardashians don’t do things by accident — and this set of photos is no different. After the robbery, Kanye’s breakdown, and rumors of marital drama, it seems like Kim is trying to regain control of the narrative. But it is hard to buy into it when it seems so different from the Kim we know.