The kardashians have worked hard over the past decade or more to define feminine beauty, to be the bombshells that women and girls around the world look to for inspiration, from the time Kim broke the internet with her surgically enhanced booty (yes, yes, season 6 x ray…whatever), to how quickly their bodies bounced back after childbirth, to beestung poochy lips. The thing is, none of it is natural, they weren’t born that way, and most women don’t have hours upon hours to do enough squats to give us a derriere that looks good enough to be surgically enhanced. But sex sells, and being sexy is a money making machine for the Kardashians.
They. Are. Fake.
They take the cake on fake. I am all about empowering women, straightening crowns, sisterhood, and celebrating successes, but in my opinion, the Kardashian women are the antithesis of all things I value about womanhood, and in fact, are more destructive to womens’ sense of self by just being. Yep. I said what I said.
Let me start by saying they are famous for essentially…. nothing. I get it…reality TV. And from Reality TV came a clothing line and boutiques…which closed up shop and the line eventually pandered to Sears. A few other clothing lines, including shapewear, a few makeup lines…huge Instagram following and of course the drama fueled reality TV series…so they have amassed a fortune between them on the backs of everyday women and their aspirations of beauty.
So lets break this down: we have these sisters, who have all been surgically enhanced in one way or another. NONE of them are in any way, shape, or form the same way, shape or form they would be naturally with out surgical enhancements. None of them have actual 9 to 5 jobs, you know the kind where you get up and are a productive contributing member of society. Nope. They get up and eat the food that is prepared by their dietitians, before they go to the gym to workout with their personal trainers, and they work with their ghost writers on their books, and their assistants do what ever their assistants do. Right, Kim’s rainy day legal ‘career’. umm-hmm. I do not begrudge them the charmed life. My issue here is that they lead atypical lives of privilege and have a following of people who aspire to the same. No shame in being wealthy, no shame in being privileged, but be real while you do it!
This last week, a picture of one of the kardashian’s made headlines. No surprises there, after all, they are all about the headlines. This one happened to be surrounding an unedited image of Kloe that she fought to have removed from circulation. Ummmm. Pardon. We can’t see the real you? She then went on to post ‘approved’ pictures of her that were ‘unedited’ and defended her position with the fact that she has had body positivity issues over the years, and she has worked hard to get her body the way it is, so she should be allowed to only be presented in pictures she approves of. Um, yeah, your privilege is showing again. See above re: dietitians and personal trainers.
Kloe had the chance to be a real, relatable woman. I was so dissapointed when the picture was removed and replaced with images that were’ worthy’ of being seen. The fact is, I don’t know a single woman who gets up in the morning and says ‘Wow, I love the body I was born with’. I don’t know any women who love the way their bodies look when they are trying on clothes while shopping, strolling down the beach, or even lying in bed at night. We have all been conditioned to think that being a 36-24-36 is the ideal beauty shape, when the reality of it is when looking at women’s bodies, the average dress size is closer to an 18 than a kardashian sister who are all reportedly somewhere between a 4 and an 8.
Here is the thing. Be the real woman who gets up and makes a coffee run with no makeup, who goes to planet fitness and gets pictures snapped by the paparazi, who then turn around and question if your are pregnant because you have a ‘baby bump’ which is in fact a baby bump….from having birthed three children not because you are pregnant. Thank you Jennifer Garner for being real. I know a lot of women who get up everyday, get their children off to school, go to work, find time in the day to get a work out in, try to eat healthy, and who have baby bumps, thick thighs, crows feet, and split ends. These women, in their reality, are far more beautiful on their worst day than the Kardashians on the best day. These women represent all that is beautiful in woman hood; hard work, caring for others, caring for themselves, and authenticity.
