The Kardashians. The Jenners. The ubiquitous family that is seemingly everywhere. A dynasty that permeates our social media screens and television screens and everything else in between. As of 2022, five of the Kardashian-Jenner clan are currently in the top 25-most followed Instagram users. Not to mention the endless list of Kardashian products, from makeup to tequila to shapewear, that have become synonymous with their global brand.
Their uber-successful reality TV show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, wrapped filming completely in 2021. The end of their television presence was short-lived, with Hulu picking it up again and revamping it into the simpler-titled The Kardashians, which premiered this year.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, each and every one of us has kept up with the Kardashians/Jenners at some point during their lives. Either way, you can’t deny their influence and their hold over contemporary pop culture.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about what messages these luxe, glamorous lives of the Kardashians are sending, where they are continuously capitalising off products designed to make people all over the world look more like them and lead lives like theirs. Not only have we been left to pick off the dregs of their “girlbossing”, but are constantly exposed to their negative influence.
At first, it started with Kylie Jenner posting a photo with partner Travis Scott between two private jets, captioned with “You wanna take mine or yours?”. In a world where most of us are recycling, ditching plastic straws and making conscious efforts to reduce our carbon footprints, the post felt majorly insensitive and completely out-of-touch.
Being in the spotlight for over fifteen years, the Kar-Jenner clan has constantly set a series of beauty standards for young people across the globe. It begs the question: Is this influence more damaging than we think? Do the Kardashians/Jenners perpetuate damaging tropes for their audience today, including feminine toxicity?
It’s no secret that the media has constantly berated the Kardashians for their physical appearances over the years. We’ve seen the paparazzi and tabloids capture photos condemning them for gaining weight, monitoring their food choices and applauding them for significant weight loss, even whilst pregnant. The press has constantly labelled Khloe Kardashian as the “fat and ugly” sister.
With this in mind, it’s clear that the Kardashians have felt immense pressure to look a certain way.
But instead of condemning the tabloids and media for these negative and toxic body ideals, the Kardashians have only perpetuated them. I can recall Kendall Jenner posting a close-up image (amongst many) of just her stomach and waistline on Instagram when I was a teenager, which facilitated my own insecurities about my body. The Kardashians have openly endorsed Flat Tummy Co., which manufactured appetite suppressant lollipops as a way for customers to achieve their body ideals. In a 2018 Instagram video, Kim Kardashian happily laughs at Khloe’s comments about her looking anorexic, thanking her. It’s clear that the standards they emit are only able to be achieved through wealth.
Only recently at the 2022 Met Gala, Kim Kardashian revealed to US Vogue that she shed 16 pounds in just 3 weeks in order to fit into the same iconic Mr President dress that Marilyn Monroe wore back in 1962, which was unable to be altered.
Kim revealed to US Vogue she endured a crash diet, involving cutting out sugar and all carbs, and wanted to “cry tears” when the zip went up.
While this approach was Kim’s choice and she is undoubtedly entitled to that, the issue here is that we are championing it. We are presenting Kim’s fitting into the dress as an achievement and a badge of honour, with toxic dieting being romanticised at the forefront.
It is this kind of harmful rhetoric that has the potential to perpetuate eating disorders and damage young people’s mental health.
Others from the family are guilty of this. Last year, Khloe had an unairbrushed, accidentally posted photo of herself on Instagram completely removed from the internet, with the mentality that it was “unflattering”. She returned to Instagram, posting several videos of her physique in order to prove the natural, unphotoshopped state of her body.
But by having the seemingly untouched photo of herself permanently removed, it sends a highly negative message to both young people and adults, especially those with a similar body shape, that they should hide their real bodies if they don’t look a certain way, an ideal that Khloe and the Kardashians have helped create through their relentless promoting of their products and paid advertisements across their platforms. (There’s a whole It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield podcast episode unpacking this, which you can listen to here).
Ultimately, the Kardashians have formed a dangerous cycle, where their wealth inflates toxic femininity and exploits people’s insecurities for personal and professional gain.
With the widespread presence of the Kardashians-Jenners still very much prominent in 2022, it is important to get the full picture of who we idolise in the media and what celebrities drive our cultural conscience.
As the Kardashians continue to exhibit excessive wealth, diet culture and unrealistic body ideals for the sake of capital, we are constantly left feeling not good enough and not attractive enough. Until we stop endorsing these luxe lifestyles, we are feeding a power system that is slowly destroying our right to feel comfortable in our own skin.