Keeping up with the (Kardashian) beauty standards
It turns out that being the beauty standard isn't always pretty...
If you could change the things you hated about your appearance without worrying about the risks, costs or fear, would you? I for one definitely would. Insecurity is a very natural thing and as it turns out, statistically common. With the Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee reporting that, ‘48 per cent of adults and 66 per cent of children feel negatively about body image most of the time’, it feels harder than ever to navigate this digital myriad of perfection. But how do the ways we interact with our insecurities directly correspond to beauty trends? And what does the world’s most famous family have to do with this?
First stepping into the limelight with their reality TV debut of Keeping Up with the Kardashians in 2007, the Kardashians marked a cultural shift in many forms. Despite the first few seasons maintaining an air of light-heartedness, the show still laid the foundation for the ultimate marketing strategy: the ‘ideal’ life. Positioning themselves as epitome of wealth, luxury and the American dream, the Kardashians were able to sell a fantasy from the very beginning. A fantasy that was destined to crossover into the formation of beauty standards, whether intentional or not. Cady Lang comments, ‘It’s telling that the very first episode […] in 2007 opened with a family conversation about Kim Kardashian’s butt […] Their banter foreshadowed the many ways the family would put their bodies at the centre of their focus—and the public’s attention.’
And while beauty trends themselves are no revolutionary concept, dating back as far as ‘tiny feet in imperial China’, the marketing miracle of the Kardashian rise to fame was that it aligned perfectly with the growth of social media – fans could interact with them beyond their televisions screens and they could promote long after the conclusion of an episode. This led to the popularisation of various Kardashian-fuelled trends, most notably the ‘full-glam makeup’ of 2016 (think heavy contour, smoky eyes, bold lips, and lots of highlighter) as the family shared their beauty tips and pushed their own products.
However, the Kardashians are also seemingly responsible for the cultural shift towards ‘the semblance of biological advantage’ as a beauty trend: where skincare, injections and surgeries are favoured over makeup. Whereas before we were being sold contour sticks from Kim to achieve the ‘perfect’ jawline, and lip kits from Kylie to mimic lip filler, the general public soon came to realise they were never going to achieve the same results without following the same procedures. Jia Tolentino dubs this transition as ‘The Age of Instagram Face’ and describes it as: ‘[A] young face, of course, with poreless skin and plump, high cheekbones. It has catlike eyes and long, cartoonish lashes; it has a small, neat nose and full, lush lips.’ If this description sounds familiar, it’s because Kim sits ‘as “patient zero” for Instagram Face,’ inspiring ‘countless cosmetically altered doppelgängers, [yet insisting] that she hasn’t had any major plastic surgery [and] just Botox, fillers, and makeup.’
There’s also a larger discussion to be had about profiting off of the illusion of full lips and a ‘perfect’ jaw under the guise of makeup, in order to sell a beauty ideal that doesn’t physically exist, and it’s here that we return to the Kardashian fantasy. In a similar vein to ‘Instagram Face’, we have the Kardashian ‘fantasy body’. It’s curvy in all the right places, yet slim and perfectly toned elsewhere and maintains the perfect proportions, with glossy tanned skin that’s free from imperfections, stretch marks and wrinkles. Oh, and it’s not real. And it’s definitely not achieved through waist trainers, diet lollipops, laxative teas or whatever quick fix is being pushed on their Instagram accounts.
But just how far removed from reality is the Kardashian ‘fantasy body’? Well, it’s important to note that with an estimated combined net worth of $2 billion, the Kardashians have unlimited resources of the best in the business. The best dieticians, the best doctors, the best personal trainers… yet they themselves are still photoshopping and filtering all of their social media posts. Lang explains, ‘[One] of the biggest real-life consequences of the Kardashian and Jenners’ lack of transparency in the past was the fantasy that their appearances could be attained if you exercised, used the right supplements, or wore the right products. By not disclosing whether or not they’d had surgical work done, the sisters left conversations of privilege, resources, and risks out of the equation.’
So, what happens when you yourself fail to achieve the beauty standards that you enforced upon entire generations of women? The result is Kylie Jenner in tears to her sister Kendall on season 5 of The Kardashians, breaking down over headlines and mean comments regarding her looks: “It’s like a miracle that I still have confidence.” Kendall then remarks on the ‘dehumanisation’ of their family: “We’re dehumanised… whereas, like, if you talked the same way you do about us about any other woman, people would come to their defence.” While I do not condone mean-spirited comments and tearing down women on the internet in the slightest, Kendall’s point does ring true and the Kardashians are very much dehumanised. But they only have themselves to blame for this. They have sold a fantasy, an unattainable beauty standard and an unrealistic lifestyle for the past 17 years and are only now facing the consequences of marketing themselves this way. Of course, Kylie and Kendall were just 10 and 12 years old when this particular strategy was formed and are the least to blame, but to disregard how they have also profited and benefitted from this business model would be obtuse.
The timing of this sudden vulnerability and openness is also suspicious. Many point towards the Kardashians having their own daughters to ‘finally care or realise’ about the impact of having such unrealistic beauty standards instilled on billions of women. While this aligns perfectly from a psychological viewpoint with studies carried out on “compassion fade” and how ‘information can be deadening in its abstractness [as we humans] struggle to care when the number gets big,’ it also makes sense from a personal standpoint. Of course, the Kardashians would not want the people close to them to feel a certain way about their bodies – especially their young daughters.
However, Chloe Laws highlights how ‘[Kylie only talks] about beauty standards and plastic surgery when she has something to promote. Be that a new show, a new Kylie Cosmetics range [or] a new fashion line […] These are not real, genuine conversations she is having – they are just strategy.’ Having watched episode 5 in its entirety for this post, it is interesting how awkwardly the clip of Kylie’s confession sits in the midst of the episode. The set-up of the scene is odd, we shift from Kendall and Kylie attempting to prank Kris to a sudden moment of contrived vulnerability on a couch. It’s not quite enough for its own storyline and just as fast as we land here, we are removed as the pair head off to dinner and are nowhere to be found for the remaining 40 minutes. As an attempt at vulnerability, it falls flat, and it’s easy to understand why it was so poorly received by the public.
It also makes sense that when you no longer fit inside the box that you created, or that particular box is no longer as desirable, you change your strategy. With the cost of living on the rise, consumers are no longer interacting with content in the same ways they once did. The general public are moving towards slower and more sustainable forms of fashion and consuming more mindfully, which is apparent in the growth of platforms such as Vinted or trends like ‘underconsumption core’. As a result of this, the Kardashian fantasy is beginning to carry a certain bleakness and their grand displays of opulence and excess are starting to become more and more tone-deaf. This leads us towards these ‘authentic’ and ‘candid’ moments of vulnerability (because nothing says relatable like confessing your struggles in your billion-dollar mansion under perfect lighting on your TV show). Lang comments, ‘[Experts] say that the transparency of [a] single moment on TV rings hollow in light of the years of damage already done to women’s conception of what is beautiful and ideal.’ It seems as while the Kardashians are beginning to open important discussions regarding beauty standards, they are not quite placing themselves inside – choosing to sit on the edge of the pool and dip their toes in, rather than fully submerge.
However, as previously mentioned, Kylie Jenner was a mere 10 years old when she was thrust into the limelight, and I can’t help but think about the irreparable damage that could do to a young girl. As a society we often forget that as much as the Kardashians are perpetrators of these awful standards, they are also victims.
In the very same episode of Kylie’s talk with Kendall, Kim makes a comment during lunch with her friends: “I’ve only got about 10 years where I still look good, so that’s all I’ve got in me.” It’s a throwaway comment, one that we’re probably not supposed to look into too deeply as the conversation is centred around her acting career, but it did make my heart sink to see such a successful woman have her looks so intrinsically tied to her worth and approach the matter so casually. Kim is pretty yes, but she’s also a marketing genius with many businesses under her belt. Of course, nepotism comes into play, but if you look at her rise to fame with all the twist and turns of the past 17 years, her looks are probably the least interesting thing about her story.
And can we actually blame the Kardashians for profiting off of this particular business model? Or should they instead be praised for taking both the ‘male gaze’ and a patriarchal obsession with the female body and turning it on its head to benefit them as women? The reality of the situation is that the complex subject of unattainable beauty standards will always be larger than this one family. If it wasn’t the Kardashians, I could name at least five other celebrities who would have added fuel to the fire. I do however think the Kardashians are heading towards the right direction, regardless of their intentions, in opening up these important discussions about what it means to be ‘beautiful’ or ‘perfect’ in modern society, especially as they have such a large platform. Unfortunately, I fear that we will never receive anything of substance or value unless it serves them directly from a marketing standpoint. But in an optimistic manner, who knows what the next few years will bring? All someone needs to do is tell Kris Jenner that authenticity sells.