Trigger warning: this article contains discussions of body shaming and fatphobia
Nay not once did I ever imagine myself writing about the Kardashians…Yet, here I am. I’m trying to find some kind of redeeming solace in the fact that as much as this train of thought/writing is about the Kardashians, it’s also essentially not about the — Black aesthetic — Kolonising Klan. Just recently Khloe Kardashian took to social media to speak out “against her struggles with [her] body image after her grandmother posted an unedited picture of her at a pool”. Naturally, Kris Jenner went to work to have all traces of the image removed from the Internet (the devil works hard but Kris Jenner works harder) and Khloe took to the stages of social media to express her feelings stating:
The photo that was posted this week is beautiful, but as someone who has struggled with body image her whole life, when someone takes a photo of you that isn’t flattering in bad lighting or doesn’t capture your body the way it is after working so hard to get it to this point — and then shares it to the world — you should have every right to ask for it to not be shared — regardless of who you are. In truth, the pressure, constant ridicule and judgment my entire life to be perfect and to meet other’s standards of how I should look has been too much to bear.
I’m not saying Khloe’s feelings are invalid — all feelings are valid, it is what it is. However, cue the smallest of violins within my sympathy orchestra because the very “pressure, constant ridicule and judgment” Khloe speaks of as being “too much to bear”, is both cause and symptom of the very toxic, violent and dangerous cultures her and her family’s wealth is built on. “Khloe Kardashian is still very much invested in fatphobia and diet culture. She does not get to suddenly be the face of body positivity after years of recklessly promoting dangerous diet culture and making millions off of it. The bankruptness of her logic also worked to reveal itself because, the devil is a lair, when she “proceeded to post videos of her skinny physique to prove that she isn’t fat” even going so far as to share a picture from the same day as the candid pool photo, however, this time the image was curated. It’s hard for me to hold space for what I am assuming are the very real feelings and struggles Khloe grapples with where her body image and self esteem in relation to it are concerned, because to quote intersectional feminist Ashleigh Nicole Tribble, “whatever their personal body struggles may be, they have been instrumental in the creation of Internet diet culture. They reap the monetary benefits every second”. Personally, I find trying to engage with the Kardashians or attempting to give logic to them an exhausting exercise of cognitive dissonance. From the justifications — read: woe is me excuses — they have given for their actions, yes Kendall that Pepsi ad will outlive you, to the way they stand (whole chest) behind their cannibalistic consumption(s) of Blackness on many levels, also have we so quickly forgotten the violent attacks the family unleashed on a Black femme Jordyn Woods after the Tristan drama with Khloe calling her a “fat fucking asshole”.
I think in some way, this thread of writing is also an attempt to speak to the politics of being granted the statues of victim when you are also a perpetrator… And in that breath, I find it important to also remember that Khloe’s Good American Jeans was accused of stealing from and infringing on the intellectual property of an independent Black and femme owned business d.bleu.dazzled, founded by Destiney Bleu who went on to share on Twitter, “When someone buys 1 of everything on your site, has you make them custom @dbleudazzled work, never posts it or wears it, then copies it”. That’s literal money being taken from a Black femme and to summon Frank Ocean’s mom as I have many times before, “it’s not just money“. When faced with criticism or called out for their problematic ways and the dangerous pathologies perpetuated through how they generate their income, the Kardashian’s tend to respond with a aggression that gaslights and is incapable of taking accountability and changing. So perhaps even within all of the validity of her feelings, this is why I can only play a tiny tune of sympathy for Khloe on my tiny tiny violin.
