Kylie Jenner and the Beauty Standard
design: Finley Banks
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - but who is holding the mirror?
by NEVIN MAHONEY ★ JULY 6, 2024
The Kardashian-Jenner sisters are often in the spotlight for changing their appearances, but now they are expressing concern about the beauty standards they have helped promote. In the most recent episode of The Kardashians, Kylie Jenner broke down crying over societal beauty standards after comments were made online about her appearance at Paris Fashion Week, stating, “It’s a miracle I still have confidence, and I can still look in the mirror and think that I am pretty.” After getting her lip filler dissolved, Kylie took Paris Fashion Week as an opportunity to debut a more minimal makeup look, but the public was quick to criticize her looks and the work that she had done.
After seeing Kylie crying over the hate and body shaming she has gotten online, the only thing I could think of was that she has capitalized and made her career off of that exact feeling, a feeling an entire generation of girls has felt: sitting on the couch and feeling sorry for yourself because you don’t look a certain way.
People quickly began calling out Jenner’s hypocrisy, claiming she is crying over the beauty standards she and her family have upheld. The clip instantly went viral, with TikTokers such as Marie Soledad claiming the only time the Kardashian-Jenner sisters ever talk about how societal beauty standards are messed up is “when they stop meeting their own beauty standards.” The popular belief that the Kardashians have invented unrealistic beauty standards is untrue; they existed in magazines, media, and tabloid culture decades before the Kardashians were even famous, but that does not mean they do not benefit from it. Whether you love or hate them, the Kardashian-Jenners will never fully understand or realize how damaging they have been to the beauty standard, because they profit from it and have built their entire empire based on it.
The Kardashians' virality and media coverage have allowed them to become impressionable to younger girls, a responsibility they did not ask for, and do not handle well. Remember the Kylie Jenner lip challenge, where little girls would be sent to the hospital after sucking on shot glasses to get their lips to look like Kylie’s? Instead of trying to stop girls from participating in the challenge and spreading body positivity, Kylie’s response was to promote her Kylie Cosmetics Lip Kits and convince young girls that her product would eliminate their insecurities. Kylie denying her plastic surgery has inadvertently caused a spike in plastic surgery procedures because women were desperate to look like her. As young women, we have always looked up to the Kardashians to see how to dress and look, and Kylie's tricking the public into believing she has not had any surgery and looks the way she does because of her products is problematic.
While the Kardashians have shown they are capable of reinventing themselves over the years, they may need to adapt to the current values and expectations of society. By embracing diversity, promoting authenticity, and using their platform to support social movements that could ultimately reshape the beauty standard, the Kardashians can continue to play a significant, and more positive, role in shaping beauty standards.