I’m just gonna call it: the world probably would’ve been way better off without Khloe Kardashian’s half-assed response to that unedited Instagram photo.
Just under a week ago, Kardashian took to Instagram to ‘explain’ her thought process behind frantically attempting to have the unedited photo of herself scrubbed from the face of the earth.
While the internet were certainly not amused with her statement, they were left feeling a whole lot of other things, myself included.
Now let’s get to Kardashian’s Instagram post in which she included her statement. In the slide gallery, she posted a video of herself sporting a pair of beige undies, flexing her body from a bunch of different angles with the caption, “PS Yes I did a live to show you all this isn’t photoshopped 😝”
Sliding through the post, you’ll find that Kardashian goes on to share a lengthy statement which supposedly explains her situation and why the world should ease up and back off.
In her statement, she began by saying, “Hey guys, this is me and my body unretouched and unfiltered. 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 judgement my entire life to be perfect and to meet other’s standards of how I should look has been too much to bear.”
She goes on to say, “For over a decade now in photos, every single flaw and imperfection has been micro-analyzed and made fun of to the smallest detail and I am reminded of them everyday by the world.”
What bugs me about this is that she’s basically excusing her photoshopping – which perpetuates unrealistic (and not to mention fake) expectations because of how she has been ‘micro-analysed’ by society.
Instead of taking responsibility and acknowledging that by editing her photos, she feeds into the negative feedback cycle that is unrealistic beauty standards (which she is obviously now struggling to keep up with), she somehow blames the world and acts like editing is her only option.
In a world where the phrase, “You do you boo” is thrown around a lot, I think we’re at the point where we have to realise that a moment like this is probably causing a lot of damage to society. And actually, we shouldn’t just let it slide.
Khloe Kardashian and any other influencer or public figure with similar Instagram followings and feeds is quite literally perpetuating and fuelling a feedback cycle of toxicity. So where do we draw the line?
She continued, “We are all unique and perfect in our own way… I have realized that we cannot continue to live life trying to fit into the perfect mold of what others have set for us.”
I’m sorry, but by having the photo deleted and continuing to post highly edited photos that have had more than a filter laid over them forces society to feel that we have to fit into her “perfect mould”. And that’s just fucked.
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