As a teenager and a girl in my early twenties, I was mesmerized by the beauty of Kim Kardashian. I remember seeing her in a magazine for the first time and thinking wow, she looks really ethnic! She had thick eyebrows, dark hair and most surprisingly of all, she was very curvy. She had an unapologetically hourglass figure, which had become somewhat taboo in Hollywood. It was all about being blonde and very thin in the 90’s and early 00’s. Before Kim, when I was in high school, it was the Paris Hiltons of Hollywood that lots of girls were trying to look like. You can imagine me, the Greek teenager with black eyebrows, big boobs, an offensively plump bottom and thick thighs totally fitting in, right? Haha.

The Kardashians were part of a change in the media’s perception of beauty. Suddenly, girls everywhere started dying their hair and eyebrows darker and they started participating in booty challenges. So many women wanted the Kim K look and by 2016, my Instagram feed looks like Kim’s Klones. So much pouting, silicone and countouring happening. If you don’t think that she has taken over the world, then please, I want to live under the same rock as you.

Despite the fact that her and I do not share the same morals, I always found a way to defend her because I was really grateful for how she triggered the change in beauty standards. I kept saying to people that she promotes a fuller figure and is unapologetic about it. I kept telling people that she is a smart business woman. I kept telling people that she is so relatable because of her relationship with her sisters and her family.

Over the past couple of years however, my opinions have started to change. I do not defend her anymore. It all started when I re-watched episodes of KUWTK from Season 1. I kid you not, Kim and Khloe look NOTHING like how they looked in Season 1. Kim’s physical appearance is so far from what she used to look like. My point is: does she promote the positive body image message that she used to fool me into thinking that she did? In interviews, she would talk about her image and she was so charmingly self-deprecating and sent the message that despite her flaws, this was her and she was not going to change. The girl in me still wants to believe her and feed off her confidence, but the grown woman in me sees that despite her words, she has completely changed her face and has artificially plumped up her body, to the point where it is very unnatural looking. (If you believe that her body is natural-again, please invite me to that majestic rock under which you are living.) If you were such an advocate for positive body image, would you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to change how you look? 

Do I have an issue with people doing what they want to their bodies? No, I most definitely do not. This is not the issue I am discussing. Do what you want to your body, but don’t run around telling the world that you are natural and therefore create an unrealistic goal for young girls to obsess over. At the end of the day, her Snapchat and Instagram are flooded with her obsession of constantly wanting to lose weight so that she can post her next ‘nude selfie.’ Apparently, she is a on a Women’s Rights mission by posting these naked selfies. Again, do what you want with your body, but stop feeding us bullshit excuses so that you seem inspiring and relatable. Just be real.

My final reason why I don’t defend her and her family anymore is because she is a bully. We have entered an age where the people we’re forced to be exposed to in the media are cyber bullying each other. I’m a teacher and everything that is happening in the world is everything that we are trying to teach our kids not to do. Cyber bullying can cripple you as a human being. It is cruel, gutless and overall inhumane. It’s weird to think that it’s easier to ‘expose’ someone to millions of people and drag someone through the mud than it is to simply ring them up and sort out the issue privately and respectfully. This happened with Kim, not only with Taylor Swift, but with others too. It happened with Khloe Kardashian who bullied a 19 year old by posting a picture of the girl that the paparazzi took at the beach with her private parts showing by mistake. It was a fake picture. This family have been involved in so many ‘Twitter Wars’ where they degrade other women based on their status, age or looks. They call other women sluts, but they post a naked selfie and suddenly they’re Women’s Rights Advocates. Where’s the consistency in the messages they’re sending?

I don’t defend these people anymore.  I’m just confused by why she is one of the most influential and powerful people on the planet. What exactly is she giving to the world that is positive and steering us in the right direction? It’s actually the opposite. I do not want to look up to these people anymore. I don’t have any respect for the media and for this family who is flooding the media. I don’t have respect for the games that they are playing with the world and I feel sorry for the people that are fooled by them. I’m also scared for our children who will not know any better than this. There’s more to life than gaining followers through exposing your body, there’s more to being a woman than being overly sexual for anyone who will watch and there’s damn more to the world than Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to squint real hard to see what else is around because they are taking over. One overly edited, narcissistic selfie at a time.

I don’t know about you, but I wish our lives could just go back to basics. Nokia brick phone, here I come!! 😛

Lots of Love,

Magda xx