Truly selfish?

In 2014 I got hooked on a phone game named Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (you might have heard of it). Throughout the day I would play it on and off, because I'd have to wait for my energy to refill. You could definitely say that I got obsessed with rising to the A-list (it was the whole incentive of the game). It even got me start liking Kim Kardashian for a while. This got me to purchase her book Selfish in 2015 and her digital stickers aptly named Kimoji. For a full year I was a Kim Kardashian fan. Looking back on it, I feel its odd, me being a Kim Kardashian fan. For one, I didn't follow her on social media nor did I watch her show Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Then I realized that my younger sisters was a big Kylie Jenner fan. She loved Kylie Jenner's "King Kylie era" and aspired to look and dress like her. I stil remember how she would look for something that could help her "plump her lips" like Kylie Jenner's before she had released her famous lip kit. It seems that through my sister, I too felt the influence of the Kardashian-Jenners.

Right now it feels like it was ages ago though it's only been a decade. Everybody I knew, even my mother, was talking about Kim Kardashian's derriere and how it "broke the internet." I still remember my confusion at the time: My internet is working just fine, what are people on about? I mean, of course, her cover for Paper magazine's Winter 2014 issue "broke the internet" (i.e. went viral) because it was quite the revealing photo, shot by Jean-Paul Goude. She was only wearing some pearl necklaces, a pair of pearl earrings and a pair of satin opera gloves while taking off a sequined black dress, I think. This cover did turn into a meme that year with various celebrities and netizens trying to replicate it. And years later, people are still using the hashtag #BreakTheInternet in hopes of going viral or just to show off their Kim Kardashian Halloween costume. Apparently, last year her younger sister Kendall Jenner did a similar shoot for Jacquemus' holiday campaign. 

It's no secret that the Kardashian-Jenner family's popularity is paramount to this very day. During Paris Fashion Week all eyes were on Kylie Jenner as she strutted down the runway for Coperni in Disneyland Paris. According to me she looked fine (my eyes were on the gown honestly), but a lot of people on the web weren't a fan of her being on the catwalk. The reason for this appears to be that Kylie Jenner had broken down about her feeling insecure because she can't keep up with modern beauty standards. Since she had started dissolving half of her fillers, netizens have been calling her "good-looking for a 50-yearold." Ironically the Kardashian-Jenner family are the ones that set this modern beauty standard of having full lips, having a Brazilian butt lift etc., also known as the Insta Baddie look or more derogatorily known as the millennial "Instagram Face" or "Copy-Paste FaceTune Face." Yet, I mainly know it as the "yassification" meme which says a lot about me.

Personally, I don't think the main issue is them setting beauty standards, but rather them acting like they achieved them through natural means, which isn't the case of course. For instance, in 2022 Kim Kardashian officially bid adieu to her BBL-body and welcomed her new skinny body clad in a, now torn, Marilyn Monroe gown (brought to us by Ozempic). However, this denial of procedures done has had a notable impact on young people since 2015 with the #KylieJennerChallenge. This has caused many people to develop facial dysmorphia much like the pro-Ana and pro-Mia fora caused many women from my generation to develop body dysmorphia, myself included. Unfortunately nothing will change and nobody will take pity on the Kardashian-Jenner family as long as they aren't honest about what procedures they've gotten.

Thank you, and take care.