I love Keeping Up With The Kardashians as much as the next girl. In fact, it is one of the many ways my roommates and I enjoy procrastinating. But, that being said, as someone who will spend the rest of her life recovering from an eating disorder and teetering on the edge of relapse, a lot of what the Kardashians do and say is really problematic. Especially when it comes to body image, something that has come to the forefront of people's attention lately.
In a new episode, Kim seems thrilled when her sisters describe her as "anorexic looking". First of all, what the hell? Society's image of anorexia is a story for another day, but it is not whatever Kim Kardashian looks like. It's ribs and hip bones jutting out so far that it seems alien and hollowed out eyes with heavy shadows. By giving women the impression that anorexia looks like Kim Kardashian, they are promoting the idea of not eating. And trust me, it only takes a quick Google search to find literally thousands of resources to help you down the rabbit hole of an eating disorder.
But, the bigger problem, in my opinion, is all their damn advertisements on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter for various dieting products. They are the champions of Fit Tea, and Kim received a lot of backlash for promoting appetite suppressing lollipops on her page. The problem here is two-pronged: The results of that product are falsified because they also have access to personal trainers, nutritionists, and plastic surgeons, and they are actively profiting off of the insecurities of the women who look up to them. That's messed up.
The Kardashians sell the idea that anyone can look just like them if they just drink tea that gives them uncontrollable diarrhea and substances that get rid of your need to feel hungry, a tactic that the anorexic community is famous for. For the adults that look up to them, it can serve as the catalyst to someone who is already in the "perfect storm" of suffering, and create a lifelong battle with their self-esteem, their body and their mind. Eating disorders will eat you alive.
But for the younger girls that are watching them? The Kardashians are showing them that the way to beauty like theirs is being so skinny that others will describe you as "anorexic". That the only way to beauty is Fit Tea and hating your body that is perfect and beautiful in its own way because it doesn't look like someone who has access to millions of dollars worth of specialists, and doctors and plastic surgeons. And they won't be able to see that the Kardashians are using all this in order to make money off of the fact that in our culture if you aren't a 00 and platinum blonde, you're ugly.
It's horrible that the self-proclaimed "champions of women" are making money of the self-hatred of people who look up to them, who religiously watch their show, and follow their lives on social media. It's beyond horrible, really. It's absolutely sickening.
