Beauty isn’t Attainable, and it Never Will Be

Kim K, your privilege is showing — so is your BBL

If you subtract sixteen pounds for a dress, add a Brazilian Butt Lift, face lifts, and a lip injection here and there, you can solve the equation for the Kardashian/Jenner family’s pricey plastic surgery bill and unrealistic beauty standards.

This is not to argue against plastic surgery — to each their own. Cosmetic plastic surgery is a nuanced issue, and it is foolish to make generalizations about it. However, the debate gets more complicated when the big Ben Franklin in the room isn’t addressed: price.

Many celebrities, especially the Kardashians, flagrantly discuss the expensive alterations they make to their bodies. In and of itself, this may not be too harmful, but they preach about undergoing these procedures to make them more confident and feel beautiful. This rhetoric is extremely damaging to the collective psyche of women across the world. It tells us that if we can’t afford it, we won’t look like them; if we don’t look like them, we won’t be as successful, valuable, popular or loved.

The desire for plastic surgery is inherently based on a standard of beauty that is unattainable. The unrealistic expectation to drop thousands of dollars to achieve a body that will be out of style in the next few years is wasteful and unfulfilling. Plastic surgery itself is painful, let alone coming to terms with the cultural truth that someone’s body shape in this society has the potential to become an antiquated trend. A body is not a style or trend — it's just a body.

If you don’t look like the Kardashians, you are expected to be stick-thin like Kaia Gerber. There is no moderation on the swinging spectrum of what someone’s “body goals” should be. We need the communal effort to stay neutral: you shouldn’t feel forced to love your body and you shouldn’t feel shamed into hating it, so might as well just rock with it.

The Kardashians have the monetary privilege to mold their bodies to fit trends while most don’t. These women must be cognizant of the advantageous position they are in and how their actions are impacting women who can’t afford to change.

The Kardashians are not the sole perpetrators. Body image issues and ethics have distorted the way that women see themselves and the “look” that they should try to pursue. So, when any celebrity talks about their plastic surgery, it translates to the conclusion that this is the way to achieve that type of beauty.

But, beauty today is a commodity. Cosmetic surgeries do not always have high success rates, and the procedures can quickly become dangerous. In 2017, research centers confirmed that Brazilian Butt Lifts (BBLs) had the highest fatality rate out of any cosmetic surgery. Due to the popularity of the BBL, women will travel to cheaper doctors for surgery, where the risk for infection, death and complications rise.

Is your money worth the aesthetic if it leads to mutilation? Beauty is pain, right?

This culture allows those with money to keep making changes to their faces and bodies, and then proclaim that it changed their life for the better. This results in the public developing an insatiable need to achieve that same feeling of satisfaction about their bodies. It becomes a never-ending cycle of wanting and wanting and never receiving, leaving women even more insecure.

The reasons for these alterations are founded on comparisons standardized by the male gaze. If you believe that your lips aren’t big enough or your face isn’t tight enough, you are comparing yourself to a version of beauty that is defined by patriarchal standards of femininity. In this, the definition of beauty is deformed. Plastic surgery can give you the veneer of “making these changes for yourself,” but the urge to do it in the first place originates from societal pressures to feel and look a certain way.

No, the Kardashians and Jenners didn’t originally ask to be the standards for beauty across the world (though Kris might have wanted it for her little girls), but it is naive to believe that they haven’t enjoyed it. This family and other celebrities continue to profit off the continuous cycle of women trying to look just like them.

Every single one of their brands appeal to a woman’s presentation, such as skincare, clothes and makeup products. Not only have they set the standard, but they have the power to change it in an instant at the launch of a new lipstick or skinny tea. Just like cosmetic plastic surgery, it is all about keeping the rich pretty and everyone else always wanting more — a sickening way to drive sales.

So no, I would not call the Kardashians feminists for disguising unrealistic standards of beauty as an empowering choice they make only for themselves. This is a choice they make in the name of capitalism: they get to profit, spend, and then continue to change their body while those without money are made to feel even more insecure that they cannot look like this themselves.