Much ado was made recently over a picture of Khloe Kardashian that was accidentally posted on her Instagram and then deleted – by then, however, the picture had been circulated by many and Kardashian lawyers went to work having it scrubbed from the Internet. Excessive force over a photo, several might say and have. The photo itself? A perfectly nice picture of Khloe in a bikini – except that it hadn’t been touched up. After massive backlash, the 36-year-old media personality shared her thoughts today. On Instagram, she shared a live video to “show you all this isn’t photoshopped.” She also appended a statement in which she explained the fuss over the unfiltered photo and her rush to have it removed.
“The photo that was posted this week is beautiful,” Khloe Kardashian begins her statement, contradicting herself in the next sentence: “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.”
Khloe, younger sister of Kourtney and Kim Kardashian, was noticeably heavier when the family first began airing their star-making reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians. “In truth, the pressure, constant ridicule and judgment my entire life to be perfect and meet other’s standards of how I should look has been too much to bear,” she writes in her statement, revealing that she has been on the receiving end of comments like “Khloe is the fat sister” and “Khloe is the ugly sister.”
Noting that public opinion has largely suggested she suck it up because “she grew up in a life of privilege” and “signed up for all this,” Khloe Kardashian writes, “I am of course not asking for sympathy but I am asking to be acknowledged for being human… It’s almost unbearable trying to live up to the impossible standards that the public have all set for me.” Her flaws and imperfections have been micro-analyzed in photos, Khloe writes, adding that the common assumption is that she “must have paid for” her now toned and fit body.
“I love a good filter, good lighting and edit here and there,” Khloe Kardashian writes, “My body, my image and how I choose to look and what I want to share is my choice.”
Read her detailed post here:
Khloe Kardashian’s words will, of course, resonate with anyone who has struggled with body image and that’s most of us. Nor is her right to assert agency over her own life in dispute – the problem with the forbidden image is twofold: the extreme lengths her team went to in having it deleted and, more importantly, the narrative presented on social media by Khloe and her sisters.
One might argue that Khloe Kardashian perpetuates the same impossible beauty and body standards she deplores in her post. The controversy over the picture she worked so hard to have removed has thrown into sharp relief an older post (see below) Khloe shared on Instagram – a picture oof her stretch marks with the caption, “I love my stripes.” Does she really, asks the Internet now, given that no photo of Khloe presents the real, unfiltered her.
