Another week, another Kardashian or Jenner insisting that they’ve not had the plastic surgery everyone thinks (and can see) they’ve had. The latest iteration of this polished press line came yesterday when Kylie Jenner featured on the cover of Wall Street Journal, to promote her new fashion line Khy. In the interview she said: “I’ve never touched my face, but just even getting my breasts done when I was 19 and getting pregnant soon after, not obviously planning to be pregnant at 19.”
Explaining her new-found transparency, the 26-year-old said: “My daughter has totally taught me a lot more about myself, and seeing myself in her has changed everything. I’ve had so much growth and am just embracing natural beauty, I’m teaching her about mistakes that I made and making sure she knows she’s just perfect exactly how she is.”
These comments echo similar ones Kylie has been making over the last year; before hand, she was on the ‘deny deny deny’ train — now, it’s half truths.
Speaking with HommeGirls in April, she said “I think a big misconception about me is that I’ve had so much surgery on my face and that I was some insecure person, and I really wasn’t! Yeah, I love full lips and wanted full lips, but growing up I was always the most confident person in the room.” She continued: “I had my one lip insecurity thing, so I got lip filler, and it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I don’t regret it. But I always thought I was cute.”
The same month, in an episode of The Kardashians, she confronted her sisters about the topic: “All of us just need to have a bigger conversation about the beauty standards that we are setting.”
Some might want to commend Kylie Jenner, at least she’s having these conversations, even if they are wishy washy attempts; it’s more than the rest of her sisters have done. However, I’d ask those people to look at the timestamps: she is only talking about beauty standards and plastic surgery when she has something to promote. Be that a new show, a new Kylie Cosmetics range, a new fashion line. She is attempting to connect with audiences, make them believe in her authenticity so they will believe in the authenticity of her products. If Kylie was actually committed to having conversations about beauty standards, wouldn’t she say more? Not just regurgitate the same lines about her daughter, mistakes, and that she’s never ‘touched’ her face. These are not real, genuine conversations she is having — they are just strategy.
In that now infamous conversation between Kylie, Khloé and Kourtney, the youngest sibling said “I see so many young girls on the internet now fully editing. And I went through that stage too but I’m in a better place. And other people can instil insecurities in you.” Khloé replies: “That’s how I accumulated all of mine, is from other people. I had the most confidence. I was chubby and in a skintight body-con dress. Society gave me insecurities.” Kim Kardashian was not present for this discussion.
The frustrating part of all this discourse is that the sisters are so close. So close to almost saying what needs to be said, adjacent to honesty and actually helping these young girls they claim to worry about. Their language is vague — deliberately so — and so are their denials. Kylie, for instance, says she’s never had plastic surgery on her face (she does not comment on her body). However, many would define fillers and thread lifts as cosmetic surgery. The smoke and mirrors are carefully curated, and intentionally misleading — the sisters have plausible deniability for when, and if, they are ever directly questioned.
The performed naivety over their impact, the shifting of blame to ‘society’, and the lack of accountability is downright frustrating (and boring) at this point. The Kardashians are products of the patriarchy, affected by beauty standards like the rest of us. But, unlike the rest of us, they have profited off this to obscene levels, without giving back. Unlike the rest of us, they have created new beauty standards and peddled them to millions.
I’m not here to prove to you what plastic surgery the Kardashians have or haven’t had; we all have access to Google. The onus should be on them to promote honesty, and finally give up the jig and stop vaguely blaming ‘society’. I’d, personally, rather they went back to their era of complete, absurd denial when it comes to plastic surgery — at least that was entertaining. This new stage of sugarcoated lies and morsels of truth is patronising; their fans deserve better. So do young girls.