THEOver the past decade and a half, no family has dominated the conversation around beauty ideals quite like the Kardashian and Jenner family. From their exaggerated curves to their noticeably fuller lips, the women’s faces and bodies — and the conversation that swirls around them — have become some of the sisters’ biggest assets, helping to keep them in the spotlight and offering an image around which have created profitable product brands.
For years, the glamor surrounding the Kardashians and Jenners’ appearances has been fueled by the kindness of the siblings. While some have admitted to using botox or fillers, they have largely avoided discussing whether they have surgically altered their bodies (with few exceptions)—so viewers of the Hulu family series The Kardashians were shocked by Kylie Jenner’s candid admission on the July 27 season finale that she had breast augmentation when she was 19.
Read more: The Kardashians It’s a great marketing opportunity for family brands
Sisters have long been criticized for perpetuating unrealistic standards through choices like using Photoshop and filters to change their images on social media, promotion of food productsand proudly talking about a crash diet. At the same time, one of the most insidious aspects of their influence on women’s body image is the way they have argued that their looks have only been achieved through hard work and genetics, rather than cosmetic surgery, says Jessi Kneeland. its author Body Neutral: A Revolutionary Guide to Addressing Body Image Issues.
More from TIME
“They’re selling a fantasy,” Kneeland says.
Jenner’s comments about her breast augmentation in the Season 3 finale were surprisingly candid. The fact that she talked about everything is revealing, and it’s tempting to think that her openness could represent the beginning of a new era of accountability for the Kardashians. But experts say the transparency of this single moment on television rings hollow in light of years of damage already done to women’s perception of what is beautiful and ideal.
How family has influenced body image and beauty standards
It is indicative that the first episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians 2007 opened with a family discussion about Kim Kardashian’s butt. Kris Jenner famously mentioned that her daughter had “trash in the trunk.” Their banter foreshadowed the many ways the family would put their bodies in the spotlight — and the public’s attention. Speculation about dramatic changes in their faces and bodies over the years, by buttock implants to chest jobs in more recent weight loss, has consistently fueled media coverage. The women themselves encouraged it, with Kim posing naked for an ‘internet break’ Paper magazine cover shoot and the sisters often share revealing body-highlighting images on social media. They’ve turned their obsession with figure into successful brands, from Kim’s Skims clothing line and Khloé’s Good American denim brand to Kylie’s lip kits and Kourtney’s Lemme supplements, which sell the dream of looking and feel like a Kardashian.
Read more: The Kardashians continue to juggle business and family—but the cracks are showing
For some women, the desire to emulate the family’s aesthetic has led to more drastic, permanent changes: in the years since the family’s rise to fame, cosmetic surgery has become more common than ever, and there’s an obvious parallel between the Kardashian sisters. we talked about the features and processes that have gained popularity. In 2016, after Kylie said she got lip fillers, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported surge in lip surgeries. ONE 2018 study by the same organization found that buttock augmentation procedures had increased by 256% since 2000, despite the fairly serious risks of the surgery (the Brazilian Butt Lift, or BBL, has the highest mortality rate of any cosmetic procedure).
Kylie Jenner says she regrets her breast augmentation
This season of The Kardashians included two instances in which the sisters discussed their appearance and their influence on beauty standards. First, in the penultimate episode, which aired on July 20, Kylie led a conversation with Khloé and Kourtney about the pressures they feel to look a certain way. Khloé admitted that the public scrutiny that followed their presence on television, as well as criticism from their mother, who once overheard someone telling someone that Khloé needed a nose job, and more general social expectations, motivated her to surgically change her nose. Kylie has expressed a desire to correct the misconception that she underwent facial changes because she was “insecure”, saying that she has always been confident and that her choice to get dermal fillers came from a place of loving herself.
She acknowledged how their choices have an impact on other people: “I just feel like we have a huge influence,” Kylie said in the episode. “What do we do with our power? I just see so many young girls on the internet going full edit [photos of themselves]. I went through that stage too and I feel like I’m in a better place, but other people can instill insecurities in you.”
Read more: Why body neutrality works better than body positivity
Kylie returned to the topic in the season finale during a chat with her friend Anastasia Karanikolaou, admitting that she had had a breast augmentation as a teenager and wished she had “never done it in the first place”. She also shared that she hopes her daughter doesn’t undergo any surgical changes to her body.
“I would be heartbroken if she wanted to fix her body at 19,” Kylie said of her 5-year-old daughter Stormi. “I wish I could be her and do everything differently because I wouldn’t touch anything.”
What the Kardashians’ Recent Comments Mean for the Future
While these comments from Kylie and her sisters mark a remarkable shift towards openness, Meredith Jones, professor of gender studies at Brunel University and author of Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery, urges Kardashian media consumers to recognize the moment this change has come. First, talking about cosmetic surgery is no longer taboo the way it once was: TikTok is filled with videos of people walking viewers through their body modifications. Second, the sisters began losing weight, following a newer “trend” toward thinness that coincided with the widespread use of slimming drugs like Ozempic. In this context, Kylie complaining about her breast augmentation is pretty predictable and safe. Jones, who has hosted “Kimposiums” — academic forums devoted to the Kardashians — sees the discussions the sisters have had on the show not so much as an acknowledgment of how they perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards but instead an attempt to keep up with era and set the narrative about adapting to a new beauty ‘trend’.
“The Kardashians have always said they are mirrors for us,” says Jones. “They’re kind of the main performers of our beauty culture.”
MJ Corey, author and researcher who theorizes about the Kardashians on social media under the handle @kardashian_kolloquium, describes the brothers’ bodies as a “narrative mechanism.” “Their body is stirring and challenging and has become really representative of people,” says Corey. “They leaned into it, so when they started losing weight and their behinds started to shrink, they knew it would spark a conversation – and it did.”
Read more: Ozempic exposed the cracks in the body positivity movement
For Kneeland, the Kardashian and Jenner family’s small move toward transparency is a step in the right direction, regardless of their motives. But Kneeland argues that these fleeting conversations don’t address the real problems the family has created when it comes to other people’s self-image.
“The big limitation is that we’ve already seen all the images,” says Kneeland. “It’s better than nothing—it’s better than never telling—but you can’t go back and reset the minds of millions of women from the way you’ve affected them over the years.”
Kneeland points out that one of the biggest real-life consequences of the Kardashians’ and Jenners’ lack of transparency in the past has been the fantasy that their looks could be achieved if you exercised, used the right supplements, or wore the right products. By not disclosing whether or not they had undergone surgical work, the sisters left discussions of privilege, resources and risk out of the equation.
Read more: Keeping up with the Kardashians Ends. But their exploitation of black women’s aesthetics continues
“A BBL is not cheap and people go to great lengths to get one,” adds Jones. She points out that the sisters’ recent weight loss highlights a certain kind of privilege: sporting bigger behinds, which has historically made women of color, and especially black women, bring positive attention to sisters. But now that the look is more accessible and popular in the mainstream, it has become less of a fad and the Kardashians have the means and ability to change their bodies.
“I think about the anguish that many people must be feeling right now, basically finding out that this body modification [like this] it is no longer acceptable, it will no longer be considered beautiful,” says Jones. “It must be pretty devastating.”
Jones also warns viewers not to think that Kylie’s breast augmentation complaint means the family will now be a force for body acceptance: “I can’t imagine listening to someone who has achieved this pinnacle of mainstream beauty through cosmetic surgery and to hear her say: I regret having it, but here I get all these benefits when I look like this.’ It doesn’t wash properly.”
For Corey, the meaning of all this is simple. The family’s new narrative around beauty hearkens back to what they’ve always excelled at: putting themselves at the center of a cultural moment. “For them to finally name it and acknowledge that they’re having an impact on body image—they’re just saying what we’ve already known for a long time,” says Corey. “It may have an impact on viewers, but more likely, it will just generate more discussion for them.”
