Beauty and Health Are Not The Same Thing
If you can believe it, I have even MORE to say about the whole Kardashian cover of Health Magazine (refer to my IG story highlight KK Health Mag for the rant that inspired this whole post).
It’s true that health looks different on everyone, and I could maybe be persuaded that Khloé Kardashian arrived at this physique through healthy living, if we hadn’t all witnessed everything that the Kardashian family has promoted over the last 10+ years.
Khloé and her family have peddled waist trainers, laxatives, weight loss supplements, and Revenge Body, a Biggest Loser-esque reality show that glamorized crash dieting and extreme over-exercising instead of addressing difficult emotions, on top of editing their photos beyond recognition WHILE surreptitiously having their own faces and bodies operated on. Khloé participated in this all the while cashing in checks on her inclusive clothing line, profiting from both diet culture AND body positivity all at once.
Conflating Beauty and Wellness Is A Public Health Issue
Women have been sacrificing their well-being in pursuit of beauty forever— sixth century women would drain their own blood to achieve the pale skin ideal, and modern day Americans get life threatening BBL surgery to look like the Kardashians. Despite the fact that we know better, the allure of feeling beautiful has always been, and still is, for some, far more compelling than being well, but we’ve all kind of agreed that sometimes it’s worth it for the status return, “beauty is pain” after all, right? In the context of a beauty magazine, it’s harmful, but at the very least, you know what you’re in for.
We’re used to seeing this type of surgical and digitally alteration (plus strategic angles, lighting, and styling and behind the scenes access to personal chefs and multiple grueling workouts a day) on a beauty magazine. That in and of itself is a big problem. It’s a pretty well known fact that when we repeatedly absorb flawless images of bodies, it negatively impacts how we see our own— no matter how close to the beauty ideal you actually are. One study even found that just 30 minute of social media exposure a day (and be honest, you do way more than that) changes the way you view your own body. (Fardouly, J., & Vartanian, L. R. (2015). Negative comparisons about one’s appearance mediate the relationship between Facebook usage and body image concerns. Body Image, 12, 82–88. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.10.004 )
When we see this type of image on a health magazine, however, it violates that unspoken agreement we made when we decided it’s ok to be unhealthy if we’re beautiful when it tries to convince us these behaviors are in fact, healthy. The concept of “beauty as wellness” is so deeply menacing because it ignores the fact that beauty often comes at the cost of your health. Mimicking Khloé Kardashian may help you fit the currently trending version of beautiful, but it’s most likely not going to make you healthy, and makes her a really confusing choice for the cover. There are obvious mental health dangers to extreme beauty culture, but there are also real physical consequences to extreme dieting and exercise like injury, heart attacks, chronic digestive issues, amenorrhea, hair loss, osteoporosis, and even death to name a few.
We need to keep beauty and health separate to have informed consent about the media we consume— putting any of the Kardashians on the cover of a magazine that’s supposed to report on health while failing to acknowledge how unhealthy the path to create that beautiful cover image was, blurs the line too much for comfort.
Exercise Is Only Therapeutic If You’re Not Using It As Self Harm
I don’t believe in shaming people who want to lose weight or have plastic surgery—it would be pretty hypocritical of me, a size 4-cisgendered-straight passing-white lady to say “Oh, just love what you’re born with and forget how marginalized you are by society!”, and I recognize that it’s a lot easier for someone like me to say “Fuck the beauty standard!!!” while I still benefit from it, so no judgement on the act of alteration itself, just the deception around it. And no, I’m not implying that heiress, entrepreneur, reality star and member of the most famous family in the world is in any way marginalized, but the media haaaas been pretty brutal to her about her appearance. It’s not hard to understand how she got to this place. I can’t say I have any idea how I would handle it in her position, and truthfully, it’s something of a Greek tragedy to spectate her cartoonishly Facetune the shit out of her face.
I do have a problem with the fact that we all know she and her family have all taken extreme measures to look this way, and they try to pass it off to us as just dedication to eating well and moving. A “lifestyle”. This look is not attainable for most people— and it wouldn’t even have been attainable for Khloé without several procedures. Body diversity is real, and not every human being is supposed to be super thin with chiseled abs. For many people, even the most rigorous exercise routine and restricted diet won’t make that happen. Acting like this image is possible with enough hard work is gaslighting an entire population, encourages obsession, and makes people feel like they’re wrong for being human.
The story even dared to report that to her, exercise isn’t about appearances—it’s about her mental health. While IMO, movement is therapeutic and can absolutely be transformative in terms of stress and mood, that statement feels a little hollow given everything we know about her. Furthermore, while I think it’s possible to have dueling beliefs at the same time— like the desire to change your body and hatred of diet culture—it’s difficult to view exercise as self care when the thing that really motivates you to hit your mat is actually self-loathing— and I’m making an assumption here that Khloé doesn’t like herself very much if she refuses to let an unedited image of her exist on the internet.
When we exercise with the sole intention to of “fixing” our bodies, it’s nearly impossible to practice appreciation for it at the same time. A neutral act that can be so positive for your health becomes a chore at best and an fixation at worst. Including some honesty about the emotional and physical toll it takes to look like this would’ve really been in better service of public health. Or, wild idea, put someone on the cover who actually has a balanced relationship with food and movement that would be genuinely inspiring for readers.
Conclusion
This article COULD have been a thoughtful examination of how beauty culture and diet culture are intertwined, how they affect our mental well-being and probed her on how she feels about navigating that while being held to a certain visual standard at the same time. Instead, we got a fairy tale about how “it’s all about practicing healthy habits on a daily basis”. We’ve all seen watched for a decade with rapt attention how she arrived at this appearance not just through surgical assistance, but a whole lot of disordered habits as well. To me, and I hope to you, health includes your mental well-being, and encouraging this type of imagery on a magazine is not in anyone’s healthiest interest.
My whole raison d’etre as a body neutral pilates instructor is to help people focus on the health and well being using movement as a tool to enjoy their bodies, feel empowered by conquering challenging workouts, and practice self-compassion. It bothered me that there didn’t seem to be a place in fitness where I could get a tough workout without being tough on myself, and so I very intentionally cue my classes in a way that helps you both find your best form and push yourself while also leaving out any of the body shamey nonsense that the fitness industry considers motivation. If you’re interested in trying out my 400+ challenging and creative pilates based workouts ranging from 10-45 minutes in length, plus bonus body image workshops and advice from anti- diet registered dietitians and intuitive eating counselors, check out the HPS 10 day free trial here.
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