A newly resurfaced video shows the Kardashian sister’s problematic POV on fitness.
“I can’t stand people that are like eating a bucket of, like, Haagen-Dazs ice cream and and they’re like ‘I’m so fat.’”
These are the words of Khloe Kardashian, seen in an interview clip that has recently been circulating on TikTok. She goes on to complain about the mentality and behaviors that overweight people have when it comes to their health, stating that these people “won’t work out, they won’t change their diet, they won’t drink more water.”
This clip has, understandably, generated a lot of controversy from the public, due to both Khloe’s past struggles with her weight and her weight loss methods, as well as the general shameful language she uses.
First, fatphobia is never justifiable, regardless of your past struggles with weight loss or relationship with food or your image. As someone who has formerly existed in a larger body, Khloe has known what it’s like to be bullied and criticized for her weight. Throughout the rise of the Kardashian family’s career, Khloe was always labeled as the “fat sister” by the media, which brought her much public scrutiny. She’s spoken openly about how damaging those years have been to her mental health, as she was inevitably made to feel like an outsider of sorts within her own famous family. Between 2017 and 2018, she claimed to have finally put a stop to her constant “yo-yo dieting” and committed to a healthier lifestyle, which has transformed her figure to one more similar to the famous hourglass of her sisters.
Assuming that Khloe did, in fact, lose weight in a healthy, balanced way — although there is speculation that most of her progress was aided by cosmetic surgeries which isn’t inherently wrong, but is dishonest — it’s understandable that she would want to encourage others to start on a healthy journey. However, using shameful language is not the way to go. Now that Khloe is on the other side of her weight loss journey and fits into society’s standards, she seems to have no problem using the same type of condescending tone and stereotyping that was used against her in the past.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time in recent years that Khloe’s words and actions surrounding fitness, health, and body image have caused a stir.
Khloe has also starred in her own E! Network television show, Revenge Body, from 2017 to 2019, which gave contestants “True and Total” makeovers to “helps fans who have gained weight get revenge on people who discouraged them during their weight gain.” Through regimented diet and workout plans, Khloe and her team “majorly transform” their contestants. As the description states, this transformation is “all about showing the world — all those people who doubted you, who rejected you — what they’re now missing.” This can definitely be viewed as an unhealthy mentality to have when approaching weight loss: Instead of being fueled by genuine desire to better your lifestyle and relationship with yourself, the show teaches viewers that they must push themselves to meet these beauty standards to gain an upper hand on people who wronged them in the past.
This past April, when an unedited photo was circulated that displayed a no-makeup, un-airbrushed Khloe, she was quick to hop on Instagram Live with a video flexing her abs in the mirror and displaying her toned body. She even had her team take down all reposts and screenshots, threatening legal action. This particular incident was Khloe’s chance to make a statement about how social media is curated, and that we all have imperfections; it was a chance to be “relatable” and use her influence for good. Instead, she was quick to the defense, and felt the need to prove that she hadn’t gained weight in an effort to silence any potential hate. One could question what kind of message this response sends to her fans and followers.
There is also a lot to be said about how wealth plays into one’s ability to be able to make healthy changes to their lifestyle. The Kardashians have amassed a net worth of BILLIONS, and therefore are able to take advantage of resources such as nutritionist, trainers, personal chefs, stylists, and hair and makeup artists. They also have the money to afford liposuction, and other forms of plastic surgery, which they have repeatedly denied having (despite professional surgeons debunking these claims on social media). These privileges are not accessible to just anyone, yet the way the Kardashians have established themselves online and positioned themselves in the public consciousness creates a constant pressure to be of a similar caliber in beauty and fitness.
And in addition to all of this, the sisters’ Instagram and Snapchat content is all heavily curated, posed, and edited — they’ve been caught in more than a few Photoshop scandals. Ironically, the Kardashians are struggling to live up to the very societal beauty standards that they themselves have set.
As a celebrity and influencer in a society which has always glorified thinness and emphasized its correlation to beauty, Khloe Kardashian has found herself to be a victim of fatphobia in the past. Yet through her present-day words and actions, she is playing an active role in upholding and perpetuating a toxic culture that’s oppressive to women. At the end of the day, she is profiting off a deep-rooted insecurity that she knows all too well. Under the guise of being a motivational fitness guru, Khloe is doing more harm than good to the body positivity movement.