When rumors began swirling that the Kardashian-Jenner clan was removing their butt implants, a palpable shift in tide could be felt, undulating from speculative whispers to lengthy pontifications regarding what this would mean for the body image of the collective.
See, there’s much ado about the famous family’s influence on the aesthetic happenings of the times. No matter where you stand on the issue, it seems quite clear that where they lead, an overwhelming majority seems to follow. From fillers and fashion to makeup and beyond, the Kardashians are the starting pistol for the race toward a new, likely unstable, standard of beauty.
I could speak ad nauseam about the unique place the Kardashians occupy at the intersection of whiteness and cross-cultural toe-dips that has readied them to have such a wide-reaching impact on such varied pockets of the global community. But I won’t. Not here, at least. But their collective slimming, so to speak, combined with the cyclical nature of trends, has re-ushered in perhaps one of the most damning trends we’ve experienced in modern times: Heroin Chic.
This Ozempic-fueled resurgence of unwaveringly thin bodies in accordance with low-rise jeans and micro-mini skirts is alarming for so many reasons.
Of course, there are the more obvious harms that can come with this trend, like the glamorization of eating disorders, body dysmorphia and the vast amount of mental and physical health concerns that come with the itch to be ultra-thin. But a less explored facet of the quest for thinness is its roots in anti-Blackness.
That’s right, society’s obsession with thinness is as steeped in racism as, well, society itself. In Sabrina Strings’ book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, she breaks down the sordid entanglement between whiteness and the desire to be thin.
“Within the aesthetic system of the High Renaissance, pointed noses and fine lips were typically associated with a refined facial beauty. At the same time, well-formed, proportionate figures represented the height of bodily beauty. This aesthetic pairing led to the degradation of the African face and the exaltation of the African body,” Strings writes.
Present day, these systems still thrive as we see people disparage “BBL” bodies, curvy figures and “dump trucks,” in favor of “pilates arms” and a vocal desire for a return of the “thin” Victoria’s Secret models.
These seedy roots are being re-sprouted and blooming into arid trees that are still bearing the rotten fruits of white supremacy through body politics and beyond.
