The Kardashian Body Symbol: Skinny is the new Pure

 The Kardashian Body Symbol: Skinny is the new Pure  

Kardashian, Kim. 2018. “Instagram apologized to Kim Kardashian for 'mistakenly' deleting her posts promoting 'appetite suppressant' lollipops.” From Business Insider. Retrieved April 3, 2024 (https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-karadshian-appetite-suppressant-lollipop-instagram-apology-2018-5).

Like it or not, Kim Kardashian is a household figure. With over three hundred and sixty four million followers on Instagram (not to mention her Twitter, TikTok and other social media accounts), she has successfully cemented herself as one of the wealthiest, most followed reality stars of all time. In fact, just this week Forbes announced that she was number six on their “World’s Celebrity Billionaires 2024” with a net worth of over one and a half billion dollars (Sean Martin 2024). While she amassed much of this wealth with her skincare and clothing brands, she also makes a huge profit off of sponsored brand advertisements such as pictured above. In the screenshot from Kardashian’s Instagram account, she stares into the camera while holding a red lollipop on a white stick in her curled hand. She has the lollipop halfway in her mouth and she is only shown from the top of the forehead down, her hair and makeup immaculately done. The background is white and the photo itself is certainly filtered, with some type of grainy effect covering herself and the rest of the frame. To the right of the picture of Kardashian is her caption, which explains quickly and from the get go that this post is an ad for “Flat Tummy Co” and their appetite suppressant lollipops. She describes the lollipops as “unreal,” even prompting her followers to snag the items quickly with a fifteen percent off deal for the first five hundred who do. While this caption has since been edited to a simple lollipop emoji, unfortunately the Internet lasts forever and so will Kim Kardashian promoting an appetite suppressor as a good snack. 

The ad above is one of a plethora of ads from the entire Kardashian family that glamorizes starvation and turns the body into a symbol- one that tells us skinny is better and that to be skinny is to cleanse the body of the impure. In Mary Douglas’ “Purity and Danger,” Douglas argues that dirt is arbitrary, and that the distinctive and different ways that people view dirt can inform one on the structure of that society and how the people order themselves (Douglas 2002: 2). Given that dirt (and therefore impurity) is arbitrary, Douglas concludes that different societies have different viewpoints on what is pure and what is impure, “... each culture has its own special risks and problems” (Douglas 1966:150). I argue that there is a specific culture that a celebrity cultivates in their fanbase, such is the case as the entire Kardashian family with their promotion of unsafe dieting fads. 

 In the image above, Kim Kardashian capitalizes on her public image in order to promote an appetite suppressing lollipop. In case this wasn’t bad enough, the company that makes these lollipops is “Flat Tummy Co,” thus making this post and advertisement entirely about the body. 

In ads like these, Kardashian turns to her millions and millions of followers (a society in of itself) and instructs them to aspire for a flat stomach and no appetite. Here, Kardashian shares a simple message: skinny is pure. Anything else is impure, and thus should be avoided (with the lollipops). Douglas also concentrates her writing on the body as a metaphor, explaining that the body is a model and therefore a boundary within margins. Inherently, Douglas believes, this is dangerous (Douglas 2002: 150). I think the danger that Douglas predicts can in one way be seen through Kardashian’s post. Of the millions of people who see this post, how many will internalize the message Kardashian sends about the impurity of fat?

Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concept of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.

Heller, Susie. 2018. “Instagram Apologized to Kim Kardashian for ‘mistakenly’ Deleting Her Posts Promoting ‘Appetite Suppressant’ Lollipops.” Business Insider. Retrieved April 3, 2024 (https://www.businessinsider.com/kim-karadshian-appetite-suppressant-lollipop-instagram-apology-2018-5).

Martin, Devin Sean. 2024. “The World’s Celebrity Billionaires 2024.” Forbes. Retrieved April 3, 2024 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/devinseanmartin/2024/04/02/the-worlds-celebrity-billionaires-2024-taylor-swift-kim-kardashian-oprah/?sh=620accdd276b).