Please Don't Ask The Kardashians If They Promote "Unattainable" Beauty Standards

Most people can go through their entire lives without ever once being asked, point blank, without a trace of irony, whether or not they are evil. But those people are not the Kardashians, who sat down for an interview with Megyn Kelly recently to discuss life, family, fame, beauty standards... and the perception that they feed off of and contribute to the worst of society’s ills. That's probably not what Kim, Kourtney, Kris, Khloé, and Kendall (where Kylie at?) were expecting when they took a seat on that nice cream sofa in their nice coordinating black-and-white outfits in that nice studio with matching monochromatic décor.

“Women will say the Kardashians are ‘evil’ because [their] kid is looking at pictures of [you] and is being driven toward superficial goals that are unattainable,” Kelly said. “I’ve said publicly before, I want to ask you that question: Are you a force for good, or a force for evil?” None of them provided a definitive answer, but Kim was quick to defend the family’s image. “I think we’ve honestly, through our show, shown so much more positive things … but they only want to focus on, ‘oh, they’re superficial, oh, they’re wearing makeup, oh, they’re this,’” she replied.

Kelly countered, “[But] the people who don’t love it say, ‘My daughter doesn’t look like a Kardashian, and she feels pressured to be perfect and to look like they look." That’s when Kendall jumped in, saying, “None of us are perfect.”

Naturally, it was Khloé who came through with the practical response. “I grew up with sisters that everybody else was comparing me to, but I had such an amazing core base that I never felt less than,” she said. “If anyone is comparing themselves to someone else, that’s your responsibility at home to teach them what core values are, and to be a good person from within.”

She’s right, in a way. But hasn’t this been going on long before a Kardashian-Jenner ever walked this earth, like in the 16th century, when women slathered their faces in skin-whitening Venetian ceruse because they wanted their complexions to be as smooth and milky as Queen Elizabeth I’s? (We all know how that one ended: with lead poisoning.)

And not that they should get off scot free for the way they choose to publicly present themselves (cultural appropriation comes to mind), but why do we continually put the onus solely on celebrities like the Kardashians for setting unrealistic beauty standards, when the problem actually goes much deeper and further back than even them? Now that sounds like a question for Kim Kierkegaardashian.