Should Kim K. Cater To Your Feelings?
August 7, 2022 Ashley 0 Comments
After years of hating on the Kardashians, I find myself… on on Kim’s side. Again.
We already covered the met gala debacle a bit ago.
Long story short – she worked hard to lose weight so she could fit into a dress.
And everyone dragged her for it.
Granted, she stated that she’d “starved for a month” to fit said frock. However, anyone who’s ever communicated colloquially ever knows that she was being hyperbolic. Exaggerating. Being “extra” as they say. Anyway, fast forward to now and Kim’s talking about her weight loss again and how proud she is of her body fat percentage. The response? Vitriol and butthurt, of course. Why, you might ask? Is it because she said she ate nothing at all? Lived off a shred of mozzarella and a lettuce leaf each day? Went full breatharian? Nope. My girl just talked about cutting out junk food, sugar, and fried foods. Granted, the last two items were redundant because sugar and fried food is junk food. That being said – that’s a good thing. Normal. Healthy. Cutting that out isn’t negative. So now let’s cut to the dumbest shiz I’ve ever heard from Laura Cohen of Equip Health, in response:
“It’s dangerous because you’ve got plenty of people who want to follow the Kardashians and will take this message and be like, ‘I’m going to cut out all of my junk food; I’m going to decrease my body fat.’ And in people who are predisposed, that’s going to set off an eating disorder, and it’s going to get out of control,” Cohen says. “At the very least, it’s going to send someone into the world of restriction and being miserable. But it’s not ever going to be good enough, and they’re not ever going to reach the goals that they want safely.”
(Imagine calling healthy eating dangerous.)
But, indeed, some dietician said exactly that.
Now, the first part about cutting unhealthy food and losing body fat obviously isn’t a problem. What she’s claiming is that that might trigger a spiral for those with anorexic tendencies. And that’s where the whole argument unravels. In that case, we can’t have alcohol advertisements (because: alcoholics). We can’t have commercials for any kind of drugs (because: addicts). And, most of all, we can’t have obesity masquerading as “body positivity” anymore because it just might trigger someone who worked so hard to lose weight in order to qualify for gastric bypass until they eat enough to bust their lap band. This is where we begin to see our own biases (whose feelings we care about versus whose we don’t) and how our reality shouldn’t shape, color, or – most of all – limit anyone else’s. You don’t sign a special contract when you hit the limelight and cross over into celebrity status that you’ll affect everyone positively. Not only is that not your job; it’s impossible. We’re all different and dynamic creatures who perceive information and stimuli uniquely. We would literally never utter a word if we were worried about never offending anyone all the time.
No matter how you comport yourself, you’re always gonna be upsetting someone.
You’ll always be offending, vexing, or generating some sort of dislike from someone somewhere just by the way you breathe the air. And you’re not changing it for them. So why should anyone change their way of living to suit you? Instead of telling Kim (or anyone) how to live her life, this is a perfect opportunity to realize two things. The first is that celebrities aren’t your validators. They aren’t your god. They aren’t your religious or spiritual leader. They aren’t your doctor. Thus, they shouldn’t be where you go to to get your advice, health guidance, or anything other than – you guessed it – entertainment. The second realization we should come to piggybacks off of that. And that’s the fact that we need to stop spending so much energy on limiting how people speak or what they do. All we have control over is ourselves and how we handle anything anyone says. And if it feels somehow triggering to you to be told that reducing junk food helps with weight loss, then that’s a you problem. Anything triggering is. It’s a signal to hit up your therapist, nutritionist, sponsor, or whatever professional can help you handle reality better. Because the reality will always be that not all people are going to cater to the illusory cushion you’ve designed to protect your feelings from what’s actually unfolding around you.