Khloe Kardashian: Wants to be Strong, Not Skinny

Khloe Kardashian is a celebrity with a net worth of approximately $60 million dollars. She's part of the Kardashian-Jenner family, whose show Keeping Up with the Kardashians has been running for 14 years now (producing 20 seasons over that span). Her sisters, Kim and Kylie, are both incredibly successful businesswomen who founded Skims and Kylie Cosmetics (respectively).

But in a recent interview with People magazine, Khloe publicly goes on record to describe what she thinks is attractive and what's not. Khloe knows that she's in the public eye, and that many young women look up to her. And yes, someone could argue that she's only talking to the media about what she wants for herself. But body image is a super sensitive topic, so I don't understand why she's talking about body image at all.

From my previous blog post ("Taylor Swift: Fatphobic or Not?") I talk about how society places an individual's worth on their physical appearance. Khloe is just reinforcing this idea, but explaining to the media why she thinks strong is more attractive than skinny.

In an interview with People Magazine, she says, "Everyone has their own aspirations and body goals, but I love when I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I have new muscle definition,' or 'I finally have that tricep cut that I've always wanted.'" By making statements like this, and focusing so intensely on them, Khloe is not only saying that an individual's worth is in their physical appearance but also that only a specific subset of people with a specific physical appearance are valuable.

Yes, someone reading this article could just come away with the impression that, "Oh, Khloe wants to look strong and lean instead of just skinny," but I'd urge readers to unpack the deeper message that maybe even Khloe herself is unaware that she's sending. That a young woman reading that article somewhere else could come away with the idea that, because Khloe thinks looking strong is valuable, I have to start working out, and how that thought could spiral into obsessive exercising and an eating disorder if too much of someone's self-worth is associated with it. Thanks for reading, and I'll be back soon!