beauty

Kim Kardashian said the one thing celebs never admit about Hollywood's beauty standards.

Kim Kardashian is one of those celebrities who could be anywhere from 23-years-old to 53-years-old. An ageless famous face perfectly smoothed of any crinkle or wrinkle or evidence of life lived. 

She's 43, you know. Just a few years shy of middle age, and yet she wouldn't look out of place at a 21st birthday celebration. 

It's a dangerous tightrope she's been walking; building herself into the epitome of (what society tells us is) female beauty. A face and a body that is widely revered as being close to perfect in the eyes of traditional beauty standards. 

Props should be given to her and her sisters, that she at least helps quash the idea that women need to be rake thin and lacking in any curve or bump. But her hourglass figure is curated—a heightened version of what she was born with. 

It seems after all these years of presenting herself to the world as an ageless immortal-esque being, Kim has finally realised something. Even she can't keep up with the impossible standards she's set for herself (and all of us).

On the latest episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, she informed the camera that she had about a decade left in her.

She was talking about her desire to pursue acting, musing that she could do "a movie a year."

"I’ve got about ten years where I still look good, so that's all I've got in me and then I'll take some time off," she admitted.

Watch Kim's admission below. Post continues after video.

She's not willing to let go of the injectables, telling her friends "I feel like you need less Botox for more emotion, and I do not have that. How am I gonna be scared? How am I gonna cry?" 

Reading between the lines, I see a woman who's tired. A woman who spends a large chunk of her time maintaining her looks with the help of doctors and dietitians and personal trainers and hairstylists and makeup artists. That's on top of being a single mum to four kids and having her fingers in multiple businesses and endeavours (all of which, it must be pointed out, have some link to beauty and the way she looks). 

I can't imagine it'd be easy having your income reliant on your appearance. Kim seems to realise that even though women with crinkles and wrinkles thankfully do still get acting roles nowadays, perhaps those aren't the kinds of roles she'll be vying for. She doesn't want to be seen that way, and part of me wonders if perhaps she's worried we don't want to see her that way. 

It's an interesting conundrum Kim has found herself in—victim of the very world she helped create.

Listen to Mamamia Outloud discuss Kim's words on the podcast. 

Her sister Kylie Jenner told Keeping Up With The Kardashians recently that it's a "miracle" she can still look at herself in the mirror and have any confidence after backlash at Paris Fashion Week in January regarding her looks.

She was being picked on for apparently having too much filler, made obvious, dermatologists pointed out, because of diagonal lines running through her cheeks. 

In a candid chat with her sister Kendall, Kylie spoke about how the hate and nitpicking of her appearance has taken its toll over so many years. 

"Why does anyone think it's ok to speak or write such rude things?" she asked. 

Because you and your family opened the door, that's why. Of course that doesn't give anyone the right to be cruel, but for the better part of nearly two decades we've been sold makeup and shapewear and clothes that have promised to make us look more like them. 

Except they weren't just using 'lip kits' and a pair of Skims, they were using Photoshop, surgery and entire 'glam' teams to perpetuate a final image out of most of our reach. An unrealistic goal that primarily just made women feel a bit s*** about themselves. 

Jennifer Aniston similarly let the mask slip earlier this year. She is in her 50s—55 to be exact (interestingly beyond Kim's future cut off age), and has spent her entire career looking, well, pretty much the same—slim, hot, perfect skin, and ageless face. 

In an Instagram post in March she told us, "You know those days when you just don’t wanna do it? You just gotta do it," as she pushed her body to complete a series of mountain climbers, leg raises and pushups. 

This is a woman who doesn't feel like she can have a day off, even when she wants one; a woman who has previously told interviews she does cardio every day at 4am and regularly works out three times a day. 

Perhaps this is a good thing. Finally the cracks are showing. Finally, we are seeing that not even Kim or Jennifer can comfortably live up to the standards they've set. 

They're tired. 

They've seemingly realised the world they've been fuelling is threatening to swallow them up and spit them out too if they don't maintain the image they've created for themselves. 

So thankyou, Kim, for saying the quiet part out loud. For admitting how tiring it is to play perfect. For not pretending it's all good genes and sunscreen. 

I am hopeful that in a decade's time 53-year-old Kim will feel more comfortable to lean into her skin, however it looks. Maybe by then she won't care so much about letting the perpetual filter fall.

Surely she's starting to realise just how powerful that would be for the millions of women watching on. 

Feature image: @kimkardashian.

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Top Comments

robbocate 5 months ago
Great article gemma bath 👏

d123 5 months ago
I feel like if I had that level of money that I would devote myself to charity or some other worthwhile cause - then, again, maybe I’m deluding myself that I would do anything other than lunch with the ladies every other day. 
@d123 You might, but hopefully you wouldn't be so tone-deaf as to complain about how hard your life was while you lunched...!
simple simon 5 months ago
@d123 Yes, you are deluding yourself. If you did have "that level of money" you'd still just want more and more and more.
d123 5 months ago 1 upvotes
@simple simon Well I’m unlikely to ever find out. 
simple simon 5 months ago
@d123 When I was younger society philosophers would say the reason the poor people want rich people to get richer is because they think they are going to be rich one day.