Skims, the molding of the bodies and the influence of the Kardashian on the unattainable beauty
La tan comentada marca de ropa interior y shapewear de Kim Kardashian, Skims, fue noticia en septiembre por su campaña más reciente con su hermana Kourtney Kardashian y su amiga cercana, Megan Fox.
They both appear in an intimate hug, wearing nothing but underwear. Cosmopolitan wrote that the couple "looks so good […] Wow. " "Heavy weights" of the fashion industry, such as Nylon and InStyle, joined the praises. However, the important questions surrounding these images and their implications for viewers are not found in the main conversations.
También falta en la conversación la ahora infame relación de las Kardashian con el aumento corporal, los ideales de belleza y las presiones que estos ideales a menudo causan en las personas. Esto debería generar cierta preocupación, especialmente de una marca dedicada a vestir, moldear y cambiar el cuerpo.
Promises made to women
With a value well above $1 billion, Skims is now among the most successful and rapidly growing shapewear brands. Even in the middle of COVID-19, Skims experienced an increase in sales. So what explains this tremendous growth?
Las marcas de Kim, al igual que las de su hermana Kylie, prosperan gracias a las promesas hechas a las mujeres. Es decir, promete que la compra de sus productos puede producir una figura y un rostro más cercano en forma y tamaño a las Kardashian. Las imágenes de Skims y los anuncios en línea comunican tanto, atrayendo la atención de las espectadoras hacia una cintura (cada vez más) estrecha y caderas anchas como las que Kim Kardashian hizo famosa por primera vez.
Of course, these promises are not real, from lip kits that failed to produce Kylie's perfect pout, to vitamin supplements, teasy waist coaches who couldn't "catch" a Kardashian silhouette. However, the media continue to send praise and admiration, as if these promises should not arouse suspicion.
Understanding the ideal of beauty
It is necessary to take the issues of beauty and its various pressures (and privileges) seriously.
'Overconsumption is extinction': Louis Vuitton Parade protest at Paris fashion Week ·Global Voices
You need to look closely at images and ads, as well as videos and trends online, to better understand how beauty has come to shape our media landscape and what this means to everyday viewers, including, and especially, young people who consume and engage with digital content.
Hay un ideal fundamentalmente Kardashian, con un número cada vez mayor de usuarios y usuarias en las redes sociales con posturas que reproducen las figuras y rostros de las hermanas. Considere, por ejemplo, tutoriales de maquillaje en línea y fotos de atuendos dedicadas a las semejanzas de las hermanas (como es el caso de Charlotte Crosby y otras influencers).
Kim's own beauty tutorial has gained more than 15 million (and counting) from online visits, which daily consumers tune in to see how to achieve the Kardashian style. Contour bars and facial powders, Kim says, are all it takes to sculpt, highlight and lift your face.
La popularidad de estas imágenes y videos refleja la influencia respectiva de Kim y sus hermanas dentro del mundo de la belleza, incluso cuando continúan negando su papel en la creación de estos ideales.
En mi trabajo en curso sobre la apariencia, con los sociólogos Shyon Baumann y Josée Johnston, los y las jóvenes a menudo explican que las Kardashian definen lo que significa ser bella hoy. Llama la atención el ideal de los labios carnosos, las caderas redondas y la cintura afilada de las hermanas, y nos recuerda cuán importante (e imposible) se ha vuelto el ideal Kardashian (delgado, pero curvilíneo, lleno, pero plano en todos los lugares correctos).
One step forward and two steps back
Kim's work with Skims represents a step forward in her and her sisters' enviable brand empire, and her relationship with beauty. The brand focuses on more diverse bodies on many (if not most) of its online images and ads, and girdles in a variety of skin sizes and tones, Skims is much more inclusive than some of its competitors in the industry. In fact, consumers can buy up to 4X and 5X sizes in most product categories to find, in the brand's own words, "one solution for all" (added emphasis).
Pero con este paso adelante, Kim ha retrocedido dos pasos. Como suele sugerir el mensaje de la marca (aunque sea sutil), las mujeres deben controlar sus figuras y disciplinar sus cuerpos si quieren hacerlos hermosos, esculpidos y “resueltos”; ella sugiere que los cuerpos de las mujeres son necesariamente imperfectos, y necesitan corrección.
Although messages like this are not new in the world of beauty and fashion brands, their concomitant demands and pressures, from contorting their faces to flattening their bellies with molding garments, have never been more persistent or harmful than they are today.
As philosopher Heather Widdows points out in her work on beauty, perfect me: beauty as an ethical ideal, we have, as never before, the "duty" to perfect our appearance or, at least, to try. And this duty, as Kim and her sisters know, can be packed for purchase.
* to read the original note you can click here.
* by Jordan foster, PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto.
* the conversation is an independent, non-profit source of news, analysis and comments from academic experts.
'The ambassador's daughter': everything about the premiere of the Nova series
18/03/2022A girl named Melek arrives in her living room and finds a dead man. Her mother, in the bathroom, cleans the blood from her clothes and her face, in addition, she keeps a knife along with the rest of the things in ...