Kylie Jenner is on the cover of the September issue of British Vogue, and the reactions to her photos have been…not great, to say the least. You don’t have to be a fan of Jenner to see how below-the-belt digs at her physical appearance are only helping the patriarchy. We can acknowledge that Jenner has promoted unrealistic beauty standards without doubling down on those unrealistic standards at her expense.
After the cover was unveiled, commenters on Instagram and Twitter immediately started going in on Jenner's appearance, with the majority of insults saying she looks much older than her 27 years. In the cover photo, Jenner wears an off-the-shoulder eggplant gown, and poses with her head tilted back and her hand on her clavicle. Her hair is in the slightly retro, voluminous curled style she’s made her signature lately. On social media, some commenters claimed she looked like she’s in her forties or fifties. Many blamed cosmetic enhancements for making the social-media star appear so mature.
It's no secret that Jenner has been a fan of fillers from a young age, but let’s keep it 100. It’s not like Jenner is the first famous woman to get cosmetic procedures and then be mocked endlessly for not appearing sufficiently “natural.” Women like Pamela Anderson, Donatella Versace, Joan Rivers, Kim Novak, Meg Ryan, Lindsay Lohan…and the list goes on.
In recent years, society has begun to realize that attacking women for getting cosmetic surgery smacks of misogyny, but it hasn’t yet gone away. Now, we have plastic surgeons on TikTok analyzing celebrities for signs of cosmetic procedures and (incorrectly) guessing the ages of Love Island contestants. Hammering Jenner for her appearance is just part of the same old pattern that harms everyone, and especially women who, unlike Jenner, can’t afford to get their features surgically enhanced.
Kylie Jenner herself has addressed the critiques she gets for her appearance, telling her sister Kendall on The Kardashians that she feels like she’s in a lose-lose situation. “It’s a miracle that I still have confidence, and I could still look in the mirror and think that I’m pretty,” she said. "Before I even got lip filler, people talked about my looks. It’s so hurtful.”
The thing is, Kylie Jenner isn’t the only person who can get hurt by these comments.
