UPDATE, April 8: Khloé Kardashian has made an official comment after an unauthorized image of herself was posted to social media at the Easter long weekend. Taking to Instagram, the 36-year-old posted several videos of her physique to prove nothing was photoshopped and accompanied a lengthy statement.
“He guys, this is me and my body un-retouched and unfiltered,” Kardashian wrote. “The photo that was posted this week is beautiful. But as someone who has struggled with body image her whole life, when someone takes a photo of you that isn’t flattering in bad lighting or doesn’t capture your body the way it is after working so hard to get it to this point – and then shares it to the world – you should have every right to ask for it not be shared – regardless of who your are.”
She continued, “In truth, the pressure, constant ridicule and judgement my entire life to be perfect and to meet other’s standards of how I should look has been too much to bear.”
Scroll across to read the full statement.
Kendall Jenner commented on the post writing, “yes! you beautiful, strong, HEALTHY queen ❤️.”
And we have to agree.
While the statement perfectly reflects insecurities felt by many, it does little to quell toxic social media behaviour which ultimately enforces that every image we share needs to be perfect.
ORIGINAL REPORT, April 7: The notoriously filtered Kardashian family are scrambling this week to have an image of Khloé Kardashian scrubbed from the internet after the unfiltered happy snap was accidentally posted to social media. The picture in question is of Khloé in a bikini from the family’s Easter festivities.
The unedited image has been praised by fans as beautiful and authentic according to reports, but it was unauthorized for publishing by the reality television star.
“The color edited photo was taken of Khloé during a private family gathering and posted to social media without permission by mistake by an assistant,” Tracy Romulus, chief marketing officer for KKW Brands, said in a statement sent to Page Six.
“Khloé looks beautiful but it is within the right of the copyright owner to not want an image not intended to be published taken down.”
Khloé’s sister, Kim, took it upon herself to to assist in ridding the image from the internet. She contacted a reddit user who published a screenshot of the image via direct message and asked for it to be deleted immediately.
“We have an unfortunate situation where a doctored stolen photo was taken of Khloe that is in the worst lighting and is a copy wright (sic) infringement due to it being stolen and posted from a fake account of my grandmas,” Kim sent to the user.
It is believed Khloé grandmother, Mary Jo “MJ” Shannon, first published the photo. In comparison, the Good American founder posted a number of bikini pics on the weekend but hasn’t publicly responded to the social media drama as of yet.
Social media has long been criticized for promoting a false narrative of people’s lives and bodies. Perhaps this latest debacle can help young and vulnerable men and women understand the power of a good pose, ideal lighting and just a touch of Photoshop. If anything, we believe Khloé should embrace the issue instead of stigmatizing shame on a un-retouched image.
More to come.
