This article references dieting and diet culture.
“Sorry, what is going on with Kylie Jenner’s waist?” a friend messaged me this morning, with a link to an Instagram video of the reality star walking to Schiaparelli’s spring/summer 2025 fashion show in Paris earlier in the week. I’d already seen several iterations of this clip, in which it’s clear her mid-section has been shrunk to extreme proportions, likely using a corset underneath a tight black dress to create an exaggerated hourglass effect.
From the comments section, it appears others had clocked this, too – just a quick glance revealed messages such as: “Did Kylie get her ribs removed or what?”, “It’s giving perpetuation of unrealistic body standards?” and “Has she had even more work done?”
Questioning which procedures celebrities – particularly members of the Kardashian family, whose often-changing appearances are the subject of great online debate – have had has become standard practice. There’s everything from TikToks of people rating red-carpet looks and Instagram videos of aestheticians listing what ‘work’ people have done to ‘news’ headlines describing people’s bodies and faces in intricate detail.
There’s the argument that some celebrities ‘ask’ for this commentary, particularly reality TV stars – the idea being that if you open up your life to the world, you will, of course, receive critique in response. But how far should we allow this to go? And, really, is what these women choose to do with their bodies actually any of our business?
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Let me be clear: I in no way think that this is Kylie Jenner’s natural body shape – how could it be?
I also understand that this overexaggerated hourglass shape that has become the figure du jour in recent years (a combination of voluptuous boobs, hips and bum with a perfectly flat stomach, how realistic) is not something most people can easily – or even should be aiming to – attain. And I’m also a woman living through a time in which a worrying amount of emphasis is being placed on our appearance – so believe me when I say that I know first-hand just how seeing these box-ticking, ‘idealistic’ appearances that couldn’t be more different from your own appear on your timeline again and again can be deeply triggering.
However, Kylie Jenner is not the first person to wear a corset or alter her appearance in the name of ‘fashion’, or for the red carpet, or to appear more ‘desirable’. In fact, the entire Schiaparelli collection she was there to see showcased nipped-in waists, exaggerated shoulders and micro-hemlines seemingly designed to shift perceptions of the wearer’s figure.
Her sister Kim Kardashian regularly contorts her appearance for photo shoots and the red carpet, from her corseted looks for the 2019 and 2024 Met Galas (created by Mugler and Maison Margiela by John Galliano, respectively), shrinking her waist to inconceivable proportions, to her dramatic weight loss to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s dress for the Met Gala in 2022 – a process documented for ‘entertainment’ purposes in their series The Kardashians. Heck, even Kim’s inspiration Marilyn underwent cosmetic facial surgery to transform her from Norma Jean to become Ms Monroe. And if I continued listing the number of celebrities that have had work done, we’d be here until 2057.
What these women choose to do with their bodies is absolutely their prerogative. So perhaps, instead of us looking at what they’re doing to themselves, we might ask why.
Like it or not, her body sends a message.
For women in the public eye, it’s clear the pressure to look ‘good’ is intense. And it’s easy to forget that they are real people, too, with real feelings. OK, not quite as ‘real’ as the rest of us – admittedly, while most have whatever is left in their bank account at the end of the month to pay for the odd shopping spree or trip to the salon, they have huge sums of money and teams of people to help curate their image at all times. But we also don’t have our faces blown up on billboards in HD, or have cameras following our every move.
I was a girl growing up in the diet-obsessed culture of the ’90s and ’00s, in which thin was in and anything else was out; in which straight hair, pale skin and a distinct lack of curves was the only way to look. I know what it’s like to not physically fit into this toxic narrative, and for people to comment on your weight and your hair and your overall appearance in an overwhelmingly negative way. And I know the toll it takes, hearing people critique you over and over again – and how it can make you feel the need to change your appearance as a result.
It’s this kind of lingering pressure that leads to naturally beautiful women, such as model Bella Hadid, admitting to getting a nose job aged just 14 – one that she now regrets. Kylie herself has also revealed that getting her breasts enlarged aged 19 was a mistake – and has even been seen crying over the negative comments she receives in the media about her appearance during the most recent series of The Kardashians.
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I think many of us can relate to wanting to alter our appearance every now and again. It’s something I do myself – albeit on a smaller, less extreme scale. I wear contouring body suits to smooth down my stomach rolls, laser away the unwanted hair on my body, conceal the veins on my legs with foundation and sometimes use false lashes and nails to create a more ‘desirable’ appearance. So the pressure of looking ‘good’ as a celebrity is something I, for one, cannot imagine. And I can’t help but think that if I were in their position, I’d probably be looking to curate my image, too.
However, there’s a point where this goes beyond ‘curation’ and becomes damaging. Extreme beauty standards have frighteningly become the norm. Over the past year alone, Ozempic has become a part of our everyday lexicon, and seeing celebrities shrink and squeeze themselves into tight red-carpet gowns for no perceptible reason other than aesthetics is worryingly normalised.
So, exposing the reality behind this carefully constructed facade – the workouts, full glam teams, and even medications and surgery required to look this way – can be beneficial to an audience of impressionable young people who put these high-profile figures on a pedestal, and may go to extreme lengths to try to replicate these looks.
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Kylie is an example of a woman with huge influence. She’s not just a celebrity, but a reality star: someone whose rapid ascent to fame is thanks to her family’s decision to share their ‘real’ lives with the world as entertainment. And her influence on young women has been proven time and again.
Her decision to get lip fillers aged 17 sparked a wave of copycat looks across the world – and created such a buzz it was even enough reason for her to launch her Lip Kit: a lip colour and liner duo designed to help people emulate her fuller pout. That one launch turned into a billion-dollar makeup brand, Kylie Cosmetics, and a 397 million-strong Instagram following. And with a following of that size, comes responsibility – not to stop altering your looks, as she has every right to do as she pleases, but to transparent about it, for the sake of her younger audience, as she is beginning to do.
Can we demand these high-profile figures always tell us exactly what they’ve had done, when and why? No, and we can’t expect them to want to share this information freely. The way we perceive ourselves, how we choose to present our bodies and the means by which we do so is deeply personal.
But the more honest we are with each other, the more we can ‘normalise’ conversations about cosmetic procedures and the pressures put upon women today, the more we’ll hopefully create a culture that acknowledges the lengths some people got to for ‘beauty’ – and dismantle this unattainable ideal of ‘perfection’.
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