Khloe Kardashian is one of the world famous Kardashian sisters, who are wonderful influences on girls and women everywhere. Khloe consistently chooses to present her appearance in the media as you see it above. Interestingly, this is not what she looks like in real life. And her fantasy was recently punctured by the release of an unauthorized photo.
Thee Optimist is now free to indulge his habit of reading online newspapers and magazines, whenever he likes, however much he likes (as you can also be).
So Thee Optimist was intrigued earlier this week when he stumbled upon news stories about how an "unwanted" photo of Khloe Kardashian was accidentally posted on the internet.
Admittedly, he was skeptical. After all, her sister Kim's sex tape was also "accidentally" released, became one of the most watched porn videos of all time, and launched the careers of the Kardashians into the stratosphere.
(For those who don't know, the Kardashians are a gaggle of sisters from a wealthy family who became vastly more wealthy, and incredibly influential, because of a vapid, long-running reality TV show that was (and may still be) immensely popular with teenage girls and young women.)
However, after the release of the Khloe photo, the Kardashian mafia unleashed a small army of lawyers and publicists to force websites who reprinted the photo to take it down.
Odd behavior from a group of people that originally became who they are by exposing themselves in every way, and on a regular basis.
So curious was all this, that Thee Optimist decided to find and post the photo here on the site. Why not? Thee Optimist, more than just a mere blog, is a public service.
And here it is:
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| Perfectly viable, perfectly serviceable, sexually-attractive 36-year-old female human. Many, many males of breeding age would be willing, even eager, to deposit their Satan spawn within this vessel. If this is true (and it is), then what is she so upset about? |
The New Stalinists
Those of you with a passing familiarity with history, may remember a man named Joseph Stalin (don't worry, this is totally related to Khloe K, just hang in there).
Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union for nearly three decades during the bleak and disastrous 20th Century. He had a funny habit of ordering the erasure of events, images, circumstances and people he found troublesome.
And he wasn't the only one. The dictators Benito Mussolini, Chairman Mao, and Adolf Hitler all had this habit to a greater or lesser degree.
So widespread was the practice, that in his novel about authoritarian government, 1984, George Orwell coined a name for this. He called it the Memory Hole.
The Kardashian mob, in an attempt to protect Khloe's fragile sense of self, has made, and is making, strenuous efforts to flush the offending photograph down the memory hole.
The whole thing reminds me of a somewhat humourous historical fact. Remember how Adolf Hitler used to make these crazy, passionate speeches in front of massive crowds of adoring Germans?
He would literally go berserk, whipping the audience into a frenzy, in what seemed like an unscripted outpouring of emotion, sharing his vision of total Germanic domination of Europe, and later, the world!
The truth is, he used to practice those speeches for hours in front of a mirror, complete with the berserker flourishes.
Because of course he did.
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| Adolf Hitler at home, practicing a speech in front of a mirror. |
There is Another Way
So what's going on here?
Simple enough. Khloe Kardashian has grown so accustomed to using photographic filters to mask her appearance, that she can no longer bear to face what she actually looks like.
This has apparently become a very common problem, mostly for people of the female persuasion. As a recent MIT Technology Review article suggests, internet filters are helping to conduct a massive psychological experiment on millions of girls and young women.
To summarize, these young people spend so much time creating and presenting a heavily edited, idealized version of themselves on social media, that they are becoming dysmorphic, unable to cope with their slightest flaws.
In some extreme cases, they can no longer allow themselves to be seen in public, because what they actually look like doesn't match the fantasy they've built.
Ironic that a member of the fabled Kardashians, a family who is as much to blame for this fakery trend as anyone, has fallen prey to it.
So what is the other way?
Just say no. Embrace the reality, however painful. Better yet, transcend the reality.
In an interview with Time magazine, 57-year-old actor, director and author Justine Bateman (people from Thee Optimist's generation will remember her as Michael J. Fox's teenage sister Mallory in the 1980s sitcom Family Ties), describes her refusal to get plastic surgery.
Her radical acceptance of her changing appearance as she ages is the road forward for young women whose self-perceptions are being skewed by social media and reality TV.
Then again, how many are going to take that road?
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| Justine Bateman |
Words of Wisdom
“You’re looking at fucking determination and truth and creativity. You’re looking at loss and sorrow and the effort for a deeper perspective. You’re looking at satisfaction and happiness. You’re looking at a manifestation of a connection so deep and rooted that it’s more real than I am. You’re looking at my face."
- Justine Bateman
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