The Kardashians are a high-profile white American family with a global influence on fashion and beauty. Their sculpted bodies have attracted a great deal of attention over the years, and Kim Kardashian’s changing butt has been a particular focus. A curvier butt is more common in Black women, but cosmetic procedures like the reversible Brazilian butt lift can allow anyone to achieve a perkier or voluptuous rear, provided they have the means to do so. Like all trends, they come and go, and a larger butt can be in fashion one season but not the next.
New research from Brunel University London explored whether Kim Kardashian used a part of Black culture to build her brand and to profit.
Since 2007, the Kardashians have appeared in their own reality television series and have graced many a red carpet and advertising campaigns.Kim Kardashian has been the centrepiece of their award-winning fly-on-the-wall series, and with over 360 million Instagram followers, she has a huge platform to promote her many businesses, brands and endorsements.
Prof Meredith Jones, a Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at Brunel University London, who conducted the study, said: “The Kardashians have a celebrity which is entrepreneurial and global, and Kim uses her body to promote her brands and to send out messages.
“Over the years, we have seen the Kardashians play with racial hybridity and adopt Black embodiments including hairstyles, fuller lips and larger butts. This is cultural appropriation and is sometimes referred to as ‘blackfishing’.”
Although Kim Kardashian has never admitted to having had the reversible Brazilian butt lift (BBL), there has been a great deal of speculation over the years, even from cosmetic surgeons. More recently, Kim’s butt has appeared smaller, and Prof Jones explains why her ever-changing butt has a purpose that goes beyond aesthetics.
Bodies and a sense of belonging within a culture
Beyond the legalities and formalities of citizenship – a legal status and membership to a sovereign state or country – Prof Jones believes that a person’s body and bodily aesthetics are integral to their citizenship and sense of belonging.
“Citizenship resides in the body and most easily in bodies that are deemed ‘neutral’ – neutral bodies fit the standards for unquestioned citizenship within a culture and country, and in Western cultures they’re usually white,” said Prof Jones.
The gender and culture expert explains that neutral bodies have the peaceful enjoyment of citizenship and are privileged because their bodies are considered ‘ordinary’ or ‘neutral’ within the dominant culture they are living in.
“Those with bodies that do not fit the ideal standard of their culture can be said to have ‘surplus citizenship'’,” said Prof Jones. “Because they are not ‘neutral’, they may not have a peaceful, unquestioned enjoyment of citizenship,” she explained. “Their bodies become highly visible, with ‘surplus’ embodiment resulting in a symbolically lower citizenship status.”
Prof Jones details how Kim Kardashian has embodied both neutral and surplus citizenship over the years, due to one particular type of cosmetic surgery … the BBL.
Beauty trends and the reversible BBL
When observing the dominant European-American beauty trends of the late 20th century, the BBL can seem baffling. Historically, cosmetic surgery has been used as a way to blend in and to work against surplus citizenship, but the fashion for large butts and the BBL seems to do the opposite.
“Fuelled by aesthetics seen in wealthier women, bodies have been understood as beautiful only when white, slim, and almost butt-less,” said Prof Jones.
“This leads one to question why larger butts are sought after, inviting surplus citizenship, and why Kim appeared to have opted for a BBL on an already curvaceous body. Well, the answer is tied to profit,” she said.
“A BBL is a significant procedure that can be put on temporarily and then removed with liposuction. Kim’s whiteness and wealth gave her the privilege of being able to play with ‘racial mobility’ to play with ‘surplus citizenship’ from a culturally safe place.
“Kim appears to have made use of the BBL’s reversibility, and its rise and fall in popularity signals a brief period when a specific form of surplus citizenship was fashionable.”
Obama’s presidency and the rise of larger butts
Prof Jones believes that it is no coincidence that the popularity and decline of the BBL somewhat paralleled Barack Obama’s presidency.
“Obama was America’s first black president, in office from 2009–2017, and during his presidency, some Black cultural features were ‘on trend’, including a larger butt,” said Prof Jones.
“Kim capitalised on this trend by straddling established white forms of beauty and adopting select Black ones,” explained Prof Jones. “One could argue that she used her cultural and financial capital to play at surplus citizenship, particularly in a Black sense, in a moment when Blackness was fashionable, increasing her wealth and fame before discarding it bodily and fading back to white, and therefore reverting to a comfortable neutral citizenship.”
‘The Kardashians: Citizens of Surplus’, by Meredith Jones, is published in Citizenship Studies.
Reported by:
Nadine Palmer,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 267090
nadine.palmer@brunel.ac.uk