Kourtney Kardashian Deserves a Round of Applause for Telling Kris Jenner Not to Complain About Her Body in Front of Her Kids
(Via Giphy)
Kourtney Kardashian is probably the smartest of the Kardashians. Kris Jenner’s skills as a marketer and businesswoman cannot be overstated, but Kourtney is charming, snarky, and level-headed. Without her around to act as the wry, wise-cracking Greek Chorus of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the show probably wouldn’t be nearly as successful. And this week she deserves a round of applause for telling her mom not to talk about being fat in front of her kids.
According to SheKnows, on the recent episode of KUWTK, Kris Jenner was complaining about her figure and asked Kourtney if she thought she was fat. That’s par for the course in Kardashianland, but this time Kourtney’s three-year-old daughter, Penelope, and Kourtney was having none of it.
“Don’t use that word in front of my daughter, please,” she said firmly.
Good for her. Most of us probably have some kind of body-image baggage, and a lot of it we learn from watching our family members. Visibly obsessing over our own thinness, or demonstrating unhealthy attitudes towards food, size, and exercise can rub off on the kids.
It’s a hard tack to take, though. Virtually none of us get to adulthood without body image issues, and our mothers are no more of an exception than we are. Getting a grown woman who has spent her whole life analyzing and criticizing her body to stop doing it in front of the kids can be difficult, because at a certain point that kind of talk just seems to become reflexive. But just because it’s difficult is no reason not to do something. If we screw up, we’re just going to have to keep reminding ourselves to try to be better.
Kourtney Kardashian is a loving mother, and it’s good to see her taking a proactive approach to protecting her daughter’s confidence and body image. It’ll be tough, though. Penelope Disick is a Kardashian. Her family makes its fame and its fortune in the public eye, and the performance of a feminine beauty is a significant part of their brand. Nobody has ever shied away from body-snarking or slut-shaming Penelope’s aunts or grandmother, and I have little hope that anybody is going to restrain themselves about Penelope just because she’s a child. Penelope is probably going to have a long, uphill battle with feminine beauty standards for most of her life, but at least it looks like her mom is on her side.
