It's no secret that Kylie Jenner gets a lot of attention for how she looks — and it isn't always positive. Jenner's filler-enhanced pout, perpetually changing hairstyles, and made-up face have made her the target of people who are quick to call the reality star "fake." No matter what you think of Jenner or her carefully crafted aesthetic, Scream Queens star Keke Palmer has some very important words about why we shouldn't be so quick to judge.
Palmer shared a meme of two side-by-side pictures of Jenner, one allegedly from 2012 and the other from 2016. On the 2012 side, it had a quote from a hater who called Jenner "ugly." Beside it, 2016 Jenner is called "fake." In her Instagram caption, Palmer notes that it's an insane double standard for the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star to have to deal with — is it any wonder that she revamped her image? Says the actress:
"Looking at this photo above I couldn't help but stop dead in my tracks, because even though I do feel like this family sets an example that it's good to change for societies affection, how can you blame them? We don't think that this young woman deserves the attention she receives because of the message it sends but we don't even think about the fact that for years the whole world damn near agreed that she was ugly...and unlike some that experience such ridicule she had the [money] to change, she 'fixed' what the world said was broken and it worked! Now you are mad that it was that easy?"
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All I have to say to Palmer's Instagram caption is YESSSSSS. I've always found it pretty appalling how a world that celebrates beauty to such a gross degree mocks people who try to keep up with the standard. Consider the reason that Jenner wanted to get lip injections in the first place. The makeup mogul told Complex that she was deeply insecure about her lips after a boy she liked pointed out their size back in middle school:
"This guy I kissed was like, ‘Your lips are really small, but you’re a really good kisser. I didn’t think you were gonna be good at kissing,’” she told the magazine. “It was so rude. From then on, I just felt like I saw guys staring at my lips. I felt like no one wanted to kiss me.”
Jenner admitted to the magazine that changing her lips brought along its own challenges: "It’s annoying to hear every day that you’re just this fake, plastic person when you’re not."
It's a catch-22. Women are mocked because of how they look and then judged for bending to society's whims. It's hard not to be insecure when someone points out your flaws. If you're under a microscope as intensely as Jenner is, I imagine the pressure is even more difficult to cope with.
Palmer nails the complicated relationship that women have with their bodies. While bending to society's pressures sends a "bad message," it's not wrong for someone to change the thing that society has made them insecure about. Maybe we should all learn to be nicer from the get-go, rather than shame someone for choosing to change how they look.