Khloe Kardashian is speaking out after taking heat for having a bikini photo taken down from social media. The reality star took to Instagram to share a lengthy message about feeling judged for how she looks and for her reaction to the picture being posted.
“Hey guys, this is me and my body unretouched and unfiltered,” Kardashian wrote alongside a video — shot in front of a bathroom mirror — of herself in her underwear with her arm over her chest.
The video was a response to people who claim she digitally altered bikini photos of herself to appear thinner — especially after a photo was posted in which Kardashian didn’t like how she looked. As the photo was shared, the 36-year-old reportedly worked hard to have the picture removed, and several people who reposted the pic claim their accounts were frozen and their posts were deleted.
“The photo that was posted this week is beautiful. But as someone who has struggled with body image her whole life, when someone takes a photo of you that isn’t flattering in bad lighting of doesn’t capture your body the way it is after working so hard to get it to this point — and then shares to to the world — you should have every right to ask for it to not be shared,” she wrote. “Regardless of who you are.”
Kardashian went on to say that the “pressure, constant ridicule and judgement my entire life to be perfect and meet others’ standards of how I should look has been too much to bear.”
She went on to share examples of some of the mean things she’s repeatedly heard and read about herself on social media and in some tabloids: “‘Khloe is the fat sister.’ ‘Khloe is the ugly sister.’ ‘Her dad must not be her real dad because she looks so different.’ ‘The only way she could have lost that weight must have been from surgery.’ Should I go on?”
She went on to explain that she’s not “asking for sympathy,” but rather, “I am asking to be acknowledged for being human.”
“It is almost unbearable trying to live up to the impossible standards that the public have set for me,” she continued, in part. “For over a decade now in photos, every single flaw and imperfection has been micro-analyzed and made fun of to the smallest detail and I am reminded of them every day by the world. And when I take that criticism to use as motivation to get myself in the best shape of my life and to even help other with the same struggles, I am told I couldn’t have done it through hard work and I must have paid for it all.”
“You never quite get used to being judged and pulled apart and told how unattractive one is,” she explained. “But I will say, if you hear anything enough then you start to believe it.”
