It is said that approximately 30 million people are bound to suffer from an eating disorder in their lifetime. Disorders can be tricky to distinguish from abnormal behaviour. The difference could lie in the overall effect that each one has on daily life, as well as how long each one affects an individual. An eating disorder is thus a disorder when it affects your mental health to such an extent that you struggle with living a normal life.
Society has created images of “perfect bodies” embedding the flawed ideology that being skinny is perfect and being fat is disgusting (apologies for the strong word). This has resulted in a lot of people suffering from eating disorders to try and achieve the ideal “beautiful” body without realising that they have breached the line between exerting abnormal eating behaviour for slimming purposes and suffering from a disorder.
Kim Kardashian, one of the most followed and loved media personalities and Kanye West’s wife, recently promoted appetite suppressing lollipops by Flat Tummy Co on her Instagram page. Instagram deleted the post as it was allegedly reported, but Kim K reposted it and it is currently on her IG feed with only a lollipop emoji as a caption.
Despite the disapproving comments by some of her followers, the post received a great amount of likes. This is not surprising as Kim K is extremely influential, especially amongst young people. I admit, I sometimes suck on a lollipop to control my hunger while I try to get proper food, but not to suppress my appetite (that would need a miracle).
Our teen and young adult years are the years in which we start to pay more attention to our bodies. These are also the years in which many people suffer from eating disorders in an attempt to achieve their ideal body, therefore, as a big shot in pop-culture and being fully aware of her influence, Kim Kardashian should have used the “voice” that she has to promote a healthier living instead of unhealthy slimming ways. She has what many people regard as a perfect body, therefore trying to manipulate people into thinking that she uses these lollipops can lead to negative consequences on those who want a Kim K body. I would’ve thought that our loved influencer would act more responsibly on her page.
On the other hand, we can all agree that we are trying to secure the bag. Some of us are prepared to do anything to make money, and, unfortunately, the rest of us can only accept this. Even though some of us get influenced easier, it is also our own responsibility – with the help of those around us – to choose what we follow from our influencers. To be fair, Kim Kardashian and all other influencers do not force influence down our throats – this depends on us more than it depends on what we see on the internet.
Personally, I am against the use of lollipops to suppress appetite and, judging from the controversy following this promotion, so are many other people. But should we bash Kim K for trying to make money by promoting these lollipops, or rather use this as a manner of self-reflection: “Why am I thinking of using these lollipops?”
Once again, the internet has proven to be more powerful than we thought.