As much as I love playing, there are a lot of flaws in Kim Kardashian's new iPhone game. I mean, for one, it basically forces to you do a nude photo shoot. But one of the most glaring errors in the game is the way your avatar looks. Namely, that you can't change its body shape.
The big draw of the game is that you get to create your own celebrity. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood boasts having "hundreds of fashion options." Not only can you kustomize (yes, kustomize with a "K") your avatar's clothing choices, but everything else about them, too! Pick from 42 different hairstyles and eight hair colors (including neon pink and blue). There's also five different face shapes, eye types, lip sizes, and noses to choose from. You can pick from a rainbow of makeup shades and nail polish colors. But even with all of these choices, you cannot have any other body type besides the slim, long-legged, big-boobed, six-pack of abs type. The men also have one body type only: fit with a muscled chest and arms.
Not being able to choose a body type would be frustrating enough. But it's an error made even worse by the fact that you can choose every other aspect of your character. At that point, it's less of an oversight and more of a glaring decision on Kim's part.
It's really unfortunate, because Kim actually used to be pretty body positive. Here she is speaking in 2011 about the importance of embracing your body type, whatever it might be:
But though she once said part of her job was promoting a healthy body image, lately her tune seems to have changed. Just a few days ago she posted a throwback photo on Instagram of her supposed "skinny days" to use as thinspiration. "#OnTheTreadmillRightNow" she captioned the pic.
Not only was the photo seemingly Photoshopped to make her look even skinnier, but it sent a bad message to her followers. "It’s a shame that she felt the need to so narrowly define what kind of body fits the ideal," says Bustle's Kaitlin Reilly.
It's also a shame that this mentality extends from Kim's own life into the digital one she's created. There's nothing wrong with the body type the avatar has in the game. But there is something wrong with it being the only body type. For someone who once called out fat-shamers by saying, "Don't give young girls a complex!" She's sure failing to heed to her own advice. Maybe she should have consulted Khloe first.
In some ways, Kim's game is really forward thinking, it lets you date the same gender and everything, but in other ways it's really failing. The lack of body positivity is a big problem.
Much like with the nude photo shoot, I worry about the people playing this game who will think that having an "ideal" body is the only way to get ahead in the world and to be happy. There's so much more to life than that. Mostly I'm sad to see that Kim has backtracked on her previous body positivity and is spreading that throughout the thousands of people playing her game.
Hopefully one of her sisters can talk some sense into her ASAP, because something has to change, and soon.
Images: Kim Kardashian: Hollywood (3); rebloggy; stylecaster
