Kris Jenner is the momager of a media empire. She’s a beloved (and feared) figure in her own right. Also, Kris Jenner is about to get so many new grandbabies.
Kris can and does absolutely speak for herself. But that doesn’t mean that her family doesn’t speak up for her.
But when Kim tweeted a defense of her momager after someone called Kris chubby, Kim ended up in hot water with some Twitter users.
Before we get into Kim’s outrage and the various responses, let’s look at how this all started:
The Daily Mail took a look at the ghost of Kris Jenner’s past — that is, of Kris before Keeping Up With The Kardashians and before Caitlyn Jenner and even before she met Robert Kardashian.
Their very first bullet point reads:
“Before she turned momager and reality TV star, Kris Jenner was a chubby-faced store clerk and a junior flight attendant.”
That’s … a very loaded line. Kim Kardashian certainly thinks so.
Kim Kardashian took offense at the description of her mother’s younger self.
Kim tweeted a link to the article (a surefire way to make sure that as many people read it as possible), and wrote:
“Chubby really? That’s the headline? How about beautiful, youthful, stunning?!?!”
While we can understand (and applaud) a natural disposition that she be defensive of her mother, Kim’s response proved to be controversial.
Would you care to guess why?
Some tweets, of course, immediately agreed with Kim that it was an outrage for her mother to be described like that.
Others took a different view, writing:
“Chubby is not a bad thing!!!”
A lot of tweets shared that sentiment, and they’re absolutely right. In fact, many people lovingly describe their “chubby girlfriends,” though many opt for less polarizing words like “soft.”
Others pointed out that it was still fine for Kim to be unhappy.
Replying to the (correct) assertion that that “chubby” isn’t a bad thing, someone tweeted:
“Yes, it isn’t. But there are so many more words to describe Kris & they chose to target weight specifically rather than something else. Chubbiness is not bad :)”
Another wrote:
“It’s a term you have to be careful with. Definitely not the best term to come up with.”
And another really saw eye-to-eye with Kim:
“I’d be so upset if someone described my momma like that in a headline! Go Kim!”
Ultimately, though, the people who saw Kim’s tweet as relatable, the people who saw Kim’s tweet as fat-shaming, and Kim herself may have all been missing the point.
The Daily Mail described Kris’ younger self as chubby-faced.
While potentially inflammatory, “chubby-faced” is a description often given to photos of people when they were children. And while Kris was 22, and not a child, they may have been highlighting her youth.
But not all chubby people are okay with the word, just as not all fat people are okay with that word. And you know what? Kris’ face aside, she is and was neither.
At the time in Kris’ life that The Daily Mail describes, she looked — more than anything — like Kourtney Kardashian. Their faces are so similar that a time-traveling Kris Jenner could probably unlock Kourtney’s phone.
