Kylie Jenner’s Stretch Marks Prove How Many Men Need An Anatomy Lesson

It always feels a bit surreal when you suddenly feel sympathy for a celebrity you normally don’t care for. For example, we’ve thought the Kardashians have been played out for years, so it’s easy enough to tune out the antics of America’s weirdest reality TV family. However, something happened recently with Kylie Jenner that made us want to jump to her defense!

It all started with Kylie Jenner’s recent appearance at the Golden Globes. She looked absolutely fabulous (would you expect anything less from a Kardashian?), but the internet didn’t dwell on her awesome outfit. Instead, they focused on the apparent stretch marks on her breasts, and the resulting internet discourse made us realize something depressing: the average internet user knows nothing about women’s bodies! Just what were people saying about Kylie, and what’s the truth behind stretch marks that everyone should know? Keep reading to find out!

A Golden Globes appearance gone wrong

Kylie Jenner recently attended the 83rd Golden Globes, but she wasn’t there to present any trophies. Instead, she was there to support an exceptional someone: Timothee Chalamet. In case you didn’t know, these two are Hollywood’s hottest item, and she was there to show her support for her Dune star boyfriend. Honestly, these two are always so sweet that they might just give you a toothache. Unfortunately, the internet quickly fixated on Jenner’s body rather than her relationship, and things quickly went downhill from there.

Kylie Jenner showed up rocking a killer combination of a silver dress and a generous sweetheart neckline. That neckline proved to be a double-edged sword for the reality mogul because it drew attention to the apparent stretch marks on her chest. Soon, social media was filled with cruel remarks, including users’ claims that her breasts looked like they had tiger stripes.

Obviously, some of this cruelty can be chalked up to the internet’s usual brand of misogyny. But much of it was fueled by something very nearly as frustrating: a widespread understanding of how women’s bodies actually work.

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Online haters show their confusion about women’s bodies

Part of what made the internet’s fixation on Kylie Jenner’s stretch marks so frustrating was that her outfit was otherwise just devastatingly beautiful. In her silver dress, she looked casually elegant, and her love for boyfriend Timothee Chalamet was wonderfully sweet to witness. But in a very predictable fashion, online haters fixated on her breasts, and they wouldn’t stop making fun of the stretch marks on her body.

As mentioned before, some users crudely compared her appearance to that of a tiger due to the stripe effect of the stretch marks. Other users claimed she was actually flaunting the stretch marks with her generous neckline, and a handful of haters claimed that the marks were evidence that she had secretly had major plastic surgery. The whole thing was pretty depressing…again, we’ve never been big fans of the Kardashians, Kylie included. But nobody deserves to have their appearance torn down like this, especially when she wasn’t saying or doing anything to hurt anyone else.

Moreover, the criticisms of Kylie revealed how little most people know about women’s bodies. And it’s way past time that everyone learns the truth about stretch marks.

The truth about stretch marks

Pop quiz: do you know what, exactly, stretch marks are? In simplest terms, these marks are scars. They serve as a visible reminder that someone’s body has grown, like when a woman’s body expands during pregnancy. Contrary to popular belief, though, stretch marks are not limited to women, and countless men around the world have marks of their very own.

Because stretch marks are scars, it’s impossible to get rid of them, which can be really frustrating for those who have these marks because they have simply lost weight or given birth. But you can reduce the visibility of these marks through everything from over-the-counter creams to microneedling, dermabrasion, and laser skin resurfacing. Most importantly, though, how to (or even whether to) deal with these stretch marks is up to the individual, and nobody should be shamed into changing their body just to please random haters on the internet.

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Kylie Jenner gets love amid all the hate

While all the hateful comments about Kylie Jenner’s stretch marks were depressing, this nasty bit of internet discourse has a silver lining.  You see, for every one awful comment the reality mogul received about her body, several more people stepped up to give her some well-deserved praise.

For example, internet users sick of unrealistic body standards praised Jenner for showing up to the Golden Globes with highly visible stretch marks. To them, Jenner became a sudden role model for normal women all around the world. In addition to becoming a surprising champion for realistic body standards, Kylie also impressed her biggest fans with what they saw as diva behavior. Not caring at all about what haters may say about your body? That’s activity worthy of a queen, and we can only hope someone handed Kylie a crown for her fearless behavior!