With one scene, the Kardashians highlighted an unspoken truth about our families and body hatred.

If you look back on the very first moment you started to think there was something wrong with your body, chances are there is a lineup of culprits you can blame.

From magazines to movies and now TikTok feeds, the rhetoric around impossible beauty standards has been more closely examined over time than the footage of Harry Styles potentially spitting on Chris Pine.

We're more comfortable with calling out bodies being warped and airbrushed beyond recognition, only one type of body size being idolised, and the idea that billions of dollars are made off the insecurities of people who have been told they need to look a certain way.

What we're not so comfortable calling out, however, is how many of our deepest body insecurities are actually ignited in our own homes. As children, before we even have the chance for a magazine or influencer to destroy our self-worth from the outside.

This is an idea that was highlighted in a recent episode of The Kardashians, although it's safe to say it's a revelation they stumbled upon by accident, unaware of the complicated, unspoken truth they fell into.

But even Penicillin was discovered by accident, so maybe it's best not to dwell on the origins of this particular thought process too closely.

Listen to The Spill discuss this new airport of The Kardashians and the unexpected truth it highlighted.

The most recent episode of The Kardashians was heavily promoted before season three even kicked off, with promotional clips showing the youngest sibling, Kylie Jenner, musing to her older siblings about the role they have played in setting unattainable beauty standards.

Coming from one of the world's most famous families, particularly one who has built so much of their brand around a certain style of beauty and body type, but will never go off script when speaking about them, this felt like a refreshing change of pace. 

When the family's original reality TV series Keeping Up With The Kardashians came to an end in 2021, the Kardashian/Jenners sat down for a televised 'tell all' interview with Andy Cohen, who asked them if they felt any sort of responsibility for the part they've played in pushing unattainable standards of beauty.

"No, I don't," Kim Kardashian replied during the interview. "Because I think we get up, we do the work. We work out."

Her sister Kendall Jenner then chimed in and said the family is not focused on looks, saying "We all really enjoy taking care of ourselves and being healthy, so I think if anything, the only thing we're really trying to represent is just being the most healthy version of yourself."

When you factor in the claims of disordered eating, plastic surgery, and photo editing the family is known for, a throwaway answer about 'health' was never going to add any real nuance to such a complicated conversation. 

This is why this season three scene held such promise.

Except this time around, the family once again shied away from examining the role they've played in how women feel pressured to look, but they did tap into another interesting idea, and that is how their biggest body insecurities started from family comments. 

The scene began with eldest sibling Kourtney Kardashian Barker saying, in what is clearly a pre-planned line in order to set up a conversation the sisters want to have captured on camera, “I do think you should be confident, even in your imperfections. I was just thinking about the beauty standards in the world." 

Kylie, potentially jumping a few lines ahead in the script then said - “We have huge influence, but what are we doing with our power?

"I just see so many young girls on the internet right now, fully editing themselves," she continued. "I went through that stage myself and I now feel like I’m in a better place."

The sisters then began discussing how their bodies, faces, and even their ears, were critiqued at home by their family members. In particular their mother, Kris Jenner, and how it marked so clearly in their minds the moment they started feeling self-conscious about their bodies. 

At one point Khloe Kardashian said "That’s how I accumulated all my body issues, they are not from me, trust me. 

"Who knows, what if I never heard Mum talk about my nose, would I have gotten my nose job?" she continued. "She talked about my nose all the time." 

It was a small moment, but one that would have struck a very personal chord for so many women whose hatred of their bodies began in their own homes, rather than with a magazine cover.

Celebrity culture, the media, and even the influencers who fill our social media feeds are still very much in the mix when it comes to who is continually setting impossible beauty standards, but they are not the only culprits. Just the ones we've become accustomed to calling out.

It's become more socially acceptable, and more aesthetic for Instagram, for us to call out brands for not having inclusive sizing, media outlets for not featuring diverse bodies, or TV stars for sharing their disordered eating plans. 

It's a rhythm of critique I've fallen into myself, a faceless villain to hold accountable for the fact that so much of our worth is still linked to how we look and what we weigh.

It's more complicated, and more personal, for me to examine the other moments in my life that have shaped the way I feel about my looks, outside of media and celebrity. 

The way my family members always framed looking 'lovely and slim' as the pinnacle of what a woman should be, the way my face was called 'too big', and now I still hide it behind a fringe and big earrings. The way weight-loss plans and who should be on them was the height of conversation at every family gathering, and the phrase 'a minute on the lips, forever on the hips' was said with the same frequency as 'I love you'.

As we continue to move through a world where we live our lives online and the beauty standards that are set continue to feel unattainable, it's important to look inward as much as we look outward, if we want to make real change.

Laura Brodnik is Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and host of The Spill podcast. You can follow her on Instagram here.

Feature Image: Getty + E!