Kim Kardashian has claimed that her daughter North West was behind her recent controversial “British” makeup transformation on TikTok.
On Tuesday, the 42-year-old reality star participated in a popular TikTok trend which sees users apply over-the-top makeup to the backdrop of “M to the B” by Millie Bracewell. The video was posted on both Kardashian’s personal TikTok and the one she shares with her nine-year-old daughter.
The trend pokes fun at the style often associated with the term “chav,” according to Glamour, which Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes as British slang for young, often working-class people, who display “aggressively loutish behaviour” and dress in a “flashy” style.
For her transformation, Kardashian used products from her sister Kylie Jenner’s makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics, to apply overdrawn and darkened eyebrows, light concealer paired with exaggerated contouring, pale lipstick and dark lipliner, and false eyelashes.
The video, which has been viewed more than 36 million times on TikTok, has since gone viral on social media. Fans have expressed their surprise over Kardashian’s unexpected participation in the trend.
Although a majority of the comments have been from viewers amused by Kardashian’s over-the-top transformation, others have questioned whether the video was “insensitive. “Chav” is a derogatory term, according to Cambridge Dictionary, which describes it as an “insulting” word that often refers to a young person “whose way of dressing, speaking, and behaving is thought to show their lack of education and low social class.”
The term has also been described as classist and “misogynistic,” as it is typically used in relation to working-class women, per Glamour.
“Isn’t this a bit insensitive? Chav is a derogatory term,” one person tweeted.
“I see extremely wealthy Kim Kardashian is doing a ‘British chav’ makeover on TikTok in time to demonise the working class during an economic crisis,” another critic wrote of the video.
Kardashian has since alleged that the TikTok was her daughter’s idea, and that she’d had to execute the trend after seemingly losing a bet to the nine year old.
The Kardashians star shared the revelation on Twitter, after a fan posted the video along with the caption: “This is the last thing I thought Kim Kardashian would do on TikTok.”
The post prompted a reply from Kardashian, who jokingly revealed she felt the same way, before admitting that she’d only created the video at the request of North.
“Me too! The bribes and bet losing I have going on with North is unreal!” she wrote.
Kardashian’s reply prompted amusement from her fans, with many alleging that they had a feeling the video had been North’s idea.
“The way I knew it was North’s idea,” one person responded, while another said: “Somehow I knew Queen North would be behind this.”
“We all knew North had something to do with it,” someone else joked.
This is not the first time that Kardashian has participated in TikTok trends, although she usually does so alongside her eldest daughter, who she shares with ex-husband Kanye West.
In one recent video, Kardashian stood behind her daughter as the nine year old showed off her makeup transformation into her rapper father.
Kardashian, who also shares sons Saint, seven, and Psalm, three, and daughter Chicago, five, with West, has previously opened about her daughter’s social media usage. The billionaire beauty mogul told Gwyneth Paltrow on her Goop podcast that she closely monitors North, and that the videos can only be filmed on her own phone.
The Independent has contacted a representative for Kardashian for comment.
