Keeping up with the
Kardashians: Popular Beliefs, Myths, and Icons
Reality television has become an
increasingly prevalent and popular form of media in modern television. Essentially
serial documentaries featuring all number of subjects and following a group of
people or a single individual throughout their lives, the most successful
reality shows follow washed-up celebrities or socialites and their
drama-filled, skillfully-edited lives. Keeping
Up with the Kardashians is one such show, following the lives of Kim,
Kourtney, and Khloe Kardashian and their family as they live and work in
Hollywood. The show follows the millennial cliché of “famous for being famous,”
as the sisters have already achieved fame through their connections and
nepotism, acting as socialites and fashionistas; their conflicts typically
revolve around highly-emotional cat fighting and family drama, and their interests
are materialistic at their core. The appeal of the show plays into George
Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory, which states that television possesses the power
to shape our opinions and attitudes toward the world; the show places a
voyeuristic value on meaningless drama for its own sake, and the Hollywood
lifestyle of haute couture clothing and exclusive clubs/venues (Gerbner t al.,
1980).
The
Kardashians have become their own myths and icons at this point; they are
cultural symbols for our consumerist lifestyle, as their primary motivators are
money and the possession of wealth. The presence of Kanye West (Kim’s husband
and famous rapper) as a motivator for watching the show revolves around his
status as a rap music icon, and Kim becomes an icon by association. Their power
and wealth are the things that make them iconic, and viewers are motivated to
want to be like them. There is also a racial component, as the fact these
characters are of mixed race (and heavily immerse themselves in urban, hip-hop
culture as well) and therefore have an expectation by the audience to fulfill
their role of being combative and catty (Squires, 2008).
References
Browne, R. B. (2005). Profiles
of popular culture: A reader. Madison, WI: The University of
Wisconsin
Press.
Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N.
(1980). The mainstreaming of America:
Violence profile no. 11. Journal of Communication, 10-25.
Keeping up with the Kardashians. (2007- ). E! Entertainment.
Keeping up with the Kardashians. (2007- ). E! Entertainment.
Petracca, M. & Sorapure,
M. (2009). Common culture: Reading and writing about American
popular
culture.
(6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Squires, C. (2008). Tryin' to make it real—but real compared
to what? Critical Studies in Media
Communication, 25,
434–440.
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