In Defense of the Kardashians

Two years ago, while I was in graduate school I said to a fellow MFA student, “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m overthinking the Kardashians.” I’ve been trying to write about my infatuation with the famous family since my first residency in the summer of 2016. 

My involvement with the Kardashians began on a Sunday morning six or seven years ago while attempting to make myself breakfast. I was still living in my parents’ carriage house at the time. While I was chopping cilantro to go in a vegetarian omelet, I sliced off part of my thumb. I wrapped a towel around my bloody finger and called my father, as I don’t handle the sight of my own blood well. By the time he walked over, I had passed out in the living room. For the rest of the afternoon, I stayed on the couch keeping my bandaged thump upright while I binge watched the first few seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians on Netflix. 

Since that fateful weekend, I have low-key kept an eye on the happenings of the Kardashian family. Eventually, I paid $2.99 for Kim’s own line of Emojis called KIMOJI’S. I even paid money for something called Flat Tummy Tea because Khloe Kardashian was advertising it all over Instagram. IT DID NOT WORK. At first there were only a handful of people I felt comfortable telling what I had done. At the time, liking the Kardashians still felt more like a guilty pleasure than something I could just unapologetically like. 

I’m not supposed to be the target audience for Keeping Up with The Kardashians, at least that’s the feeling I get when someone calls me a feminist “but she also loves the Kardashians.” Why is that? Because I collect records? Read books? Got my MFA? Occasionally eat Taco Bell while taking a bath? Why should I feel guilty about watching a reality show I enjoy? It is possible to enjoy pop culture in more ways than the singularity of how other people see us. 

         

All it took was a few episodes of KUWTK for me to get to know the members of the family. It became my mission to look beyond the unimaginable wealth and extravagance to see human beings who cared for one another, supported each other and lived in a self-created world. It is all they know. Kris Jenner is a god damn powerhouse and if you disagree then you can stop reading this. 

Their family dynamic is so fascinating to me that it’s difficult to put into words. I don’t want their wealth or the isolation that comes with the kind of wealth they have. But I do see their family comradery and it connects to some human level inside of me. So why do I feel the need to defend myself for liking the Kardashians? 

I found myself fucking SMILING while binge watching the 17^th season on Hulu last week. Something I realized about myself long ago was my insufferable need to be against any form of entertainment that was popular in the mainstream media or among my peers. So then how in the hell did I get wrapped into a family that represents all that I should hate? I’m a complicated woman okay? Eventually I started watching the television show The OC after trashing it when it first came out. Now I think the first two seasons are brilliant television and talk about Sandy Cohen as if he were my own father. 

         

There’s something charming about this family that I cannot put my finger on. Perhaps it’s their loyalty, their behavioral consistency or the intimacy of their television show. I just can’t explain what it is that I like so much about the Kardashian universe. Maybe it’s because it’s a world I will never know. Maybe it just makes me feel fucking good and I shouldn’t care if anyone thinks it’s beneath my character to care about a family I will never meet. At the end of the day, they’re just doing their job.  

A lot of things have happened since I started thinking about writing this piece. Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn Jenner. Kim was robbed and almost killed in Paris, she decided to go to law school. She even went to the fucking White House to visit with He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. For whatever reason, I CANNOT LOOK AWAY. And I won’t look away because to deny myself something that genuinely interests me isn’t being honest with myself. And honestly, I fucking love the Kardashians.