What do explicit video tapes, professional athletes, and empty fame have in common? The Kardashians, otherwise known as America’s most royal family. We as a country have become increasingly obsessed with the Kardashians, watching their shows, buying their products, constantly reading about them in the tabloids. Once one of them cuts their hair or gets plastic surgery, we immediately take to social media to spread the news and our opinion on it. There is SO much to know about what is happening in the big world that we live in, and for some reason we choose to focus our attention and energy into one household that is negatively impacting us. Have you ever stopped and wondered why? Why are we so obsessed with them and what is this obsession doing to us as a society?
Regardless of the reason for it, our obsession with them is important because it is changing the way we live. Their show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, occurs upon the backdrop of multi million dollar mansions, expensive designer clothes, private jets and matte range rovers, and ridiculously exotic holiday destinations. Naturally when we see these lavish lifestyles we not only want them, we CRAVE them. This attention that we pay to their materialistic and wealthy lifestyles show the main reason why we are obsessed with them: Jealousy. We want to be them, and look what they look like, and wear what they wear, and do what they do. We internalize the success they gain from looking what they look like and doing what they do and try and emulate that into our own lives.
This is especially true for younger generations. In fact, according to the Huffington Post, in August of 2013 President Barrack Obama criticized Kim Kardashian and Kanye West for their over the top lifestyles and felt they have negatively impacted children’s views of the world by stating, “Kids weren’t monitoring every day what Kim Kardashian was wearing, or where Kanye West was going on vacation, and thinking that somehow that was the mark of success”, speaking to the idea that kids these days watch everything these celebrities do and internalize that into thinking that is what success is. By promoting themselves in such a materialistic way, they are teaching people that materialism equals success.
This brings me to one of the most important, yet negative, influences the Kardashian’s have on society: Body Image. Because our society is so exposed to media in today’s age, body image has become a growing issue within the past decade. Young women and men across the world constantly compare their bodies to those they see in the media, trying to attain the “perfect” look. I used to follow the Kardashian’s on Instagram and would spend hours looking at their perfect pictures, with their perfect bodies in their perfect clothes. Men and women, like me, are obsessed with looking at these photoshopped, non-realistic images in the media. The problem is, is that media has been linked to women’s body dissatisfaction, the internalization of the thin ideal, and disordered eating. The thin ideal that is set by the Kardashian’s in the media is simply unattainable, and yet this is what girls are looking up to.
Whether we like it or not, the Kardashian’s are a huge part of popular culture. Kortney, Khloe, Kim, Kendall and Kylie have tens of millions of followers on multiple social media platforms, have several reality series that are watched all around the world, and dominate the tabloids. Despite that I myself even enjoy watching the show and think it’s really funny, I personally can’t look past the incredibly negative impact on society and the twisted values we internalize towards everything from materialism to body image that stems from the Kardashians. Really, it’s plain and simple: The Kardashians aren’t just spoiled, they actually believe they are the center of the world. They could do incredible things with their fame and power, but they choose not to. We shouldn’t praise/support these types of people. We should be praising strong, courageous women and men who use their power for the betterment of the world. Perhaps if they used the kind of platform that they had to make the world a better place instead of promoting themselves and their materialistic values, we would think differently. We deserve better than what we are getting from this so called “royal family”, and therefore I challenge you to stop keeping up with Kardashians.