The Kardashian family stepped into the limelight in 2007 with their reality TV show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians", graciously given to the family by Ryan Seacrest and his production company. And ever since then, it has been virtually impossible to keep up with them.
Kim has since been married twice and had two children, Kourtney has had three children and left Scott, Khloe has divorced, Kendall is a supermodel of the world, Kylie is a makeup mogul, and Bruce is now Caitlyn. Nine years, various apps, fashion lines, and a fleet of TV shows later, people still love to hate the Kardashians. Even I am guilty of it.
Just last month, Kylie Jenner filmed herself and friend Anastasia "Stassie" Karanikolaou buying lemonade from a couple of boys and giving them a $100 bill. I watched the whole video on my phone at home during lunch and groaned in disgust. I showed it to my sister and mother in hopes that they too would find her explicit display of wealth utterly repulsing. But, I got the very opposite. They asked me, "What's wrong with it?". I was caught off guard. How could anything the Kardashian-Jenners do be right? "What if your dad gave $100 to some boys for lemonade? Wouldn't you be happy or proud that he did it?".
Of course, I would be proud of my father if he were to give $100 to a couple of boys or some Girl Scouts. But, because I've been conditioned to think that the Kardashian-Jenners are some rich little trolls bent on annoying me, I saw Kylie Jenner's act of kindness as an opportunity for her to flaunt her wealth.
The truth about the world's obsession with the Kardashians and their every move is that they reflect today's habits, values and norms. We're too afraid to admit it, it's simply easier to hate them for being what society praises and worships. If we go back to their rise to fame (yes, the infamous Kim K and Ray J sex tape), it's not that difficult to see why Kim was rewarded with instant fame. Society loves to see a scandal play out and sex sells. Throw in a semi-famous rapper and celebrity pal Paris Hilton, and you have a D-List celebrity on your hands. "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" followed shortly after and the rest was history. The family wasted no second and milked this newfound fame into an empire that has made millions for them.
The rise and growth of the Kardashians are the perfect embodiment of our own obsession with sex, and even more importantly fame and our desire for it. We've all talked about that one time we walked past a celebrity or saw them at a restaurant. I once walked past Kelly Osbourne at Coachella and just last week I filmed Jamie Foxx, Terry Crews and J.K. Simmons at batting practice for the All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game in San Diego. Do I regret uploading all those pictures and videos on Snapchat? Not one bit.
After the Kardashians made it onto our TVs, their family dynamic made it a huge hit. We couldn't look away from their incessant fighting and bickering. But, also because they do a lot of the same things we do. They all worry about the way they look, to an extreme for a normal person's standards but familiar for all. They enjoy the finer things in life; things that we all wish we could have someday. And at the root of it all, is a family that at least seems to truly love each other.
The obsession with the Kardashians is a mixture of embarrassment for being part of the system that created them, jealousy of the life they have and our inability to look away and at the same time sustain their fame and fortune. If we really want them to disappear from the face of the Earth, then we have to stop looking. But, we can't. And I don't want to either. Not even a little bit.
