Hating the Kardashians

NICOLE ELPHICK

OPINION: Kim Kardashian has not had a good month. First of all Mad Men's Jon Hamm called her a "f**king idiot".  Then last week she was flour bombed on the red carpet. You know what's not a hot look for next season? A bunch of flour spattered all over your ensemble.

I feel somewhat qualified to opine on Ms Kardashian as I've actually met her for an interview. Now don't expect this to go all "And it turned out she was super smart and we discussed Murakami and Cindy Sherman!" She was exactly what you'd expect. This was my favourite part of the interview (not verbatim, I'm pretty sure you understand why I don't want to spend time relistening to that particular transcript):

So yeah, pretty superficial. For whatever criticisms exist of how manufactured Keeping Up With the Kardashians is, I didn't find it unrealistic in its depiction of Kim from my short meeting with her. But still I don't hate her, I actually find that as last year's most Googled celeb what she reflects about our society and the ire she inspires is quite interesting.

Okay, so argument number one for hating on Kim:

She is an idiot/talentless. Firstly no-one has an obligation to be smart or talented and by the very law of averages not everyone can be. If brains and talent is something you value just go watch Mad Men or Parks and Recreation and support the sort of programming that you consider worthwhile (actually please go watch Community, I really don't want it to be cancelled or put on hiatus for low ratings... again.) I would argue her talent is much like that of a model, looking pretty and selling things, so I guess it depends on whether you'd say that models have no talent (I personally couldn't do it, so I would consider it a skill.)

Argument number two:

She's a glorification of style over substance. I would agree that fans watch for her flashy lifestyle, after all the whole Kardashian Korporate Kempire is built on glitzy escapism. But I also think that many of her fans, the vast majority of whom are young women, see a more glamorous version of themselves reflected in her non-waifish figure and visibly ethnic appearance. Racial and body diversity in the media should be increased so just for that reason I don't think Kim's especially worse than who we regularly see on our screens and magazine covers.

And argument number three:

She's a bad role model. If I were to wipe Kim Kardashian from the face of the earth I can guarantee she'd be replaced in a heartbeat by a new, near-identical model (much as she replaced Paris Hilton.) So instead of hating the symptom I think we should be asking why young women are so attracted to the values of glamour and sexiness that she represents.

I also think she's the sort of woman that it's easy to hate and I'm not overly interested in putting down other women (I feel misogynists on comment boards the world over have got that covered unfortunately). I've noticed a certain sort of woman attracts much more bitterness than they seemingly warrant - Ke$ha, Lindsay Lohan, Lara Bingle and of course Kim Kardashian. I would say it's a certain overt sexuality or tackiness (I believe the word the kids use is "trashbag") that somehow makes some feel it's open season on insulting these women. When men's sex lives are broadcast publicly, such as Tiger Woods or Hugh Grant, it just doesn't seem to have the same effect of "degrading" them in the eyes of the public or making them such targets of such intense dislike. I don't particularly want my decisions judged, so in turn I don't want to judge the personal decisions of these women.

While I'm no fan of Kardashian, I just don't think anything positive is achieved by hating on such an easy pop culture scapegoat as Kim. There's something ugly about so much hatred and negativity over such a slight target. I would rather save my vitriol for the people trying to curtail our reproductive freedom or stand in the way of gay marriage - those are much bigger issues worth getting passionate about than whether someone is lying about wearing butt pads or purposely leaked a sex tape...

- Sydney Morning Herald