I'm still not entirely sure who Kim Kardashian is or why people know all about her

But I just googled pictures of her wearing high heels at Glastonbury

didn't she marry p diddy or smthg?

No, she's married to Kanye West, even I know that

x-post I assume that was sarah's best Tuomas impression because c'mon

Puts Pippa's Arse in the shade.

she was created so that we can all have a shared cultural reference point to project our fears and desires upon

I know it has something to do with how people are consuming social media I this new different way that I seems very hard to imagine for me. Like there's this whole way of using instagram that's not just my housemate taking pictures of all her meals with a filter

Also when you read news stories about things that "happened on Twitter"

She is a successful entrepreneur and a mother.

That's funny, is that from her Wikipedia

No it's a statement of fact

so much language surrounding even a basic convo about kim is shrouded in misogyny

Entrepreneur is such a hilarious word

so much language surrounding even a basic convo about kim is shrouded in misogyny

yep!

so much language surrounding even a basic convo about kim is shrouded in misogyny

seriously!

I feel like there's all these kinds of celebrities, like there's these models who are a gay couple(?) But I don't know any others by name that I can think of. I mean of this instagram culture

I mean I feel like there's always things on the guardian app

x-post you mean the girl with the eyebrows and the lady from st. vincent?

or the lady who is st vincent or whatever?

http://www.billboard.com/files/styles/promo_650/public/media/annie-clark-cara-delevigne-2015-billboard-650.jpg

I know there's like a plus size model I saw holding a sign Iwasn't following the point

I've heard of st Vincent I didn't realise that was a Twitter thing

you sort of sound like someone's granddad itt plax

strong crossover w society is in the gutter

I just don't really know anyone who is super into social media and there's all image based platforms that are designed around apps and I just can't quite picture how people attain this connectedness in a literal physical sense, like I can't picture them at the control keys working it, I see some of the images but the workings of it are very opaque to me

I mean I know these things called smartphone s I don't mean this in a faux naive way honestly

And I'm not saying this directly connects to why we should start an intentional community in Portugal

so much language surrounding even a basic convo about kim is shrouded in misogyny

people talking shit about you is an occupational hazard of celebrity. people talk shit about tom hanks, too.

can't say I've heard much shit talk about his body or his sexuality though

ppl save that type of shit talk for Jonny Depp

get back to me when tom hanks made a sex tape and routinely poses for nude photoshoots

actually, don't

It's easier to avoid celebrity news than ever in my lifetime.

Yeah I don't actually feel inundated by this or anything

As a testimonial from someone who doesn't think of themselves as following "celebrity news" particularly closely and is in his 40s (but is nobody's grandpa) here is what the general such person knows about Kim Kardashian:

a) She was on a reality show called "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" and I am pretty sure Caitlyn nee Bruce Jenner was involved in this.
b) She is married to Kanye West (definitely knew this once it was mentioned in the thread, 90% sure I would have come up with it on my own.)
c) I'm pretty sure I knew there was a leaked sextape but I don't know who else was involved.

I don't know things like 1) whether she has released an album or written a book (both seem pretty likely); or 2) what she looks like; or 3) whether she is active on Twitter (I mean, I'm assuming she is based on this thread? But never have I ever seen a post from her retweeted or quoted in my feed, and I use Twitter a lot.) or 4) whether she was married to or romantically linked with other people I've heard of besides Kanye West.

Yeah this is what I know about her but I also know she has instagram followers

a) and b) is what I know about her

She's got a younger sister (stepsister?) who is a model. That's something else. And the family is... I'm guessing Armenian from the name?

I also feel I know she's Armenian but I don't know if I actually know that or if I just assume that because of her name.

xp

d) her dad was OJ's defense attorney

There's this idea of Kim Kardashian that I feel is a shortcut for something but I don't know what it is, something about turning yourself into consumable chunks. V entrepreneurial

But the point is I would definitely say "I know who she is."

Oh that is actually interesting I didn't know that

Oh and her sisters (real sisters not stepsisters) have silly names beginning with K. I know quite a lot about her.

Didn't know d) either!

something else i know about kim kardashian is that a lot of people love to make a point of how they've never heard of her or have no idea why she's famous, and will do so unsolicited

Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is one of the top smartphone game apps

She's probably the most well-known proponent for the US recognition of the Armenian genocide

hey amateurist maybe tom hanks has made a sex tape

even tom hanks sometimes must have to stand naked

I don't know that this is a point I'm loving making

I have heard of her and I've some idea of what she's famous for

I did make this thread unsolicited though

it's just mirroring a lot of things you see in comment sections beneath articles about her

LOL lex, you used to be the king of making a point of not having heard of famous people.

I feel like having a comments section is really a solicitation for people to comment

Comment is free content

and will do so unsolicited

I feel the existence of the thread constitutes solicitation!

in many respects she's become a shorthand for vapid and idle decadence in the way that paris hilton was a little earlier, an instance of this very common move on the left and right alike of locating 'everything that's wrong with the world today' in a particularly feminine-coded form of self-definition under consumer society, as if picking on individual women and girls is the way to combat what's wrong with consumer capitalism

"kim kardashian" really is a stand-in for "celebrity culture" in complaints about its vapidity tho. this is the #1 context i hear her name in actually. this job has belonged to lots of other people women in the past, obv, but kim is progress from paris on multiple fronts imo.

xp.

I feel like if you're most famous for being the subject of comment and much of that comment is that those commenting don't really know who you are, that must be relevant somehow though. But then the culture of comment in these fora is precisely what puzzles me

I mean celebrity culture is super vapid also.

dunno about you but i instantly assume people who call celebrity culture vapid are, like, super-deep people themselves who think really deep thoughts a lot

But if you want unsolicited, I just looked at People Magazine's "celebrities" page and I guess the people I'd have a hard time saying I know who they are are:

Pink (though I know this is a woman and feel 90% sure she's a recording artist)
Dakota Fanning (90% sure this is an actor but have no idea what she looks like or a movie she's been in)
Kristin Cavallari (no idea)
Whitney Port (no idea)
Pete Wentz (no idea)

Though the "no idea" people are people whose names aren't even familiar to me. There are a bunch more of these. The question is, are there people where I definitely know "this is a famous person" but nothing else? That's harder. I think the closest are Ryan Gosling and Ryan Phillippe. I am pretty sure Ryan Gosling is the guy who when there's a picture that says "Hey girl," that's Ryan Gosling, right? But are these Ryans actors? Models? Singers?

But this is not to get on a high horse, I am certain I would do much better saying something meaningful about people on the People celebrities list than I would about a list of classical composers, where I would mostly be like "um, that guy's from France I think"

in many respects she's become a shorthand for vapid and idle decadence in the way that paris hilton was a little earlier, an instance of this very common move on the left and right alike of locating 'everything that's wrong with the world today' in a particularly feminine-coded form of self-definition under consumer society, as if picking on individual women and girls is the way to combat what's wrong with consumer capitalism

― Merdeyeux, Monday, July 6, 2015 9:33 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is otm, i feel like one maybe-interesting difference is that kim doesn't code "gay icon" in the way that most of these women usually do whether overtly or not? she's not really camp or OTT and the people who love her the most seem to be women. (i think this is a positive, probably)

I don't have any real opinions about that but celebrity culture is super vapid

it is true that making a point of not having heard about kim kardashian (or what/whoever) is predicated on knowing enough about her to know that not-knowing her might earn you some cred

so in most cases it's kind of disingenuous from the start

see also http://www.theonion.com/article/area-man-constantly-mentioning-he-doesnt-own-a-tel-429

a lot of this seems like crossover from other industries tho. i know who pink and pete wentz are bc i know their music. i know fanning, gosling and phillippe bc i've seen films w/ them. i didn't know who cavallari or port were but i looked them up and that's bc they're reality show celebs and i don't watch any reality shows.

if only there was a site that discussed movies or culture that we could search that was familiar, in order to get a reference point for what these apparent celebrities are about and how they relate to our corner of the world

There is nothing interesting about celebrity culture except how it operates as part of the world. The content is entirely meaningless

like maybe kim seems unique bc she's not really tethered to a specific industry as a gateway to celebrity

There is nothing interesting about celebrity culture except how it operates as part of the world. The content is entirely meaningless

― plax (ico), Monday, July 6, 2015 4:44 PM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/jaden-and-willow-smith-exclusive-joint-interview/?_r=1

There is nothing interesting about celebrity culture except how it operates as part of the world. The content is entirely meaningless

― plax (ico), Monday, July 6, 2015 4:44 PM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that is a weird thing to say. there is nothing interesting about anything except "how it operates as part of the world"

being a famous socialite used to be its own thing, now you have to have a trail of reality television and iPhone games to keep relevant

She was on one of those reality shows you don't watch, Mordy.

was kim famous in this way before the reality show? i think of her as a reality celeb; she has "transcended" it i guess but the whole point of the category is to make a run for transcendence, become a brand, etc. paris was basically a reality celeb too.

isn't it tautological to say "she was not famous in this way before..."? i mean, the whole point of her is that she continually finds new ways of being famous.

i will be continuing to build my own brand itt by making people's points 30secs after they make them

Lots of cultural products are uninteresting to watch or listen to but have certain historical interest attached to them for example

what "cultural product" are you referring to?

I think leni Riefenstahl's films are very bad?

Entrepreneur.com is mad as hell about the idea that Kim Kardashian is an entrepreneur.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248045

This is what a real entrepreneur looks like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pcugHrsCFo

whatever you do, don't make a drinking game where you drink every time he says 'entrepreneur*"

KK is more of an enterpren-flaneur

consumable chunks is the name of her dog

in many respects she's become a shorthand for vapid and idle decadence in the way that paris hilton was a little earlier, an instance of this very common move on the left and right alike of locating 'everything that's wrong with the world today' in a particularly feminine-coded form of self-definition under consumer society, as if picking on individual women and girls is the way to combat what's wrong with consumer capitalism

Merdeyeux very otm here. at the same time vapid and idle decadence of this sort is p much always gross so I don't have a lot of sympathy for her

tbh I don't think Kim is looking for your sympathy

She's probably the most well-known proponent for the US recognition of the Armenian genocide

― too young for seapunk (Moodles)

this is one of the things I knew about her, thanks to ILX I believe

Merdeyeeux OTM x2

lol how in the world is this not a thread from 2008

Kristin Cavallari is married to Chicago Bears Quarterback, Jay Cutler. We all know that!!

As far as I can tell the lamest thing she's done is wear fur. I don't know her & don't really want to speculate about her worth as a human being; I know we're supposed to hate rich people but really I don't care. Maybe I'd be actively annoyed by her if I lived in southern California. I'm more inclined to direct my ire at the people who leaked her sex tape.

lol how in the world is this not a thread from 2008

― call all destroyer, Monday, July 6, 2015 7:11 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

i had this thought too

She's probably the most well-known proponent for the US recognition of the Armenian genocide

I thought Serj Tankian was tbrh

i like dreaming of things to buy when i look at instagrams

use snapchat for people typically

dont really care about kimmmy kard. dont feel like this is a relevant position or anything. i like that ppl like that dont exist at all in my world. maybe there is a tv show called 'lacuna beach'

whoa now the thread jumped back another six or seven years! xp

anyway i do think that at one point opening the instagram app and seeing like

a pic by schlump a pic by crut a pic by kim karadashian a pic by lex'

was maybe unsettling according to the (now old) standards of celebrity culture

you can @ POTUS and tell him you would like to fist him or take him out to a nice dinner and maybe a cool french arthouse movie or both idk it's wild =]

'lacuna beach'

lol

i don't even own a television

was maybe unsettling according to the (now old) standards of celebrity culture

there was a point where most of my followd were for consumer products and seeing my friends stage-y instagram photos of like beach parties and shows and stuff was sortof queasy but then i didnt think about it

i feel like instagram cld be a powerful expression of my truest self because i think and connect via images of things but the app is really hard to use on my phone so i never bother and my account is dormant and unpopular

i think this explains all u need to know about instagram btw you're welcome in advance plax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvoCqYB6t3w

I was in LA a couple of years back and a bunch of people on our sightseeing bus tour went completely mental at me because apparently I stood next to Rob Kardashian when I was taking photos on Rodeo Drive and didn't take a photo of him. I had no idea who he was. He seems to have made somewhat less of an impression on popular culture than his sisters, possible because his mother couldn't think of a boy's name starting with K for him.

All I know about even Kim is shes the one with the arse. I dont know shit about the rest of them.

No mention of the whole Bahrain thing?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/03/why-people-are-so-upset-about-kim-kardashians-odd-visit-to-bahrain/

most people know her as 'kim k' from gucci mane's immortal "making love to the money" (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46TmSTjLYJw

Her godfather is OJ Simpson.

weird that plax turned into tuomas + aimless

lol guess i'm the only ilxor who sometimes reads dlisted

I find it interesting that people think being "famous for nothing/famous for being famous" is easy. Kim Kardashian was interviewed onstage recently - I forget when/where - and she said that the reality show, which mostly depicts the partying/attending events/bickering with mom & sisters part of her life is (obviously) edited down to just that because if the camera crew followed her around for an entire day of meetings it would be a very boring show. I mean, we're talking about a woman in her 30s who has actually accomplished quite a bit within the media sphere - she's got at least one book, has acted in I think two or three movies, has a very popular TV show, a successful modeling career while not possessing anything close to a typical model's body...she is a very successful businesswoman, but there's this pernicious idea that she's some kind of vapid puppet who has somehow lucked into a gigantic multimedia empire, solely on the basis of her sex tape. It's pretty fucked up.

weird that plax turned into tuomas + aimless

― mookieproof, Monday, July 6, 2015 7:50 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

<3 u mookie

so weird hur *farts cat lols*

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/05/selfish_kim_kardashian_west_s_book_of_selfies_reviewed.html

i rarely think about this person but as shorthand for extreme spectacle she's useful, it seems that's been her goal in fact. oh yeah i hate women. j/k

her hair was black, but then it was blonde

"She does what she likes, and dates who she likes. Armenian do date, but mostly guys that they are going to marry, and don't have sex before marriage,"
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20932705

in many respects she's become a shorthand for vapid and idle decadence in the way that paris hilton was a little earlier, an instance of this very common move on the left and right alike of locating 'everything that's wrong with the world today' in a particularly feminine-coded form of self-definition under consumer society, as if picking on individual women and girls is the way to combat what's wrong with consumer capitalism― Merdeyeux, Monday, 6 July 2015 21:33Bookmark Flag Post

Possibly this is true. I can't say I've ever heard anyone relay this statement. I do think that there are many ways that people talk about what's wrong with consumer capitalism all the time, even in mainstream press, in which they don't mention celebrity culture. I doubt anyone is blaming the privatisation of the nhs on this woman in any print media, but then I am willing to accept I might be completely wrong. I think it's totally valid to be critical of the ways celebrity culture celebrates consumption and wealth as forms of social validation. And the ways that social media intensifies the porousness between everyday life and this spectacle. I think in part saying you have nothing to do with this entrepreneur is partly a rejection that ones eyeballs can be simply assumed as an asset of this particular shell company.

there are loads of celebrities who do what Kim K does -- reality shows, clothing lines, profiting off of fame in general -- for decades and nobody blinks because they had a hit movie or song one time or brief success in sports or modelling or something. i think people are still invested in the whole 'meritocracy' idea of pop culture and that you have to have done something great once or twice before you can do all the stuff she's done and the 'socialite --> sex tape' etc hard she had is not honorable. i guess i get it, but at the same time being OFFENDED at her fame seems to require a large unexamined amount of credulity and reverence for every other goofball who ever wound up famous.

the thing where people who'd never ever say they think that a woman derives her worth from her husband have suddenly become steadfast admirers of Kim K in the last 3 years, that's kinda funny to me, though.

the 'socialite --> sex tape' etc hard she had is not honorable

i meant to say 'arc' instead of 'hard' lol how unfortunate

lotta men itt

thanks for your opinions MEN

lotta men itt

Always makes me laugh when people drop this into threads like some kind of thermonuclear truth bomb, when the use of pseudonyms means that 90 percent of the time I have no idea what the race, gender, or anything else of any given poster is. Just words on a screen, you know?

really enjoyed this explorative discussion - we should have more threads in this format

just words on a screen

I spent a good year or so thinking she was a Star Trek character.

I'm kinda unsure about her beginnings was she well known for playboy first, sex tape first, TV show first?

this thread is the first time i've heard of her - i shun the common man's trough, twitter, instagram, google etc

it's almost like people are animals with a herd mentality.

are they really people or are they "goat people"? that's what i call them.

that sex tape being "news" was very strange as i recall since i had heard of neither of the participants before. it's like they sprang fully formed as celebrities for the purposes of that news cycle.

she was in Paris Hilton's crew initially

then the sex tape, then everything else

I'm still surprised that there was a guy named Ray J. Three (brief) threads about the dude and posts going back to 2001.

he had three top 40 hits before the sex tape, and had been on a few sitcoms. not exactly a superstar but he had been around.

He's also Brandy's little brother.

he was on Moesha!

also he could live reasonably well off of his proceeds from the ongoing sextape sales

Calling women "stupid" when they're famous for being pretty or into fashion etc. is an ancient practice.

When a newspaper columnist calls reality show women "stupid", the intent is to make women who may resemble them feel guilty for being so shallow. There is plenty of feminist literature on the shaming of pop culture, you should know better, ilx. Britney Spears, anyone?

don't tar us all with the same brush. much of this community is made up of dynamic, enlightened individuals.

I don't think anybody in this thread has called her "stupid". I think most people here would agree that she's most likely pretty smart.

And still men speak.

I'm a man, baby! Just try and keep me out of this thread!!

how is this thread real

My favorite thing about her was that Old Navy commercial drama, where Old Navy used a Kim K. lookalike, and then Kim sued them for millions of dollars for doing so, somehow settling out of court. THEN the lookalike started dating Reggie Bush, one of Kim's ex-boyfriends!! WOW!

saying Old Navy used a Kim K. lookalike is kinda unfair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Molinaro

I hadn't seen anyone post about Kim Kardashian on facebook in a while, but this crossed my fb today from a retired relative. It's always the retirees for me. Do you guys experience a similar demographic or are there younger, more fresh-faced Kardashian haters out there as well?

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11053551_10152756807356395_5052940419969469363_n.jpg?oh=89ed73f182aaffc15e947a1e82143c45&oe=5612BF34

the general disdain for KK seems to attach to everyone/thing around her--on my FB there was a lot of grumbling from people that they'd have to be supportive of Caitlyn Jenner even though they hated her and her family so much.

he had three top 40 hits before the sex tape, and had been on a few sitcoms. not exactly a superstar but he had been around.

also sampled on Burial's most well-known track

lol that's amazing xxp

the general disdain for KK seems to attach to everyone/thing around her

also heavy crossover with people who hate Kanye because of his ego, and post idiotic memes like this:

http://i.imgur.com/nExEtbg.jpg

xp: I know, right. It's come down to 50-year olds vs 35 year olds. Wait, just fact-checked that and Aniston is 46.

Aniston is 46.

As indicated by the origins of this thread, it's fairly easy to ignore the extended Kardashian clan if you're not actively exposing yourself to the forms of media that celebrate their existence and you maybe just, like, check out the candy or something while in line at the grocery store. Kim K doesn't exactly enrich my life in any way but I ain't mad at her. PS I am a man.

http://img1.owned.com/media/images/2/0/1/1/20113/apparently_kanye_west_is_trying_to_become_a_comedian_540.jpg

keeping up with the kardashians tends to play on a loop at my gym (seriously does E! have any other shows?) so I've seen quite a bit of the show, but with no sound, so from reading only body language i have determined that Kim is the smart and sensible one.

"I'm still not entirely sure who is james hetfield.."

As far as I can tell the lamest thing she's done is wear fur. I don't know her & don't really want to speculate about her worth as a human being; I know we're supposed to hate rich people but really I don't care. Maybe I'd be actively annoyed by her if I lived in southern California. I'm more inclined to direct my ire at the people who leaked her sex tape.

is it really that much of a leap to believe that the tape was leaked on purpose? esp given that she watched paris hilton turn into a major celebrity exactly the same way, this seems like...not the craziest conspiracy theory.

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/x-files/images/f/f6/Trust_No_One_tagline.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070529000016

The sex tape would never have been released unless Kardashian and Ray J both signed contracts and got paid. Everyone whose sex tape is released by a company has signed paperwork and accepted payment. There's a second Pamela Anderson tape, featuring Bret Michaels, which has never been released because neither of them wants it out there.

really? KK sued the company, right? Was that just a ruse?

what usually happens is that they sue then come to an agreement (since the tape is already out there they might as well make money off of it)

Melissa Smith, better known by her stage name Melissa Molinaro,[1]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f6/f3/9b/f6f39b95d46824f3ae324781d99b89a9.jpg

Am I supposed to know who the guy LOLing at Kanye is or why people know all about him, if indeed they do

The other thing about being famous for being famous / Kim K not having a specific industry is that it's usually people with an existing career who make it to that plane, because it costs a lot of money.

And it's different when you start from the money, because a) class except no-one ever talks about class and b) there's a different attitude to people when they're being rich with their money vs being rich with ours. People still have to buy Kanye's records, or go see Dakota Fanning's films. Kim doesn't need our attention, she could just go back to being incredibly rich, and that drives some people nuts.

Except of course she does need our attention - people who genuinely don't need it do not as a rule host reality TV shows. So there's a weird control-at-her-behest thing which leads to some ugliness. Also, sexism and.. racism? I think there's a thread around here with Lex vs DJP on whether Armenian counts as white.

xp it's David Bowie.

xxp no. no one knows who he is or all about him.

(some of these Thoughts may have been mechanically recovered from previous Thoughts about Paris Hilton, but you could probably tell)

you guys ARE UNFORGIVEN TOOOOOOOO

Am I supposed to know who the guy LOLing at Kanye is or why people know all about him, if indeed they do

only Canadians know all about him

"She does what she likes"

Tired of ppl using this to justify behavior. It's a wholly meaningless phrase. Everybody does what they like.

I bet Bowie is a Kanye fan

The sex aspect of the sex tape makes people completely unable to form cogent arguments

She's not famous for fucking ray j on tape, she's famous for being beautiful — and there's a tradition of both women and men being famous for being good-looking that goes back probably centuries

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Antinous_Ecouen_Louvre_Ma1082_n3.jpg/1024px-Antinous_Ecouen_Louvre_Ma1082_n3.jpg

the KK of his day

She's not famous for fucking ray j on tape, she's famous for being beautiful

I'd never heard of a sex tape until this thread tbh

there are people who are famous for eating hot dogs really fast.

i've been known to watch the kardashian show on occasion. i don't like it or dislike it, but the most interesting thing about kim, for me, is that she is by far the dullest figure on the show. kris, caitlyn (formerly bruce), khloe, scott, and the younger siblings are all way more dynamic and the plots of most episodes really deal with them. kim and to a lesser extent kourtney are more like spectators of the action. they have conflicts with each other and the other characters but they always seem emotionally flat, the kinds of people who will say "i am so angry right now" in the same tone that they would say "i am so happy right now."

anyway, i think there is something to kim's dullness that makes her both intriguing and infuriating to america. even in her own reality show she isn't really there. i'm sure she is more interesting than she is letting on (everyone is) but on the show she presents herself as a total blank slate. imo.

Anyone know if she ever commented on the political situation in Bahrain? I'd imagine she was just saying the landscape itself was beautiful but some said she was praising the regime too. Is this true?

I was half expecting Jodorowsky to wed Kim and Kanye like he did with Manson and Dita.

^ a man

"i'm sure she is more interesting than she is letting on"

SHE IS SECRETLY INTERESTING

speaking of which

http://www.aux.tv/2015/06/paris-hilton-might-be-a-vintage-radio-enthusiast-and-a-nice-person/

I love that

And Scott, I didn't mean that Kim is likely more interesting than the average person, just that I think she is deliberately suppressing her personality in order to be seen as an icon/ambivalent metaphor for our cultural moment rather than a person

Her affect is just so flat. She talks s o s l o w. It feels like a performance.

just that I think she is deliberately suppressing her personality in order to be seen as an icon/ambivalent metaphor for our cultural moment rather than a person

question of her 'blankness' was the subject of the papermag article/ interview with the infamous nsfw photos

nb nsfw

http://www.papermag.com/2014/11/kim_kardashian.php

huh, i hadn't read that before. thanks drash! This piece is very well written, i like the writer's prose style

I only read kk nsfw sites for the articles

The sex aspect of the sex tape makes people completely unable to form cogent arguments

She's not famous for fucking ray j on tape, she's famous for being beautiful — and there's a tradition of both women and men being famous for being good-looking that goes back probably centuries

she's not 'famous for' the sex tape, but it was a publicity coup that turned her into a public figure.

shes famous for being hot and having big tits and a huge ass

#lockthread

she's actually the American Putin, got big via behind the scenes coup, stayed popular by successfully manipulating the media / taking her shirt off

Kissed boy like kitten.

but can she wrestle a bear

i've been known to watch the kardashian show on occasion. i don't like it or dislike it, but the most interesting thing about kim, for me, is that she is by far the dullest figure on the show. kris, caitlyn (formerly bruce), khloe, scott, and the younger siblings are all way more dynamic and the plots of most episodes really deal with them. kim and to a lesser extent kourtney are more like spectators of the action. they have conflicts with each other and the other characters but they always seem emotionally flat, the kinds of people who will say "i am so angry right now" in the same tone that they would say "i am so happy right now."

This is so OTM. I really like the first two seasons of KuwtK before the fact they're super-famous and super-rich starts having visible effects on the way they live their lives (as in, it changes: the privilege at work is obvious from the start). The dynamic is fascinating. Scott using "Patrick Bateman" as a pseudonym in an early episode also makes me wonder just how self-aware the different characters ("stars" seems false in this context) of the show are.

Also I can't believe nobody has posted Kim's amazing* one-off venture into pop music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHp7sq1Tzn0

Wow, according to the YouTube annotations, that's a charity single ("all proceeds go to St. Jude Children's Hospital")!

the kinds of people who will say "i am so angry right now" in the same tone that they would say "i am so happy right now."

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xfa1/t51.2885-15/s320x320/e15/11287784_1614846928759984_661900556_n.jpg

Kim's 17 year old stepsister Kylie over the past month or so has had her father undergo sexual reassignment and then find out her boyfriend has been romantically linked with a transsexual model spanning over the past 3 years.

To me, that makes for much more compelling reality TV than a bunch of sisters going to the spa or designing clothing lines for Target.

people went apoplectic that she was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me a few weeks ago (the NPR show), threatening to stop giving NPR money, etc. Ridiculous; I'm more offended that Prairie Home Companion is still a thing that is on the radio. Likewise, she did this talk in the Bay Area referenced above, through the Commonwealth Club, and lots of people got pissed that she was being 'elevated' to some status.

My wife is armenian so I've known a fair amount about them and have watched all the shows because we watch a lot of crap TV. She is overexposed, no doubt, but I still don't get the hate since she has never been as outwardly offensive as Paris Hilton was in her prime. Armenians all claim to hate her but follow her every move; and she got some credit for bringing attention to the genocide centenial.

yeah i don't follow the kardashians much but recently it was like, kim is labelled as shallow but she's using her platform to talk about genocide and trans issues...

also she tried to break the internet...gotta admire that.

She said someone nice about my band once.

aw.

https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/3069340928

any explanation for how that happened?

Haven't read it in a while but Caitlin Moran's celeb column in The Times on Friday p/much had an item on Kim/Kayne every week - the whole column is hilarious but that's how I was made more aware of them than 'this is some person idk of as I'll never see the thing they are in', which happens with many people.

any explanation for how that happened?

Our bass player was working as part of Kim's media team* and ghost wrote her blog entries. Eventually Kim took over writing her own stuff** and one "hey, can you tweet something about my band" later... Isn't a high-level celebrity sponsored tweet worth 30 or 40 grand now? Anyway, that tweet translated into exactly two iTunes purchases.

*all celebrities at this level have social media teams that optimize all this stuff. Was told that "Team Britney" was to be feared.

**or switched teams (they are all "teams")

http://www.stereogum.com/1815850/sinead-oconnor-says-music-has-officially-died-because-of-kim-kardashian/wheres-the-beef/

Anyway, that tweet translated into exactly two iTunes purchases.

this is like a key insight to how the music industry and social media actually work in our time

Had the tweet contained a link, you might have gotten better results.

when you have the kind of huge platform O’Connor does

lol

http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/kim-kardashian-and-kanye-west-for-system-magazine/

so what's going on here idgi

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/kim-kardashian-american-woman-cover-story-20150727?page=7

Kardashian has not extensively studied the knowledge found in schools; she draws money and power toward her by the force of intuition. On her show, she and her sisters have their own language on issues more complex than glam rooms: They don't know things, they feel things; they don't want something, they deserve it. At the same time that they have championed the waist-trainer product, which bears much resemblance to a Victorian corset, they also exhibit an attitude toward their bodies that can only be called revolutionary. Women have long asked for fair vagina representation in media, for their vaginas not only to be sexual objects but to smell and bleed and pop out babies, and on their show, Kardashian vaginas do all that and more, which is very different than other pop-culture vaginas.

I know its abt the 12th thing to focus on in that excerpt, but "not extensively studied the knowledge found in schools" is so cringey and terrible how was it not re-written

Gross

people went apoplectic that she was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me a few weeks ago (the NPR show), threatening to stop giving NPR money, etc. Ridiculous; I'm more offended that Prairie Home Companion is still a thing that is on the radio.

Oh God, I knew that she was on Wait Wait, but I didn't realize that it had inspired such outrage.

Those people are dumb.

Nice response from Peter Sagal:

First of all, I just want to clarify something. I wasn't on the show that week and some people think that I was somehow boycotting my own show because of Kim Kardashian. Not only is that not true — I had a prearranged thing to do elsewhere — but I wanted Kim Kardashian on the show and felt really bad that I couldn't be there to interview her. We tried to change the date so I could, but she's a busy woman, so I had to miss it. My only regret about the whole episode was that I wasn't there to interview her, but that's selfish because I think (guest host) Mike (Pesca) did a fine job.

Somebody wrote in and said, "Oh, the whole deal with Kim Kardashian was so awful, I couldn't believe it," and I said, "What did Kim Kardashian actually do that bothers you so much?" Is it that she did a sex tape? Rob Lowe did a sex tape and went on our show and nobody protested. Is it because she's in the gossip columns for her romantic life? Well, so is Scarlett Johansson, and she also poses in negligees, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for people. Was it that she does reality TV? Well, we had on Andy Cohen from Bravo and he invented the modern soap opera reality TV show, the Real Housewives thing. He made it all possible, you know. So what exactly is the objection to Kim Kardashian? Nobody can tell me.

People imagine that she represents something that they oppose. I think our listeners think that there's our world, which is literate and charming and intellectual, and then there's Kim Kardashian's world, which they don't know but they assume is dumb and superficial and is somehow destroying this country. My attitude is — let's assume there are two worlds, let's assume they're right, that Kim Kardashian lives in and represents a completely different world than the one in which we and our listeners live in — why wouldn't you want to talk to her?

For me, that's exactly the reason you would want to talk to her. Oh my gosh, there's this whole other world out there that's interested in things that we don't know anything about. "What is it like to be in your world? Tell me about your day, tell me about your life, let's get to know you." If an alien came to earth, you wouldn't say, "Oh, you're from another planet." You'd say, "Tell us about your planet, what's it like there? What makes you happy? What's a day like on Planet Kardashian?"

My attitude — and this is very much why I wanted to have her on the show — is that she is perhaps one of the most unique people in the entire world. Who else lives like her? Who else has had her success? Who else has had her exposure? Who else has had her life? I can't think of anybody.

pop culture vaginas

I can't think of anybody.

Paris Hilton?

Is the writer short-circuiting?

once, a boy would kick a ball in the street

http://www.rageon.com/products/kim-kardashian-human-centipede-t-shirt

needs more kanye

posts like Yeah this is what I know about her but I also know she has instagram followers or I don't have any real opinions about that but celebrity culture is super vapid or I know there's like a plus size model I saw holding a sign I wasn't following the point or even the thread title itself have a tonal similarity to things Paris Hilton or KK would say themselves - extremely detached but with a hint of curiosity that's quickly dismissed or flattened-out then falls off.

http://www.rageon.com/products/kim-kardashian-human-centipede-t-shirt

― tayto fan (Michael B), Wednesday, July 29, 2015 5:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this site is like the hypebeast spencer's gifts

idg why it isn't just a bunch of Kim Kardashians

It's Kardashians all the way down

When someone claims total ignorance of Kim Kardashian, my main takeaway is that they do all of their grocery shopping at Whole Foods or Trader Joes. It seems impossible to have walked through a standard supermarket checkout line and not know things like who she's married to, who's in her family, what she looks like, etc.

That's a US thing, I think? Supermarkets over here are more likely to have a magazine aisle and a bunch of sweets in the checkouts.

Saw a couple of boys staring open mouthed at the Rolling Stone cover yesterday - I think they might have realized then that a whole new world was out there.

this is from someone OUTRAGED about the decline of Rolling Stone, but I like it because it looks like Lennon is reacting to the photo of KK

http://www.feelnumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/first-issue-rolling-stone-john-lennon-kim-kardasian.jpg

https://menwillpause.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/image4.jpg?w=300&h=224

there's something interesting to the kind of anxiety KK (or someone like Paris Hilton) provokes that goes beyond misogyny (while be 100% an expression of it). or maybe it's just that a woman is more likely to invoke the kind of signifier without a referent in a patriarchal culture. like, pictures of John Lennon are themselves a kind of empty iconography that only really attain authentic "meaning" when juxtaposed to an image that signifies only its own image-ness, if you will. the KK haters kind of need her, in that case.

I'm just tired of seeing the face of someone I'm uninterested in all the time tbh, wouldn't go so far as to call it an "anxiety"

John Lennon bringing his duckface, I see.

I guess he does good photos, but I don't see why RS keeps going with Terry Richardson for these types of cover shoots

http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/2014/media/179210/_original/1419952874/1035x1407-Nicki_Cover_SML.jpg

He's good at what he's doing, but isn't it the consensus that he's assaulted several women on shoots?

guy knows how to photograph boobs; is also a scuzz

don't boobs kind of photograph themselves

some other photographers should get in on the slimy boob action

Kim! v. Jeb! fite

____________22 mins ·

To all of my Mom friends who doubt their mothering capabilities, or who stress over their children's well being, or you're just a struggling new mom trying to keep your shit together.... You're doing an awesome job! Remember it's a hard job but it's worth it. It could be worse, you could always be this shitty mom.......

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12540737_10153458910532983_7329004677115649342_n.jpg?oh=892a6a52a69a2be5432f5cd9c3c00a3c&oe=56FC0FBB

2 people like this.

I don't know why this under-30 fb friend dislikes Kris Jenner enough that she made a whole post about it.

For my birthday, Kanye got me the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime. A special surprise from heaven. A hologram of my dad. It is so lifelike! We watched it over and over, filled with emotion.

Jesus wept

it was smart of Kanye to not have the hologram plead with her to reconsider divorce. that's the kind of gesture you save for its Valentine's Day encore performance

Tomcruiseheidecker.mov

THE MOST THOUGHTFUL GIFT OF A LIFETIME i can't get this out of my head

Over and over we watched the hologram, letting it fill us with emotion, letting our emotions overflow within us and wash over us, over and over. A special surprise from heaven, right here in our own home, in our very living room, over and over. When the hologram would end, we would get up and start it again. And again. And again. Over and over and over, for hours, for the entire night, a night that seemed an eternity. It is so lifelike! And yet even as the sun rose and a new day began, we remained with the hologram still, getting up only to restart it every two minutes, mesmerized by this special surprise from heaven, transfixed by our emotions. A hologram of my dad. The most thoughtful gift of a lifetime.

lol i had to explain to my bf who kim kardashian was recently and wondered if i was the most qualified person. i was like "she's oj simpson's niece and friends kaitlyn jenner" (who he's heard of) Then we went on wikipedia and i had to explain to him what a bandage dress is and we ended up watching the mugging scene from clueless on youtube.

"Over and over we watched the hologram, letting it fill us with emotion, letting our emotions overflow within us and wash over us, over and over. A special surprise from heaven, right here in our own home, in our very living room, over and over. When the hologram would end, we would get up and start it again. And again. And again. Over and over and over, for hours, for the entire night, a night that seemed an eternity. It is so lifelike! And yet even as the sun rose and a new day began, we remained with the hologram still, getting up only to restart it every two minutes, mesmerized by this special surprise from heaven, transfixed by our emotions. A hologram of my dad. The most thoughtful gift of a lifetime."

That almost sounds like that emotion machine from PK Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'.

It's a good job Jay-Z phoned Kanye up and told him to make sure he didn't use the footage of David Schwimmer playing Robert Kardashian by mistake.

now I have the image in my head of David Schwimmer wearing a white nightgown bending over repeatedly and saying "help me! you're my only hope!"