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

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?

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!"