A Look At Imperialism: The Kardashian-Jenner's

I am in a graduate class called Narration of Empire, where we contemplate aspects of empire and talk about an event/conflict/or period of time through the lens of empire. Throughout my studies I have been fascinated at the relationship between popular culture and politics. Who better than the Kardashian-Jenner family to deliciously unpack the impact of cultural imperialism.

Because obviously there are far richer families than these people, but I argue, that they are just as influential as say the Koch family or the Mars family. Maybe that's a bit of a reach, I don't know, and know corporation conspiracy theorists would probably laugh in my face But it's an interesting question.

I saw this 'Targashian' meme (below) not too long ago referencing the Kardashian's as the Targaryen's and it solidified my journey of this analysis.

But first let me give you a quick snapshot of the power social media influencers have. We can narrow down COVID-19 fake news spread by 12 specific wellness influencers and they don't come from the wealthiest families in the world.

This isn't new exactly either, Johnny Carson can be considered an influencer of his day, and mediums of many forms give the host a wide platform. Say, the popularity of Queens Gambit on Netflix and the selling out of chessboards or Birth of a Nation and the resurgence of the KKK, which is why propaganda works pretty damn well. Narrative and platform has power. Social media is just the newest form of it.

Okay back to the Kardashians and the Targaryens (from Game of Thrones if you aren't familiar). This article from Mashable outlines this super well:

• Both the Targaryens and the Kardashian-Jenners know the timeless value of an impenetrable power couple. A tale as old as monarchy.
• Their family value is power, and while the Targaryens are a more blatant depiction of powerful royalty, from titles to politics, the Kardashians are arguably the closest thing we have to an American monarchy.

• Much like the Targaryen’s political scheming, carefully crafted media ploy, that keeps them at that pedestal. Like going extreme lengths to debunk reputation-destroying rumors, for example.
• Targaryens and The KardishJenners both know what having power means, what it takes to keep it, and what it takes to validate it.
• And lastly they have all pretty much sported the platinum blonde hair look

With all this in mind I am often taken by the role the Kardashian-Jenner family plays in our everyday lives, whether we like it or not. Partially because of their wealth, but mainly because, like the point of this article, their influence. They aren’t just part of the zeitgeist. They are the zeitgeist.

Like the mythical hydra, they continue to regenerate as powerful as ever after the most cancellable scandals. I used to think we should just ignore them and not continue to give them a platform, but it has come to my attention that they are beyond being boycotted. They hold so much power that it would not matter at this point if we decided we wanted to ‘deplatform’ them.

Kim Kardashian recently announced her new business adventure in private equity growing her own familial empire. She, along with her sister Kylie Jenner, hold billionaire status and we are pretty familiar with the stakes of that. We can see just how powerful they are when we turn our heads toward the likes of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos. The Kardashian-Jenners, are a family of immense collective wealth, which brings me back to the comparison of monarchy…

We saw the work of Kim Kardashian in the White House working with Donald Trump and how easily she was able to waltz into political conversations.

Kourtney Kardashian is taking on climate change — I say this very lightly…and Caitlin Jenner even ran for California Governor in 2021. They influence the very basis of American culture and bleed into the rest of the world with globalization. It is very difficult to engage in daily life and not see some headline or news story about them in your face.

Navigating empire through the lens of the Kardashian-Jenners with a serious analysis, ensures that we do not look past the importance of culture on politics. Academics love to scoff at popular culture and particularly reality TV stars and celebrity culture.

Except that’s how we end up with Reagan and Trump as president, and closer to home for me, Sean Duffy, from the Real World, becoming a Wisconsin U.S. Representative and now Lobbyist. Which only adds to the widening distribution of wealth in power the U.S. is experiencing. I might even argue that popular culture plays a far more important role in our lives than we know and we cannot ignore it. At this point a TikTok start could end up president with some of them having upwards of 10 million followers. As for the KardashJenner's, one thing is for sure, they have a love affair with the public media

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In this Vogue Article by MJ Corey, her analysis of this relationship draws from the infamous Edward Bernays, "the godfather of publicity". She draws the quote from his book, Propaganda, pertaining to the importance for a business to "have its finger continuously on the public pulse. It must understand the changes in the public mind and be prepared to interpret itself fairly and eloquently to changing opinion.” Her examination goes on to assess that his words are not only applicable to the Kar-Jenners’ legacy of scandal, but that Bernays’s essential point aims at the importance of effective publicity engineers social desire it tells the consumer what they want before the product is available.

It reminds me of the episode of Mad Men where Don Draper condescendingly--maybe accurately--explains that they have to be the ones to tell the consumer what they want before they even know they want it, because ultimately — he believes — they are too dumb to know for themselves. Corey points to Kylie Jenner's lips in 2015 as evidence to this point and drama around whether they were real or not...creating a, "speculative buzz that surrounded their transformation before she finally announced her Kylie Cosmetics lip kits. In general, the book anticipates the Kar-Jenner rise to relevance—and their impact on the Influencer Economy."

Such a good analysis and example! Also side note: Bernays is the guy that mass influenced the coolness trope and gendering of cigarettes...he worked on so many big influential campaigns including ones that impacted the Banana Wars in Guatemala and the way Corey ties it together is ~chefs kiss~ absolutely brilliant.

Unfortunately, after all my work, my professor didn't see my vision, so maybe I'll continue this on my own another time. . I didn't even get to get into attention economy, alienation, the farse of the American dream or tying it to imperial action. It's wild to see the Kardashian-Jenner's starting from their socialite background to their father as an attorney for OJ Simpson to their long standing hit reality TV series, they have affected the plastic surgeon industry 10-fold, the fashion industry, and so much more. But I've had a blast researching and diving into this and seeing other brilliant minds who share similar sentiments.

Hope you enjoyed my rabbit hole! If you find this piece interesting, please consider sharing with a friend, leaving a ❤️, or even a tip. Your support means a lot to me as an aspiring writer!