jennafirstpersonjournalism-blog

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The Duality of Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian did two big things recently: she attended the Met Gala in a custom Thierry Mugler dress (his first new design in 20 years) and she helped free 17 people from prison in the last 90 days. These two headlines, printed just a hours apart, are a vivid representation of how multi faceted women can be.

First headline from Harper’s Bazaar, second from CBS.

My admiration of Kim has been long running. I remember relating to her because her body looked more like mine. I was a kid in the age of stick skinny Keira Knightley, and at times it felt like I was born with body image issues. Seeing her celebrated for her beauty made me feel more comfortable in my skin. I also loved clothes and shoes and makeup. Kim was the poster girl for teenagers like me. 

I also saw how people tore her down. There are many rightful reasons some might criticize her. Her promotion of ill-advised medical products and tendency to lie about seemingly very obvious plastic surgery come to mind. But those criticisms aren’t what bothered me. 

To this day, on any thread online about Kim Kardashian, you will find at least dozens of comments calling her a slut. Accusing her of being a whore. Accusing her of being a narcissist. But the most-repeated critique against her are accusations that she’s dumb.

The dumb comments always got on my nerves, even more than the slut shaming. If you’re a woman or girl who likes and embraces feminine things, there’s a good chance someone will call you dumb because of it. Women feel like they’re forced to tone down their femininity and declare that they’re “not like other girls”. This has led to many women having complicated relationships with femininity. 

However, Kim Kardashian doesn’t do that. She embraces makeup and beauty and fashion and all things coded as feminine. She doesn’t shy away from that label, and certainly doesn’t equate it to dumb. 

Now, she’s spending her days in and out of dress fittings with famous couturiers and funding lawyers to get people out of prison. She doesn’t have to be one or the other. A woman can be both smart and feminine. An activist and glamorous. And for those who thought her new path studying to be a lawyer would mean covering up more and peacocking less, they couldn’t be more wrong. 

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Here to Make Friends

At my boyfriend’s Christmas party last December, I found myself chatting with one of his friends Claire. Claire is stylish and sweet; she’s always decked out in cool vintage clothing and makes everyone feel immediately comfortable. 

She and I were gossiping and catching up, when I made a passing reference to The Bachelor. Her face was both shocked and delighted. She told me she watched The Bachelor too and that she absolutely loved it. Though we’d been friends before, this spawned a new level in our friendship. Suddenly, we had plans to watch the show together every Monday night. 

A few months ago I stopped by Claire’s house to chat with her about her relationship to the show and reality TV. Her happy rescue dog, Scout, sat with his head in my lap and her shelves were filled with knick knacks. I started by saying reality TV was a definite guilty pleasure of mine, and she agreed. “I think a lot of reality TV from an external perspective starts like that, where it’s just like ‘yeah, it’s dumb’, but I think it’s really easy to get swept up in the drama!” 

The drama. Reality TV would be nothing without it. I’ve heard countless tales of boyfriends and brothers who claimed to hate reality TV, only to find themselves glued to the television as Demi fights with Tracy. Something about that human drama appeals to people. But while that human drama is what catches them, it’s the bonds that are formed while watching that make them stay. 

“It’s definitely my guilty pleasure,” Claire says. However, she adds, “I can connect with ladies that way.” It’s true; it definitely provides a great way for women to connect. Claire and I were friends and I liked her a lot before we become Bachelor buddies, but after watching an entire season side by side on my couch, I feel as if we’re in a sisterhood. Claire agrees with me, and adds that it can be a great thing for even established friendships. “If we do know each other I can say ‘hey, you know what’s a fun juicy thing to do? Watching the Bachelor.’”

Beyond the drama or the entertainment, the appeal of reality TV is the sense of sisterhood viewers often feel. The Bachelor subreddit, a website where women are often the minority, has over 60K passionate subscribers. Google “Bachelor watch parties” and you’ll get over 40 million results. 

These silly, dramatic, fantastic TV shows don’t just entertain us, they give us something to talk about. Would Claire and I still be good friends without The Bachelor? Of course! But knowing that we will both show up every Monday night, ready to be entertained, has added a level of comfort to our friendship that might not be there otherwise. In a world of millennial friendships where cancelled plans are celebrated, that steadiness is such a welcome change. So, skeptics can sneer all they want at reality TV, but I know firsthand the way it can help forge bonds and solidify hopefully lifelong friendships. 

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Kim Kardashian Gets Legal

In the May issue of Vogue Magazine, Kim Kardashian announced she was studying to become a lawyer. The news shocked countless people, but to a Keeping up with the Kardashians viewer like myself, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. Last season on Keeping up with the Kardashians, viewers watched as Kim joined the prison reform fight. She fought with a team of attorneys to help get clemency for a woman named Anne Marie Johnson- a grandmother who’d already served two decades for a nonviolent, first time drug offense.

When Kim revealed she was working to become a lawyer, the internet erupted with opinions. Some referenced the movie Legally Blonde, a movie in which a young, pretty woman is underestimated in law school because of her looks. Any woman who grew up loving the color pink and girly things will be able to tell you the impact Legally Blonde had on them, so this real-world Legally Blonde story appealed to so many of us. After all, why is a person’s choice to educate and better herself so threatening to some? 

Others pointed out how the mocking and criticisms she’s faced made them want her to succeed even more. Some may rightfully criticize her for encouraging narcissism and promoting sketchy products on Instagram, but much of the criticism she’s faced has been rooted in misogyny. She continues to be shamed for a sex tape she made years ago- one that was allegedly leaked without her consent. Something about the shaming and criticism she’s received has always made me want to root for her. Ultimately, she has refused to apologize for her body and sexuality despite the fact that thousands attempted to make her feel ashamed. To women who have been dismissed because of their appearance or gender, this hits close to home. 

The social media responses also show something else: that people cannot wait to watch Kim’s new career unfold on her TV show. This is the brilliance of the Kardashian empire. We hear bits and pieces of these stories, all the while knowing that in six months’ time we will be able to watch how it all really went down on the TV show. Cheating scandals, breakups, and pregnancies all hit the tabloids months before the topics are covered in the show, leaving us wanting more. People have already started fantasizing about watching Kim fight the good fight for other incarcerated individuals. They’re not only interested in justice, but they know that this would be amazing television.  

Ultimately, people have had to reckon with the fact that perhaps they put Kardashian into a box too quickly. While she might represent consumerism in a way some find vapid, she’s also started doing real good in this world. Many have assumed that her fame and celebrity was purely a fluke. I don’t think so. I think she has always had an uncanny sense of what people wanted to see and watch. Now that she has our attention, she’s not going to use it lightly.  

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The Bachelor meets “Me Too”

*NOTE TO PROFESSOR: DO NOT GRADE! This is not part of what I am presenting for my final project. I didn’t want to go over word count so I decided to omit this piece, but did not want to delete it.*

On the most recent season of the Bachelor, I found myself listening to a young woman share her harrowing account of sexual assault.

I was curled up in my living room with my friend and mom, eating snacks and gossiping about contestants’ hair and outfits when suddenly I felt the tone shift. The bachelor, Colton, and his date were at dinner now, and it was clear the conversation would be a serious one. His date, Caelynn, told him a horrific but all too familiar story of sexual assault at a college party.

Suddenly, the experience of watching the show felt different. I no longer felt like some omniscient voyeur watching pretty people fall in love. I felt like a person listening to her friend. It felt like something real was finally happening on this show, a show typically characterized by pure fantasy.

I found myself wondering how this came to be featured as a storyline on the show. I’m not surprised at all that Caelynn would want to share her story, but I am surprised at ABC’s decision to air it. But perhaps I shouldn’t have been. As the Me Too movement becomes more and more mainstream, corporations have had to decide whether or not they will capitalize on it. Clearly, some have decided they will.

As activism gains more popularity and more cache, it becomes a new way for corporations to appeal to an increasingly feminist audience. In a way, it almost seems inevitable that The Bachelor would have to give a platform to stories of abuse. With a format that encourages contestants to share their pasts over a romantic dinner, there had to be at least one contestant willing and ready to share her story of sexual assault.

But what, exactly, does it mean? I don’t think it means that The Bachelor is necessarily going to be a progressive show. The show regularly features a mostly-white batch of contestants and has only had one black lead in its many season run. I think what this means is that the conversation of sexual assault has gained mainstream recognition in a way it never has before. We have now heard the words “rape kit” on The Bachelor, a scenario that sounds like it’s from a Mad Libs book.

I think it also shows that reality TV can’t ignore what’s happening in the outside world. I mean, how can a show that deals with dating and relationships ignore the fact that sexual assault is rampant?

I’m not sure if we’ll ever see political debates on the show, but I do see a shift towards more openness about racism and sexual assault. ABC’s choice to support a dialogue that deals with these harder social topics means that they believe these conversations are what people want to see. Though the show still re-enforces very conservative views on marriage and often has strange power dynamics at play, it sparked what was to me one of the most meaningful moments on TV this year.

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Q&A About the Bachelor

*NOTE TO PROFESSOR: DO NOT GRADE! This is not part of what I am presenting for my final project, I just left it up as it was part of the process and I did not want to delete any posts relating to this project.*

Through my boyfriend I became close friends with one of the women in his circle. Over long chats about feminism and pop culture, she and I both tentatively revealed we loved the TV show the Bachelor. We were both slightly ashamed of our love for the show, but also defensive. We both felt that there was more to it than just silly reality TV. It was because of this conversation that I decided to focus on reality TV and really delve into this topic. Here are some of the stand out moments from the interview I did with my friend Claire:

“I think a lot of reality TV from an external perspective starts like that, where it’s just like ‘yeah, it’s dumb’, but I think it’s really easy to get swept up in the drama!”

[Regarding becoming an influencer (selling products on Instagram), something many women who were contestants on the show do] “That’s a way for women to become independent and self sufficient.” and “Society is choosing for us what is respectable and not respectable work.”

“There’s a lot of stuff that’s vain and shallow.” “Society expects women to be humble.”

“A woman who’s outspoken and confident, like Demi [past contestant on the show], is seen as annoying.”

“When I see Demi doing it [acting outrageous on camera], I think ‘Oh, you’re very aware! You’re aware of what you’re doing and the effects of this.’ I think it’s because the way that I walk through the world is with the assumption that people are looking at me or judging me.”

[Talking about the show in general] “It’s definitely my guilty pleasure.” [Talking about discussing the show] “I can connect with ladies that way.”

“If we do know each other I can say ‘hey, you know what’s a fun juicy thing to do? Watching the Bachelor.’”

“I don’t think I represent the basic kind of fan. I think I represent the demographic like us, who are watching it ironically.”

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In Defense of Keeping up with the Kardashians

I’ve always been a fan of reality television. For years I watched every episode of American Idol live and would spend hours as a kid watching age inappropriate dating shows on MTV. 

As I’ve grown older, though, my taste in reality TV has become more discerning. I regularly watch Keeping up with the Kardashians, not because I find them vapid like some do, but because I genuinely enjoy watching the close family dynamics. 

“I wanted to watch them because they’re this close family,” my mother, Trish, in her sixties, says. She started watching the show passively with me, but now finds herself engaged with it. “They’re a family of close, powerful business women. I respect and appreciate that. It’s important to see that.” 

What my mom says is true: it’s getting harder and harder to disregard this family, and reality TV itself, when they genuinely appear to be striving for good. My mom and I have this conversation in the wake of Kim Kardashian’s announcement that she is studying to be a lawyer. Though this might’ve come as a shock to those who don’t watch the show, to those of us who do this is just the continuation of her long documented interest in prison reform. 

In the last few years there was a shift. “Slowly for surely,” Trish says, “the show became political. All of a sudden they were at Planned Parenthood or talking to survivors of gun violence.” 

The power of pop culture influence today should never be underestimated, and the Kardashians arguably have the biggest influence of all. Yes, they use that influence to sell makeup and shill questionable weight loss products, but there is also a lot of good there. Kim Kardashian is credited with being a huge reason why President Trump pardoned Ms. Alice Johnson, a woman who was serving a lifetime sentence for a first time non-violent drug charge. Who could’ve ever imagine Kim in the Oval Office? That image alone should show the power and influence of reality TV. 

I learned about the Armenian Genocide through their show. I was at a top high school when I watched that episode, yet I’d heard nothing more than perhaps vague references to the Genocide. That’s a level of power and influence that I think people still don’t know how to deal with. How did these these women, known for their sexed-up photo-shoots and materialism, become purveyors of political and social information? 

People will mock and criticize. People will bring up sex tapes and failed marriages, as if those are character flaws. Despite the criticisms and controversy surrounding these women, people will continue to follow, allowing them platforms to make obscene amounts of money and do some real good in the world. 

[jennafirstpersonjournalism-blog]

Reality TV Gets Newsworthy

*NOTE TO PROFESSOR: DO NOT GRADE! This is not part of what I am presenting for my final project, I just left it up as it was part of the process and I did not want to delete any posts relating to this project.*

A few weeks ago, I sat in my living room with friends and family, excited to watch the newest episode of The Bachelor. It was a Monday night, and all of us women were snacking and gossiping about the contestants, one of our favorite activities. 

The show usually deals in lighthearted drama. One girl complains about the others to the Bachelor, and then she inevitably gets eliminated. Sometimes fights break out. Though this season had experienced its fair share of gossip and drama, this episode took us by surprise. 

One of the women, Caelynn, a beauty queen from Virginia, was on the evening portion of her date with the bachelor when she disclosed to him that she’d been raped in college. 

The air left the room when she said this. Our gossiping and snacking stopped completely. This show, which typically deals in fantasy, was addressing not just Caelynn’s assault, but rather a greater movement of victims and survivors of abuse sharing their stories. 

I had never expected to hear a contestant utter those words on The Bachelor; a place that has always been apolitical and unwilling to address the problematic nature of its own contestants (a contestant on the last season of the Bachelorette was convicted of indecent assault and battery shortly after his season aired). 

But here the show was, giving a young woman a platform to share her story of abuse with the entire country. I think it would be easy to acknowledge this as due to the Time’s Up or Me Too movements, but I think it fits in with a larger trend of people moving away from neutrality. 

Even on Keeping up with the Kardashians, a reality show famous for being about nothing more than a family, real world issues are being increasingly incorporated. 

A few years ago, the sisters stopped by Planned Parenthood, featuring the facility and its workers heavily in the episode. Last season, Kim took her daughter and husband to the March for Our Lives rally, and met with kids from Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School. An entire episode was dedicated to Kim’s work to free an incarcerated older woman who’d already served decades for a nonviolent drug offense. 

What was once a TV show of D-list celebrities going to store openings and photoshoots was now a show that was directly addressing the industrial prison complex, women’s reproductive rights, and gun violence. 

Suddenly, my guilty pleasure reality TV shows don’t feel quite so guilty anymore. 

[jennafirstpersonjournalism-blog]

Joshua Tree

*NOTE TO PROFESSOR: DO NOT GRADE! This is not part of what I am presenting for my final project, this was one of our earliest assignments and I did not want to delete just in case.*

In the midst of the government shutdown of winter 2019, my boyfriend and I happened to be on a short trip to Joshua Tree, California. We were there to stay in a charming cabin and experience desert wilderness, but ended up getting a firsthand look at what can happen to our National Parks when left largely unsupervised. 

When we first pulled up to the National Park, we were greeted by a smiling park worker, who informed us that since the government was shut down, we would not have to pay the typical entry fee. 

In the days leading up to our trip, we read lots of horror stories about what was happening in the park. The New York Times posted several articles detailing how vandals were toppling famed Joshua trees- and warning that it could take centuries for those trees to regrow. 

In the park, we saw some of that ourselves. Several majestic Joshua trees looked like they’d been cut down roughly, a sad sight. Though other signs of government shutdown were obvious, like how dirty the bathrooms were, the haunting image of the toppled trees will have a lasting impact on all who saw them.