I still can't comprehend the Kardashian phenomena. I can feel it! To be sure. I've noticed Kim et al for years online and finally watched the show, and was embarrassed to find myself transfixed and entertained. By nothing. The weasely husband was trying to start his own business and seemed a tad coked out, and the mom/manager was mildly angry at the girls for attending a red-carpet event without charging for it. Not exactly Tolstoy, or even Grisham, as far as plot lines. But I didn't want to turn it off.
I just don't get it. They're pretty, but other than Kim, not spectacularly beautiful - and besides, women like them as much or more than men. They seem like nice, clever people, but none of them is particularly interesting or accomplished, except maybe Bruce Jenner, and that was a long time ago. Their circumstances are unusual, but the thing about being in the 1% is that there are 30 million other USAmericans living amidst more or less the same level of privilege and access.
What is it? That image isn't a particularly flattering photo (maybe it's not photoshopped?) but it is inexplicably interesting. I love Barbara Kruger, but do most people even get that reference? Anyway, weird. I've noticed that a lot of new (to me) US cultural obsessions are political right now - Occupy, the Tea Party, the election cycle, arguably some reality TV as a study of interpersonal politics (The Apprentice, Survivor, any dating show). Others, like the obsessions with cooking and home improvement shows, seem designed to provide reassuring comfort in a time of socioeconomic turbulence. Where does the Kardashian phenomena fit in?
Barbara Kruger rules.