The Kardashians. Never has a single family caused so much debate and conversation just by existing. It’s undeniable that the Kardashian-Jenner empire has had an impact upon the world, but can we call that impact positive or negative?
It all started off with Robert Kardashian playing a major role in the O.J. Simpson murder case. Then Kim Kardashian‘s sex tape leaked out to the world. Eventually, we received a reality TV show about a simple American family and their antics, one-two-skip-a-few, and now we’re all buying lip gloss from a 23-year-old almost-billionaire.
A truly wild progression, but you simply have to admire the hustle, which was mainly headed by the family matriarch and momager, Kris Jenner.
We asked 27 young Aussies for their honest opinions on the Kardashians’ impact on the world: good? Bad? Both? Neither?
Some positive impacts of the Kardashian empire? First of all, they provided a ‘desired’ body type that wasn’t Heroin chic thin, but that comes with a whole new myriad of problems.
Secondly, their success story is one of turning nothing into something. The Kardashians are the prime example of a group of people who are kinda just famous for being famous. That’s a feat that isn’t easy to accomplish. They went from getting rich from just existing to now getting rich from fashion lines, beauty lines, television shows and other media appearances.
Negative impacts? Now see, this is where we gotta talk. They’ve created exaggerated body proportions from the money they’ve made, and have celebrated and glamorised a very niche body type that promotes an exaggeratedly thin waist, filled-out lips and a perfectly sculpted face.
They’ve capitalised on their success with a plethora of beauty products that promise the achievement of a certain look, and yet they very rarely do much good with the millions that they earn.
Cloudy, 24, put it best when she said: “It’s abundantly clear to me that these people have accumulated such wealth under an exploitative capitalist system, done absolutely nothing with it, contributed to a culture of materialism and narcissism and exploited a new generation of young girls insecurities and profited off it, that it’s just so obvious they’ve had a negative impact.”
Meanwhile, Desmond from Victoria had a more positive outlook, saying “I feel like the Kardashians have probably made more people smile than not smile. I don’t think they’ve been a negative influence on the world.”
And then there was Ash, 19, who sat on the fence saying “I think we’re gonna have to wait and see the aftermath, because we haven’t known a world in social media without the Kardashians… we’re gonna have to wait and see whether it’s been positive or negative.”
New to 27 Pedestrians? It’s our six-month docuseries, where each week we ask the same 27 young Aussies questions we’ve either all wondered, or debated with friends. You know, stuff like ‘What pisses you off about Australia?’ and ‘Is Karen really a slur?’. Normal things!
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