Kardashian Values: Are they Taking Over?

The Kardashian’s have entered their 13th season: a story that began with the infamous Kardashian tape scandal and will probably not end before it spreads across the poorest regions of Africa. We have all heard of the blatant criticism before, from POTUS (Obama) himself considering them a measure of stupidity to mothers all across America trashing them for churning immorality and superficiality across the youth of the country.

While the show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, or it’s 500 spinoffs, are still not as popular here in Pakistan and India, it still remains to be evaluated whether the values that are embodied by the show have indirectly seeped into the subcontinent via American pop culture, which itself has been highly influenced by the Kardashian wave.

Before we take a look, it’s time to be perfectly honest: most of these values aren’t bad at all, but of course, when it comes to the Kardashians, it’s about breaking the boundaries of moderation – and that’s where we fall into dangerous territory.

The Material Life

The Kardashian’s live for the finer things in life: from the world’s most expensive floor tiles to diamonds the size of your thumb, nothing makes the Kardashians turn towards God faster than the shiny aspects of life. Not only do they profess their eternal longing for luxury, they do it without any sense of restraint or remorse. When enquired by Oprah whether they felt they were ‘spoiled’, Kim reply was:

We don’t think we are spoiled because we work super hard for what we spend.

If posting all day on Snapchat and saying ‘Yes’ to endorsement deals because you have a large derriere stands for working hard, then Kim does have a point.

Selfishness

The Kardashian’s are selfish, make no two mistakes about it. There will be plenty of talk about sacrificing time and money for family, but trust me, when it comes to the ‘I’, each Kardashian is willing to let go of everything for his or her own utilitarian benefit.

From the Kris Humphries wedding to the countless times one of the Kardashians has gone AWOL because a new love interest demands their interest over all other duties and responsibilities, the Kardashians survive on being selfish.

Just how many monologues about ‘looking out for yourself’ and ‘being selfish is alright’ we have heard from the eldest Kardashian sister or mother Kendall, we will never be able to keep count.

Forgive Yourself

The Kardashians also pride themselves on making mistakes and getting over them – pretty darn quickly. Kim’s home video? Fuhgettabout it! Khloe’s one night stand? Into the trash bin! Bursting out on Mom for being a bad manager? Who cares?

With the Kardashians, it’s all about forgiving yourself.

Family First

The Kardashians always put family first – and that’s a good thing, until they seem intent on destroying everyone else who is not a Kardashian or in their good books. Yes, the Kardashians function on good old tribal survival instincts which our ancestors used to help us get to this point. There are two primary ways in which the family first rule comes into play:

• One of the Kardashians does something wrong, or does something horrible to someone the family holds dear (a relationship, a failed business partnership or anything for that matter). The family responds to this by taking the side of their own kith and kin, regardless of who was wrong. Once again, the Kris Humphries saga is a primary example of this.
• When forced to choose between the family (and the show) and a love interest, the Kardashian will invariably choose the former. This isn’t such a bad thing actually.

Public Displays of Affection

The Kardashian’s story is an open book – literally. For the last 13 years, almost each aspect of their life for a good 4-6 months a year is open for public viewing minus the bathroom breaks.

We say almost because almost each new love interest makes an entry into Kardashian Television and we often see (and hear) all of the bedroom antics taking place.

So, if you have four relationships a year, the Kardashian’s teach us to not only be cool with your promiscuity, but to flaunt it with friends and family? Ah, good ol’ family fun.