Slumped on my bed in front of my laptop, having not really moved from this position for some hours, I ponder my ability to find the energy to move my arm and switch to the next episode of ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’, my new-found hobby and interest (who needs sports societies?).
Over the weekend I have managed a marathon of episodes and have completed an entire season, pausing only to squeeze the harried completion of an essay into one evening. I can only pray that there is an open unit next year on ‘The Kultural Significance of the Kardashians’, otherwise my degree may suffer.
I am fully conscious of the criticism surrounding the Kardashian family and, besides their manicures, cute babies and cool grandma, there is little in them to find inspiring. In addition to the already apparently depressingly hollow and rhetorical greeting of ‘How are you?’, a far more earnest and heart-felt ‘You are looking so skinny today!’ is routinely exchanged upon every meeting (in a manner reminiscent of ‘Blessed be the fruit’). The fixation on appearance so dominates the family that all have some obvious form of cosmetic enhancement and Season 15 sees Kim suffer from ‘selfie wrist’, Kris gifting her best friend a face lift, and The Great Fall-Out after Kim called Kourtney ‘the least interesting to look at’ about which, if you are at all interested in current affairs, you would know.
However, feminist pedestals can be quite dull places to reside 100% of the time. It is very difficult to engage in culture (not just Kulture) whilst eliminating anything which does not uphold your values: many of my favourite writers would certainly have fallen short in this area, alongside Love Island.
I think there is a case for indulging in guilty pleasures even when politically questionable (obviously thinking more along the lines of bikini waxes or indulging in yet another step in your skincare routine, rather than of violence, drugs, or having the audacity to go to private school). Trashy TV and gossip-mag drama can be enjoyed guiltlessly when you can distance yourself with an awareness of what makes them ‘trashy’, and secretly aspiring to be a member of this family is probably fine too: university degrees open many doors. There are certainly comforting and curative powers to Kris Jenner’s inspiring array of oversized sunglasses and weekly pearls of wisdom, and there are curative powers in accepting being a guilty feminist. You’re doing amazing sweetie.