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This is 2/4 of The Kardashians correspondence. Read the first instalment here.
Fell Down a Travis Barker Hole
May 30, 2022
Hey Quinn,
I totally agree with what you said about how it’s nonessential to even keep up with the episodes in order to keep up with the drama of their lives. I’ll admit: I wasn’t a regular viewer of their original show, Keeping Up, at all. I only saw it from time to time while my mom watched it. Something about watching the show made me depressed, namely how little wealth I have in comparison to them. It’s what keeps me from watching too much Real Housewives as well. Whenever I watch too many lifestyle reality shows, I feel like I need to get lip filler. I even looked up how much it costs (about $1000, in case you’re wondering, and you need to get it reinjected every 6-12 months). I think this desire for luscious lips prompted by watching too much reality TV explains a lot of Kylie’s business success.
It’s funny how even though I didn’t watch their show regularly until the reboot, I was still familiar with the Kardashian Extended Universe, even if only vaguely. I’ve been listening to a celebrity gossip podcast called Who? Weekly since 2016. The premise of the show is to divide the celebrity world into Who’s and Thems, as in, “Who is that?” for a lower-tier celeb and “It’s them!” for a higher-tier celeb. Even though the podcast focuses on lower-tier celebrities, the Kardashians are mentioned constantly, despite the fact that they are obviously Thems. Even though I didn’t watch a lot of episodes of the show, I knew about all the plot points: Jordyn Woods and Tristan Thompson, Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out, etc.
It’s weird how they’re the most famous family in the world but have been regarded quite poorly by the traditional media landscape due to their come up on reality TV. I think things have changed in recent years, but reality TV has been regarded really poorly culturally. A lot of people continue to think of it as “trash” or a “guilty pleasure,” but I actually find reality TV to be extremely fascinating, especially in regards to what you mention as Baudrillards’s “hyperreality.”
For instance, something I find really weird in the reboot is the inclusion of Travis Barker as Kourtney’s new partner. Of course, it’s not weird at all for celebrities to be dating each other; as a big music fan, I just know of Travis as the drummer of Blink-182. I got really obsessed with Blink a few years ago and fell down a Travis Barker hole. I read his memoir, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death and Drums, Drums, Drums, and also watched his 2005 MTV reality show, Meet The Barkers, which focused on his marriage to Shanna Moakler.
I guess I just find it funny to have already seen a show where he gets married and has kids, to watching another one filmed 17 years later where he does basically the same thing, only with a different woman. I wonder if he ever feels weird about it because I kind of do. I don’t think we were ever meant to know this much about people we’ve never actually met. Do you ever feel weird about how long you’ve followed the Kardashians, or question if you have an odd parasocial relationship with them?
All the best,
Alanna
Slightly-More-Relatable Image
June 1 2022
Dear Alanna,
You read Travis Barker's memwah?? Omg, what did he say? I watched a few episodes of Meet the Barkers on YouTube, but it just seemed sad and like Shanna was deeply depressed (i.e., her "running gag" about not being able to get out of bed).
I'm super interested in what you said about not being able to watch their original show on E!, since I actually find their new show much harder to sit through! I even struggled to finish last week's episode when I watched it on Sunday. But watching it did change what I thought about a couple of things:
· In reality (lol), Kris and Kylie's "grocery shopping" trip felt grossly tone deaf and offensive (like, it was more anger-inducing than potentially interesting from a theoretical/analytical perspective). It seemed like they genuinely believed they were making a joke that most viewers would find funny (even though so many people these days are struggling to buy groceries at all).
· Honestly, I don't even know what's up with Kim anymore. I feel like she might be showing us a lot more of her true colours lately. Or at least the super competitive striving side of her personality that's always been there is really coming through. Did you hear what she said about how she would have "murdered Kendall [herself]" if the American Vogue cover had been between the two of them back in the day?
I've read some speculation online about how their team at E! did a better job of "protecting them" in terms of helping them maintain a slightly-more-relatable image, whereas Kris Jenner's production company has complete creative control now over at Hulu. It seems like it might be a case of being too disconnected from (most people's) reality and no longer having anyone there to point it out. I mean, they were obviously still rich at the start of the original show. But they were also always doing embarrassing things and they were seemingly less image-obsessed (think: incest jokes, vagina slapping, and graphic conversations about camel toes).
Speaking of their "come up"... One of the craziest things to see when rewatching old seasons is how much everything changes starting in season 8 when Kim starts dating Kanye. His creative influence over not only her but her entire family and the show is glaringly obvious—everything from the editing style to the opening credits to the massive influx of bike shorts. A big theme of this Hulu season has been Kim trying to figure out who she is and what her tastes are on her own. Who is Kim without Kanye? Can she pull off being a comedian? What is her style when Ye isn't there running the show? Sure, she can remember what eyeshadow she wore on New Years Eve in Las Vegas ten years ago. But memorization does not equal creativity, and as much as she likes to push the narrative of her "getting up off her ass and working" (which to be honest, to an extent, I think she probably does), I'm ~100% sure that Kim doesn't have a creative bone in her body. It'll be interesting to see what direction the Kardashian brand takes now that it seems he's completely moved on from them. Even The Kardashians ABC special that I watched after finishing last week's episode, which was entirely scripted and obviously produced by the Kardashian-Jenner camp, attributed their meteoric rise to Kanye. I also wrote down this quote from one of the talking-head journalists on the origin story of Kim (pre-Kanye): "She was a performer. She never had to market her vulnerability in order to succeed." I think I wrote it down because I like it, but I'm still not sure I understand what it means.
In summary: I normally do find reality tv, and the Kardashians in particular, to be extremely fascinating. But this new show/new season is starting to become kind of difficult to watch. Maybe it's something about the contrast with the state-of-the-world context we're living in. So to answer your question, I definitely don't think I have a parasocial relationship with them; in fact, I've noticed myself developing more negativity. Maybe I should go back and rewatch an earlier season...
Best,
Quinn
P.S. SO MANY RED FLAGS WITH TRAVIS BARKER!
Alanna Why is a culture and fiction writer from Montreal. Her culture writing has been published in Minola Review, Canthius and PRISM, as well as in her newsletter, Why's World.
Quinn Mason’s writing has appeared in Lemon Hound, The Nashville Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Maisonneuve magazine, and Michelin guidebooks. You can find more of her writing at www.quinnamason.com.
Véronique Darwin writes fiction and essays. She lives in Toronto and organizes The Peer Review collaborations. If you want to be a reviewer, contact her by replying to this email.