14 DAY TRIAL // The Kardashians illicit strong emotions, there is no doubt about that. You either love them or you hate them, but you can't ignore them. Like journalist Rob Sheffield points out in his brutally honest and equally biting piece in Rolling Stone Magazine, these ladies aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
The author points out that the Kardashians have proven to be one of the most resilient reality TV families, and while other popular shows such as The Hills, Jersey Shore or The Real Housewives have petered out, Keeping Up with the Kardashians continues to live on after 8 seasons.
KUWTK, one reality show to rule them all
A particularly nasty jab comes from the author when he states that “The Kardashians are the last ladies standing in reality TV because they've simply always believed they were celebrities — endlessly amused with themselves, endlessly oblivious to one another.”
He goes on to describe them as being “impervious to the outside world” and having “gargantuan egos and petty jealousies.”
Taking a look at the family's recent dramas, such as Kourtney's third pregnancy, Khloe's split from Lamar Odom and Kim's relationship with Kanye West, the author can't help himself but to point out, “They do not learn, grow, mature, suffer, any of that HBO Sunday-night business. They do, however, take pole-dancing classes. And get mad when Mom crashes the pole-dancing classes.”
Though disgusted or angered, people still watch and thus give more power to the Kardashians
It doesn't take much to understand that Sheffield is really bothered by the dumbed-down entertainment these women provide “with lots of shopping” as well as the low standards they set to people everywhere who worship them and emulate their style and their behavior.
His conclusion is that the Kardashians are an “ongoing saga” that can be likened to the present-day America and everything that's wrong with it. He rhetorically asks himself “where-the-hell-is-that-fall” of this American-family empire, which he thinks is “bigger than U.S. Steel.”
This is hardly the first unflattering piece that the Kardashians have sparked in the press, and it's very unlikely that it's going to be the last. Instead, the girls rise above it all with a shake of their magic wand that has a very good PR department and a lot of people working overtime at maintaining this huge media monster they have created.
But no matter how negative the piece is, you can't really help but feel the author is also somehow strangely impressed by their success and by how well they've managed to hold onto and expand their empire for so long, while others have long since fallen in disgrace or oblivion.