As much as everyone loves to hate on the Kardashian-Jenner sisters, they have made an incredible influence onto women in today's society. To start, The Kardashian-Jenner sisters are a group of successful women headed by a woman, Kris Jenner. Kris Jenner has raised these girls alone after the death of Robert Kardashian and the estrangement of Caitlyn Jenner from the family. Kris Jenner has managed all 5 of these girls into various businesses of makeup lines, modeling jobs, and various other events. She has created their success with her knowledge of the business alone. Most infamously, because of Kris Jenner's pitch for Keeping Up With The Kardashians in 2007, all of their liveschanged forever. They became a global sensation and their finances seemed to be set for life because of one woman's creative idea.
The Kardashian-Jenner sisters are feminists because they are independent, powerful business women. Kendall is a successful model and Kylie is the youngest billionaire ever due to her makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics. Kendall was the highest paid supermodel in 2017 with a $22 million paycheck while Kylie Cosmetics alone is worth $420 million. Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian run their Dash clothing stores and are also executive producers of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Khloe also has her jean line of Good American. Kim Kardashian has her Kimoji app, own KKW makeup line, her book of selfies and the Kim Kardashian Hollywood game. They are successful on their own and they do not depend on their male partners or other rich family members for their finances.
The next reason why the Kardashians are feminists is because they show that motherhood is not a weakness. Kris, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and Kylie are all successful businesswoman with children. Kim has three children with a fourth on the way, Kourtney has three children, Khloe has one, and Kylie has one. They show us that women can be "superheros" and "have it all" by being incredibly involved mothers yet incredibly involved in their professional careers as well. They do not stay at home and play the domestic wife while their husbands earn their money. They are very independent, especially Kourtney and Khloe, who are not together with their children's fathers.
The Kardashian-Jenner sisters are feminists who embrace their bodies and promote body positivity on social media. Kim has posted nude photos on Instagram to promote mothers getting their bodies back through hard work outs and clean diets. However, Kim naturally has a curvy body and her body posts on Instagram show other women it is okay to thicker curves as well. It is not shameful to have a curvier body and she promotes the idea of embracing and flaunting beautiful curves. Each sister also has so much confidence in themselves and in their posts on social media, even though they all have different body sizes. This encourages women to have confidence in their body size, despite what it is.
Not only do these sisters promote body positivity, but they promote positive sex movements. In the positive sex movement, sex education is extremely important. On the show, the sisters are very open about sex talks and sex education. In one episode, Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick go to a class about sex during pregnancy. Kourtney is scared about having sex while pregnant but this class helps her learn that sex during pregnancy is safe. The sisters also talk about sex in a very casual way, even joking about it. This may open up the conversation for more serious topics and inspire other women to inquire and educate themselves about sex.
These sisters also take lots of selfies of themselves which promotes self-love. As one may see this as narcissistic, others see it as self-love and having confidence. These sisters are promoting loving themselves before anything else and that is important in building relationships with others. Next, the Kardashian-Jenners change their bodies often and are not afraid to admit it either. Kylie has lip injections, Kourtney has breast implants, the whole family has liposuction and Botox, and they all advertise products like waist trainers and “Fit Tea.” They promote the idea that you should do whatever makes you feel like a confident woman, as long as you do it for yourself and not others.
These sisters are also a strong feminist unit because they are so close and support one another in all their endeavors. For example, when one of the sisters is on the cover of a magazine, each sister congratulates them and promotes it on social media. Also, each sister has been an influencer and collaborated in Kylie's makeup brand in order to increase her audience reach. These sisters support each other and increase each other's success by doing business together and promote each other's businesses they are not involved in. They show how important it is for women to support other women in order to unite and have power in this patriarchal society. Women should not be competitive with one another, but happy for each other's successes.
The Kardashians are more specifically promoting fourth wave feminism, which includes intersectionality. For example, when the step father of the Kardashians and father of the Jenners transitioned into Caitlin Jenner, they were all supportive of transgender rights. The family has also encouraged followers to be open-minded, accepting, and mindful of those who are transgender. They created awareness within their reality television show of the transgender community and even dedicated episodes to Caitlin's transition. Over 50% of respondents had not seen trans issues being discussed in the mainstream media before Caitlyn Jenner transitioned.
Finally, Kim specifically is a feminist because she has fought for the freedom and justice of women. Kim personally fought for Alice Marie Johnson to get released from jail and won. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole after she was convicted on non-violent drug and money laundering charges. After Johnson was behind bars for almost 22 years, Kim made her mission to get justice for her. Kim personally met with President Trump at the White House to get grant Johnson clemency. Kim had to work with Johnson's attorney to get a thousand letters in favor of her release from senators and politicians. The White house even canceled the meeting until they could prove they had more support. The meeting then was back on once they received this support. Kim took her celebrity power and used it for the greater good of women.
Even though these sisters may seem superficial and unrealistic, they do have feminist values whether they mean to or not. They have fought for the greater good of women and have demonstrated how successful women can be if they unite together as a force. They are open-minded to sexualities and promote acceptance of the transgender community. They are also successful, independent business women while being involved mothers. They also promote self-love through posting pictures of themselves and body positivity through their nude, curvy body pictures.
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Maloney, A. R. (2017). The Influence of the Kardashian-Jenners on Fourth Wave Fourth Wave Feminism Through Digital Media Platforms Retrieved from http://www.elon.edu/u/academics/communications/journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2017/12/05_Feminist_Maloney.pd
Semack, K. (2018, March 5). 7 Reasons the Kardashians are Feminist Icons. Retrieved from https://www.hercampus.com/school/wisconsin/7-reasons-kardashians-are-feminist-icons
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