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The dawn of an era without Kardashians.
By Alexandra Blogier — Written on Mar 14, 2023
The reign of the Kardashian sisters may be coming to an end after over a decade of dominating modern media.
The sisters, Kim, Kourtney, Khloé, Kendall and Kylie, along with their mother Kris Jenner, have defined a decade. They are emblematic of the rise of the social media influencer, they changed the tides of the fashion world over and over again, they even became poster girls for an idealized body image that dominated the 2010s.
Beginning as an upper-middle-class family who was beloved for their bickering and family drama while on their rise to fame, the Kardashians were once relatable to audiences. Even as they amassed wealth beyond most of our wildest dreams, the sisters retained a level of interest due to society's obsession with how the wealthy live.
But now, fans are starting to wonder if their waning influence is headed for an untimely demise. As their fame has grown to astronomical levels, they’ve become significantly less relatable to regular people, ushering in what many are calling the downfall of the Kardashian family.
The Kardashians are becoming irrelevant and fans have guesses as to why.
Across social media, namely TikTok, discourse is emerging about what is happening to the Kardashian brand. It makes sense that an app beloved by Gen Z and known for it's raw, authentic look into regular people's lives should be on the forefront of a pushback against the Kardashians. In short, the stand for everything Gen Z no longer wants from its "influencers."
The Kardashians made their name by monetizing self-promotion. They branched out from reality TV and into the beauty and fashion industry, as shown with Kim’s SKIMS line and Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics. They even staked their claim in wellness products, with the launch of Kourtney’s Lemme brand vitamin line.
No matter what products they’re selling, the Kardashians are mostly selling an image— an image of themselves, of wealth, and an image of how a normal person might be able to achieve a life like theirs.
Now, the Kardashian era could be over, because people want to see celebrities with truly authentic lives.
Kim’s net worth in 2023 is estimated to be $1.7 billion, a number that most people in the world can’t relate to earning. The median household income reported by the Census in 2021 was $69,021. In 2021, the official poverty rate was measured at 11.6 percent, with 37.9 million people in poverty.
But it isn't just the sisters' finances themselves that have fans pulling back, it's their attitude towards their wealth.
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Kim offered her version of advice to women in business— “Get your f—ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days,” she continued. “You have to surround yourself with people that want to work.”
Her statement was misguided, if not entirely oblivious to most people’s lived daily experiences and the backlash towards it was enough to prove that audiences are growing weary of the family's out-of-touch attitudes and ignorance.
Kim and her sisters can afford extensive teams of nannies, stylists, personal trainers, and in-home chefs to make their lives easier, a level of access that most average people in the US don’t have.
As one commenter on TikTok noted, the Kardashians “used to be known for setting trends. Now everything they do just seems so produced, fake, weird.”
Comments from the hosts of the For Life Podcast echo this sentiment, as they noted that the Kardashians are “having a harder time keeping up with this new wave of media, [with] this new generation.”
The Kardashians are struggling to stay relevant. They’re no longer new. They’re not cutting-edge. And people are bored of their brand, if not outright offended by them.
Many fans lost their faith when Kim got tangled in the Balenciaga scandal, yet failed to explicitly cut her ties to the fashion line. Others felt like their lackluster response to the Astroworld tragedy — in which 10 people died after a crowd surge at a festival hosted by Kylie Jenner's then-boyfriend Travis Scott — showed how out of touch the Kardashians truly are.
As one person commenting on the above TikTok said, in order to stay relevant, “they needed to pivot from wealth [and] celebrity influencing to community [and] philanthropy, yet they missed the timeframe to do it organically.”
We’re entering the fourth year of a global pandemic that’s shifted how we live, work, and socialize. People have turned inward, both out of necessity and safety, but also as a way to reevaluate what’s important in this world.
As climate change rages on into an uncertain future and the economy makes another downturn, people are tired of the Kardashian brand. What we crave to see reflected to us, across social media and beyond, is reality— true reality, not a warped, wealthy version of someone else’s life.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.