Photo: Instagram
Why don't they give their sons the same treatment?
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Nov 30, 2022
Anyone who watched “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” over the years will know that it was very obvious that Rob Kardashian was the odd one out in the group.
While all of the Kardashian women, Kim, Khloé, Kourtney, and even the young Jenner sisters, Kylie and Kendall, got all of the attention, money, and praise, Rob seemed to be on the outside.
Rob has spoken out about why things progressed in the way that they did — with him eventually leaving the show and disappearing from the public eye.
But we might be seeing a more subtle return of the preferential treatment the KarJenners have towards their young girls over their sons.
For months, fans and critics on Reddit have been calling out the sisters for "exploiting" their daughters while protecting their sons — as explored recently by Buzzfeed.
The Kardashians have kept their sons in the shadows while putting their daughters in the spotlight.
With 12 grandchildren — and counting — Kris Jenner and her daughters have been slowly monetizing the family's transition into parenthood.
The kids, with their social media profiles, public appearances and storylines within the family's Hulu reality show, play a key role in the family brand — but the division of labor between the male and female children is far from equal.
Kourtney was the first to test how her sons and daughter would fit into the family's brand.
As the first child born to the famous family, now-12-year-old Mason Disick was shown in “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” from day one — his birth was filmed for fans.
Kourtney and then-boyfriend Scott Disick played around with varying degrees of attention on their son.
A year after his birth, however, Kourtney revealed that she and Scott decided to exclude him from her spinoff show with Kim, “Kourtney & Kim Take New York.”
“You’re not going to see Mason,” Kourtney told PEOPLE in January 2011. “Scott and I decided not to have him on the show this season.”
However, by the time their daughter, Penelope, was born both kids were staples on the show.
Now, however, it's clear who has a bigger role to play in the public eye. In October, Kourtney confirmed in an appearance on "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast that Mason will no longer appear on the family's show.
"He does not like it. He doesn't want any part of it. He's not on social media," she explained.
Penelope, on the other hand, is featured on "The Kardashians" along with her younger brother Reign, 7. The 10-year-old also has a public TikTok with 4.9M followers where she regularly posts skincare videos and content that looks almost like an homage to her mom's lifestyle brand Poosh — which is conveniently named after Penelope's nickname should she ever want to inherit it.
Kim Kardashian is already launching her daughter North as a star.
"The Kardashians" on Hulu features all of Kim's children with ex-husband Kanye West, but at the forefront of it all is North.
While Kim initially kept North off her family's show, she quickly changed her tune and has been building her daughter's profile since.
North has accompanied her mom to fashion events since she was a toddler. In her most recent appearance at Paris fashion week, the 10-year-old went viral after holding up a sign that read "Stop" as paparazzi snapped images of her incessantly.
Kim and Kanye West have three other children — two boys who appear only sporadically on social media and in the family's show and another daughter who is likely due to follow in North's footsteps soon.
However, it's clear that North has been deemed the most marketable.
Kim’s relationship, marriage, and family life with her ex-husband Kanye West was probably one of the most publicized events in the history of television and social media as we know it today.
Despite the births of Saint and Psalm, her two sons, she would continue to favor North’s publicity over the years — to the point where even North is begging the paparazzi to stop.
Kim has also allowed North to have her own social media account on TikTok — which boasts 10.4 million followers.
Though Kim claims to supervise her daughter's posting, there have been numerous occasions where North has gone live without her knowing.
Kanye fought with Kim for months about how publicized North is, and only now does it look like he might have had a good point in all of it.
Meanwhile, Kylie Jenner's son is being kept entirely hidden from the public.
Kylie’s first child with rapper boyfriend Travis Scott, Stormi Webster, has had her fair share of fame ever since she was born.
As the poster child for Kylie Baby, one of Kylie’s businesses, as well as consistently appearing on her Instagram feed and TikTok, she’s been in the limelight for much of the four years since she was born.
Her second child, however, has been completely hidden from the world since he was born nearly 10 months ago in February 2022.
His name is completely unknown and his face hasn’t been shown on any form of social media.
While the baby boy is being kept hidden, Stormi continues to accompany her mom to promotional events and star in many social media posts.
Some staunch defenders of Kylie will claim that she never enjoyed the fame and spotlight quite the same way that her family has — struggles with anxiety and post-partum depression don’t help either.
However, this defense would only be applicable if she treated both of her children the same way.
This treatment is only accentuated by the way her sister, Khloé, is also treating her newborn son.
Born on July 28, 2022, Khloé’s son’s name and identity have been completely hidden from the public, aside from hints that his name might start with a “T.”
Similar to Kylie, Khloé’s first child with basketball player Tristan Thompson, True, has tasted the limelight as well — constantly appearing on social media and in public with her.
However, her son has been getting the same treatment as Kylie’s son.
The treatment of the Kardashians’ sons is the polar opposite to the way the daughters are treated.
By no means is this a request for Kylie and Khloé to reveal their sons, but more of an observation into the clear preferential — exploitative to some — treatment of the girls over the boys.
They don’t owe the public time with their sons if they don’t want to share them, but to flaunt and parade the girls in the complete opposite fashion sends the wrong message.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.