The Resurrection of Kim Kardashian and the Poltics of Fame

Whether you loathe, love or love to loathe her, Kim Kardashian has become a staple in contemporary pop culture. She is, for whatever reason, the most talked about and one of the most photographed women in the world. Even when she doesn't want to be. Or even when she pretends she doesn't want to be. Confused? Well, it's the world of staged reality TV where fiction, fact and terrible yet convincing real acting has most of the world confused and addicted.
That addiction has amassed Kim K a social media following that equates to the population of many countries. Shocking really. It's also positioned her as a walking, talking advertisement for all the things many people think they want and need. Fame, fortune, good looks. Her influence on young minds is undeniable. The fact that the queen of the Kardashian Klan, in an ironic way, is both the proof and contradictory example to Andy Warhol's famous prophesy, "In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes," makes her fame more than an issue of public opinion. It becomes about politics.
Before you start thinking voting booths, campaign trails and policies, politics are also about perception, image and control over a community. Though with the way things are heading, who knows? We might, in the future, be voting in leaders by the amounts of likes they have on their photos or the number of retweets they get, which makes Kim K a massive contender for the first female president of the United States.

Unlike other characters from the celebrity sphere who have migrated into politics and those who have threatened to use their influence and following to run for office (her husband Kanye West for example) Kim K, from what we understand, is not directly interested in politics. However her name, her brand, her all encompassing existence in the mainstream has forced us to look at the politics of the public gaze and the collective human consciousness that with unapologetic fickleness will champion, empathise or crucify anyone with the same swift ruthlessness that the fame hungry execute to live in that spotlight .
No matter how appealing her fame has been depicted, specifically by her and her family, the glow of the spotlight has on a number of dangerous occasions almost burnt her. I'm often reminded of a line from Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's when I think of Kim, "Certain shades of limelight wreck a girl's complexion." 
Though her "complexion" hasn't been ruined yet (clever marketing and great selfie lighting will see to that) Kim's unique brand has shown us that the politics of fame, one we all assumed she'd mastered, is as merciless and unpredictable as a plague of locusts, as equally complimentary and destructive as mother nature, and funnily enough as true as one of the most ancient fairytales of our time. Think of Aladdin and his genie. Sounds a bit ridiculous I know, but bare with me.

Depending on which version you read, upon being deceived to retrieve a magic lamp and stumbling upon a powerful genie, Aladdin was granted three wishes. He wished for money/stature and the girl of his dreams. His natural desires is to become, like any of us would probably want, the best version of himself for the world to see. But when all should be pristine and perfect, Aladdin finds that his one illusion, his lies, his unnatural existence in a world that he had willed from nothing, is turning against him, destroying him from the inside out. Aladdin wishes for it all to go away, he wishes to return to anonymity, to a street life's existence. Sorry, not possible.
When Kim's initial talents went viral in 2007 and the LA socialite found that she was the hottest thing since her ex BFF and blonde counterpart Paris Hilton, she held on to her 15 minutes of fame and built an empire. Using the formula of over-exposure that made her both a household name, a joke and a curse word, Kim exposed everything in her life. Love, family, secrets, sex, business. We see it funnily enough in her style too. Short hem lines, cheap looking fabrics, shiny, body hugging, vulgar colour coordination and cheap cut outs. Even her gaze at any camera, from the red carpet, to the paparazzi or a fan's phone she wanted us to look. Though there was nothing  left for the imagination to ponder when everything was revealed to start with. Yet, we still wanted more. 

No opportunity to extend and expand was ever turned down. Books, merchandise, makeup, spin off shows, a failed attempt at a music video, magazine cover after magazine cover, a televised marriage, we, the public, were never denied a glimpse into her life. No matter how real or rehearsed, we watched until the closing credits.

Another milestone in her career and personal life, which is practically the same thing, was Kim's marraige to Kanye West and her "elevation" from reality TV star to modern muse. In a more extreme and radical version of when Posh Spice transformed herself into Victoria Beckham, Kanye West who had established himself to some degree as an "A-Lister" in the world of music and fashion, acted as Kim's clutch and the gate keeper to the elite of Hollywood. She allowed him to transform her. From the baby hair around her forehead to the crude hair extensions, the painted on makeup we saw thigh high boots, plain shapes, sheer material, clean muted colours from greys, beiges, blacks and white. Then there they were on Vogue, the most coveted of magazine covers. With her new found sense of high fashion style as dictated by Kanye's sensibilities came a lot of bling. From that monstrous engagement ring, to necklaces and diamonds - they all made a grotesque appearance on social media. Initially where Kim's anthem was, look at me, you can be like me, you can build this, the tune changed after Kanye. Look at me, you can never be like me, you can never be like this.

In the 1942 classic film Casablanca Humphrey Bogart told Ingrid Bergman, when referring to their brief and intense romance before the Nazi invasion of France, that they would always have Paris. When pop culture scholars, biographers and scriptwriters delve into the life of Kim Kardashian, the Paris incident will be a decisive plot line. Paris was where Kim's intense love affair with fame may have changed forever. We will always have Paris to remember the time we truly felt Kim's humanity and her humility.
Kim disappeared from our news feeds after her terrifying robbery at gunpoint in Paris in October of 2016. When she emerged with surreal images of her children and Kanye, we noted a marked change. She was depicted as statuesque and vulnerable, less makeup, clean, minimal, muted colours. Her wealth, once flaunted now hidden from view. Self promoption has been replaced with "unstaged" family shots. Nostalgic, vintage, colours, bare backgrounds focused on people, her family. Kim's face doesn't feature, her gaze isn't direct. But we know it's her. It might be a simpler Kim attempting to show us the minimum but like all people in the public eye her existence now is far from simple. In fact, it's more complicated than ever.
The veneer of simplicity, of the bare essentials, still appeared stylised to me. It's hard now to believe anything. Did she want to be left alone? Or was this next phase of evolution of the monstrous thing that is Kim the brand not Kim the human.
If you hadn't heard, Kim is here in Dubai to teach a master class in makeup alongside celebrity makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic. This is one of her first public appearances in the professional since the robbery.
Despite her and the Kardashian brand's once hot hunger for exposure, we have found that it is practically impossible to get an interview with her. Not one question, in person, over the phone, over email. One of the most accessible people in the world is taking a break. I can't help but recall the legendary words of one of the first universally famous women, Greta Garbo from the film Grand Hotel, where her character Russian ballerina Grusinskaya is on the verge of a breakdown. "I want to be alone." I think this is where we add a sad emoji face.
Don't think of me as unsympathetic to Kim's plight. The ordeal she faced in Paris was horrendous. However sympathies are short lived when someone's professional self image is so interlocked with their personal lives. At some point you can't help but feel fooled by the watching reality and reality television collide into something rather sickening for all involved.
If we believe the stories, if we believe her new Instagram photos, things have apparently changed for Kim now. Not after her 72 day marriage, not after marrying one of the most famous rappers in the world, not after having two children and experiencing motherhood. No, things changed when her own brand of flaunting vulgar wealth almost took her life. And now, slowly she's becoming famous for apparently wanting to, for the time being, escape her fame, to be ignored, to be invisible.
I, for one, was relieved at the thought of an invisible real Kim we only hear of. An actual human woman, instead of an accessible marketing brand which continuously reminds how anti intellectualism, materialism and sex is the way forward. Maybe there was hope? Perhaps the lesson, the silver lining from the robbery might force her to look at her life - analyse, scrutinise, re-organise her priorities. How much fame does one need? How much money does one want? How many followers can one collect? I liked the idea of a reclusive, mysterious Kim Kardashian. In fact, I imagined I could even respect that Kim. What a beautiful narrative I thought. But then the latest season trailer of Keeping Up with The Kardashians premiered. In one of the clips we see a tired looking Kim crying, retelling parts of her robbery to her family.
The politics of fame is, as we've learned in the age of the Internet meme, relentless, all consuming and unforgiving. Most of all, especially in the case of Kim, it's also addictive, rewarding and most of all seductive.
 

• Dubai