Kardashians and the Power Elite

By Anonymous



https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/09/09/keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-may-be-leaving-but-the-familys-fortune-is-here-to-stay/?sh=2ac612a55411

These, in my opinion, are the faces of the power elite in Hollywood today. I see these women as people who control at least half of the media that “ordinary people” see and influence the culture in ways that their audience don’t realize. I plan to use Mills’ three major keys to analyze this power elite group. As sisters from a wealthy/famous family, these individuals have grown up with similar beliefs, ideologies, and situations. After Kim Kardashain raised the family to another level of fame, these sisters became somewhat of a status group of their own – part of their image is created around living luxurious lives and doing things that most Americans cannot do. Mills argues that the power elite consists of individuals whose “careers and… style of life are similar… there are psychological and social bases for their unity” (Mills :19). While their unity may originate from being sisters, there are other siblings that are not included within this power elite group: Rob Kardashian, Brody Jenner, and four other half/step siblings. There is a strategic reason why these ladies ended up being the face of the Kardashians over the others (possibly their shared ambition for fame). In the same way the sisters’ outfits in this promotional poster for their show are unique yet similar and on theme, all of these sisters have unique personalities and jobs but are generally all involved in similar beauty/fashion industries. Mill’s second major key analyzes how the scope and magnitudes that the power elite oversee are similar, meaning they have a similar domain of influence (Mills :19). This rings true for the Kardashians who all own businesses and are considered influencers to their many instagram fans. As a result, these sisters are also friends by choice who rely on each other’s social circles, careers, and expertise as they all participate in an industry where they are meant to entertain, set trends, and their whole reputations are constantly on the line. These sisters agreed to make a show where their elevated style of life that is separate from ordinary people are showcased, confirming their status as the power elite. Mills describes this voluntary agreement to work together in achieving a common goal as his third major key to analyze the power elite (Mills :19). These women are under immense pressure to grow their empire while appealing to the public eye, but as a result of them all working together and having access to each others’ resources, they have gained immense control over mainstream media. As audiences are exposed everyday to images on the media that are controlled by the power elite, they are only intaking a specific perspective that is reproducing one way of life. The power elite’s value judgments are spread throughout society as people internalize their way of life and absorb the information provided to them by the power elite. 

Mills, C. Wright. 1975. “The Higher Circles.” Pp. 1–21 in The Power Elite. London, England: Oxford University Press.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Show Her It's a Man's World": Advertising the Power Dynamics in Marriage

By
Image
  The image above includes two ads side by side, a project curated by artist and photographer Eli Rezkallah as part of a photo series called “In a Parallel Universe.” The ad to the left features a man lying in bed, his arms propped up, hands behind his head in a relaxed manner. Several white pillows prop him up, and white sheets cover his legs. He wears a white button-up shirt and a colorful tie, looking contently off into the distance. Below him, a woman, presumably his wife, kneels beside his bed, wearing a pink bathrobe. She looks up at him and is depicted in the process of placing a tray before him, featuring plates of food, a teapot, and a cup. Black text in the upper left corner of the image reads, “show her it’s a man’s world” and the bottom of the image displays a larger drawing of a tie and the words “Van Heusen” and “man’s world.” The second ad, on the right, exhibits a woman lying in a white-sheeted bed and propped up by many pillows. Like the man in the other ad, she si...
Read more

Taiwanese independence: solidarity in the civil sphere?

By
Image
This is a photo of Taiwan's newly elected president, Lai Ching-te, who was screened while speaking during Taiwan's national day. He made several overseas official visits last year, aiming to bolster friendship and form new relations with like-minded democracies to assert the island's independence from the People's Republic of China. In this image, Lai is speaking under the flag that is the official representative of Taiwan (ROC), a totem in modern times understood as a provocative response against the Communist Party. The flag is composed of blue, white and red, symbolizing the spirit of freedom, equality and fraternity. In addition, the flag is derived from and modified base on the previous flag held by the Kuo Ming Tang (KTM) party that Lai vows to pursue, with the three color symbolizing the party's three principles: nationality, civil rights and people's livelihood. Noticeably, in this image, the flag occupies half of the space, almost about to cover Lai him...
Read more

Psychological Unity And The Power Elite's Attendance Of Trump's Inauguration

By
Image
  Blog Post #3:  The image above is of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bezos’ partner, Lauren Sanchez, and Sundar Pichai in the VIP section (New York Times, 2025) of Donald Trump’s 2025 presidential inauguration. Zuckerberg, Bezos, Musk and Pichai are all well-known billionaires who rose to prominence in technology and industry. Elon Musk, for one, is the wealthiest man in the world and funded Donald Trump’s political campaign, even gaining a spot as the leader of Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been understood by many as having helped ‘buy’ the 2024 presidential election. Bezos and Zuckerberg have also complied with Trump in many ways – Bezos, who owns the Washington Post and is also the founder and executive chairman of Amazon, was able to block the Washington Post from publishing an opinion piece endorsing the Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. It was the first year since the 1970s that the Post decided not to...
Read more