Many believe that reality TV shows and their stars are an unnecessary mind dumbing addition to our society which causes nothing other than the wasting of time and the formation of a distorted perception on the real world. Writer Emma McDonald expresses a similar attitude in the article, ‘Why do so many keep up with the vacuous Kardashians?’ which she wrote for the Sunday Morning Herald. McDonald said that reality TV stars the Kardashian family has learnt to control the masses and earn millions over doing absolutely nothing which is a shame to our society. She uses a range of techniques in an attempt to get her audience of the adults of Sydney to see how detrimental this issue can be to the current values and the future of Australia.
From the very beginning, McDonald makes her disdain towards the Kardashians very clear. She uses the word ‘vacuous’ to describe the family in her title to display that she believes both the Kardashians and their reality TV show to be superficial, unintelligent and empty. She uses the words ‘pack’, ‘nobodies’ and ‘shameless’ to describe the family along with ‘vacuous’ in order to display her strong negative impression of them and hopefully get the readers to also adopt the same view on the family. Following the seemingly unjustified vilification of the ‘Kardashian Klan’, McDonald attempts to justify her views by proving to her readers that there is no real reason for the Kardashians to be famous at all stating that they are ‘solely famous because they are prepared to live a significant portion of their lives in front of cameras’. McDonald through her ridiculing tone makes the reader question where or not they see this as a sufficient reason to be a celebrity.
Shifting her focus away from the Kardashians themselves and towards those who watch the show and reinforce the status of these ‘nobodies’ by idolizing them, McDonald uses pejorative terms such as ‘drivel’, ‘shallow’ and ‘kitsch’ to present to the readers her view on the value of the reality TV show Keeping up with the Kardashians. The use of ‘shallow’ and ‘drivel’ serve to make the audience question why anyone would even bother watching such mindless rubbish where the use of the word ‘kitsch’ serves to make the reader understand why anyone would watch it, it appeals to all. This increases the likeliness of the readers accepting and supporting McDonald’s view that the Kardashians are an unnecessary and mindless danger to society.
McDonald condemns the Kardashians for being unfit role models to the millions of children who are trying so desperately to be like them. She suggests that their morals and standards are too shallow and damage the audience’s morals and distort their expectations. By bringing up the ’72 days’ of marriage to ‘a basketball star’ McDonald seeks to prove that the Kardashians are setting a standard that is unrealistic and also immoral for the younger audience to adopt. The Kardashian’s wealth was another focus of McDonald’s scornful tone when she suggests that they have ‘diamond engagement ring[s] that [c]ould feed and educate whole villages in Africa for a decade’. Even with all the money they have the Kardashians still