The latest issue of Us Weekly has Kim Kardashian on the cover, wearing no jewelry, in mid-stride looking at the camera, a bodyguard protecting her from behind. The caption reads:
LIVING IN FEAR
In smaller letters below, it says, "Daily therapy, intense security, social media silence. Still haunted by flashbacks, a humbled Kim makes drastic changes."
LIVING IN FEAR is written in large yellow letters. Yellow is the traditional color of cowardice, a trait I feel like attributing to the editors of Us Weekly for picking, among all the people on this planet, Kim Kardashian, a rich reality TV star formerly in the habit of flaunting her wealth; bound, gagged, and robbed at gunpoint, her jewels stolen, her life spared, while uncounted millions suffer daily and live in fear, too. Two million, four hundred thousand Syrian children live as refugees in other countries. Eight million, four hundred thousand Syrian children are in need in Syria and in other countries. Of the approximately 100,000 children trapped in Aleppo, does at least one of them deserve to be shown on the cover of Us Weekly with the caption, "LIVING IN FEAR"?
Us Weekly is an entertainment-oriented magazine, dealing with celebrities' lives, or speculations about their lives. It originated as a counter to People magazine, a similar kind of publication, but Us devoted itself far more to imagery, like the magazines Julie Christie peruses in the illiterate society depicted in François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451. Sections in Us Weekly have titles like, "Hot Stuff," "Hot Pics," "Fashion Police," "Loose Talk."
I count seventeen appearances of Kim Kardashian on the cover of Us Weekly from just a quick scan of Googled images. There may be more; I don't care to count further because it's obvious she's been on the cover of this one magazine more times than Elizabeth Taylor (who, unlike Kardashian, had talent) appeared on the cover of Life.
A pregnant Kim is shown on one cover: "YOU CALL THIS FAT?" On another: "MY BODY IS BACK!" Then, incredibly, "TORTURED BY HER BODY."
A double image on one cover of Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian features the declaration, "IT'S WAR!" Surely, these two women must have something else to do.
Torture, war, fear. Kim Kardashian's struggles, according to Us Weekly, seem to compare to the dramas of one of Napoleon's campaigns. Called "famous for being famous," Kim Kardashian, her siblings, her mother, her step-father/-mother (the former Bruce Jenner), her various boyfriends and husbands, her in-laws, have worked with the E! Channel to create for the past decade a "real" soap opera; a storm of nothing, watched by millions of people somehow finding a tribe of self-obsessed rich fools interesting. I'm guilty of paying occasional casual attention to these assholes, myself. I've seen Kardashian programming, marveled at their unfailing capacity to sit around, complain, and do nothing; watched them drive in Beverly Hills and other rich locations, talking about each other, their occasional alienations from each other either staged, genuine, or a mixture of both, all of it done within the artifice of surrounding camera crews and television contracts. Inside this bubble (Orwellianism with expensive clothes), the Kardashians show what they possess, including some of the hot rocks stolen from Kim Kardashian, the woman living in fear.
"HUSBAND FROM HELL" "KIM DEFENDS HER LOVE" "ENOUGH"
Yes, enough; in Syria.
Vic Neptune
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