Many people believe the Kardashian-Jenners’ legacy begins in the early 2000s, with Kim Kardashian starting out as socialite Paris Hilton’s stylist and climbing the ranks of mainstream media throughout the following decades. However, the Kardashians were actually being talked about as early as the mid 90s. With the launch of their reality TV show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” in 2007, the series influenced enterprise, wealth, and beauty in addition to television. After a few years passed, Kim and her then-husband Kanye West appeared on the cover of Vogue, with Kylie Jenner, the youngest, listed as a billionaire—a title that has since been changed, but she still has it made. The Kardashians are seen at the forefront of every trend, the cover of every magazine, and the talk of every red carpet. Love them or hate them, you can’t deny their power and influence.
Emerging in the 2000s, in a time where skinny, blonde white women like Hilton and Britney Spears were the beauty standard, a Kardashian of paternal Armenian descent, changed the game. As a Middle Eastern girl growing up in this era, she was seen as a relatable figure to myself and others especially in a post-9/11 America, where MENA/Muslims have been the subject of great amounts of discrimination.
Huda Kattan, Iraqi-American business mogul and face of the famous makeup brand Huda Beauty commented on this phenomenon. “[Women] here relate to Kim because they look like her. Who else do you have to look to other than Salma Hayek? We don’t really have that many women to look to [in terms of celebrities],” she told Arabian Business in a 2016 exclusive interview. Kardashian and her sisters are credited for shifting the beauty standard away from eurocentrism, into a standard that highlights MENA women, Latinas, and black women. This, however, proved to be problematic to these very communities, with many white women black-fishing and essentially blurring the lines of whiteness, with many of these women being fellow Kardashian-Jenners themselves.
16 years later, the Kardashians are arguably the most well-known celebrity family ever. Within these 16 years however, the family dynamic has changed drastically. As the two older sisters, only 1 ½ years apart, Kourtney and Kim are the only Gen-X members of the family, and were actually surprisingly close growing up. After the show’s initial years, Kim took the reins and established herself as a successful model, while Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian developed deeper ties with each other, even going on to have their own spin-off shows “Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami,” and “Kourtney and Khloé Take the Hamptons.”
Kourtney and Kim’s relationship however, has been rocky, throughout the show’s run. When Kim and Kourtney got into a physical argument that was captured on season 18 of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” tensions between the two women were through the roof. Kim questioned Kourtney’s work ethic, which led to a physical altercation between the sisters.
Most recently, Kim and Kourtney’s relationship has reached new levels of tension. Four months after Kourtney and husband Travis Barker hosted their wedding ceremony in Portofino, Italy with a Dolce & Gabbana theme, Kim supervised the brand’s Milan Fashion Week show. According to People, a tearful Kourtney revealed to Kendall in a season three episode of “The Kardashians,” the family’s more recent reality series on Hulu, that she felt upset by the collaboration in June 2023. Kourtney even accused Kim of using her wedding as a business opportunity.
The season four debut of “The Kardashians” on Thursday, Sep. 28 featured a phone discussion between the sisters in which the negative feelings between them appeared to be continuing. Kim and Kourtney were caught on camera discussing their responses and phone calls about Kourtney’s wedding. When Kourtney referred to Kim as a “narcissist” and Kim expressed concern for her sister’s happiness, the call became tense. It culminated when Kim mentioned that Kourtney’s friends and children had all expressed displeasure with her behavior and disclosed the existence of a group chat called “Not Kourtney” where people may discuss her. Kourtney replied, “It’s you, and my friends, and my kids and everyone against me.”
While many see Kim’s treatment of Kourtney as “too harsh,” most people see her reactions as justified. The common factor in all these arguments, is Kourtney being the one to start the fights and stir up the tension. As for the Kardashian’s dynasty, with tensions escalating so quickly on such a public platform, the appearance of the family is in jeopardy. With Kim being a fan-favorite, Kourtney could likely become the next Rob Kardashian and fall out of mainstream coverage and media.
