Dekonstructing the Kardashians

From the creator of the highly popular Kardashian Kolloquium comes a new media manifesto for the TikTok age, blending theory and cultural analysis to explain the meteoric rise of the Kardashians and explore what their fame can teach us about the way media functions today

“By far the best book I've ever read on celebrity in the twenty-first century.”—Leigh Stein, author of Self Care

“Dekonstructing the Kardashians is Ways of Seeing for the Instagram Age.”—Maris Kreizman, author of Slaughterhouse 90210

Since 2007, Kim Kardashian and the extended Kardashian family have been mesmerizing—and scandalizing—America. Whether we’ve liked it or not, we’ve been inundated with stories of their social lives, scandals, and reality show shenanigans and have witnessed the subsequent ascent of their multibillion-dollar fashion, beauty, and media empire. But the question remains: Why are the Kardashians so famous in the first place? And what does this tell us about the new media that have delivered them to us?

In Dekonstructing the Kardashians, MJ Corey, creator of the viral social media presence Kardashian Kolloquium, brings us not only the definitive chronicle of the family that’s captivated a nation, but, perhaps more important, the story of how media has transformed in the internet age and how it continues to transform us as individuals and as a culture at large. Part media theory, part cultural analysis, Dekonstructing the Kardashians interweaves history from the past fifty years of Western media—from the Old Hollywood studio system, to the advent of the twenty-four-hour news cycle, to tabloid culture and beyond—with analysis of the cultural influence Kim Kardashian wields over us all and the influences that have shaped her in kind. In so doing, Corey offers proof that the Kardashians are, in fact, the First Family of our image-saturated and deeply divided nation, while also demonstrating how they hold the keys to understanding the disjointed, self-referential reality of our current era.

MJ Corey is a Brooklyn-based writer and psychodynamic psychotherapist best known as Kardashian Kolloquium on TikTok and Instagram, where she applies media theory and postmodern frameworks to the Kardashian family. Her work has been featured in Refinery29, PAPER, Vogue.com, the Museum of Modern Art, and The New Yorker, among many other outlets.