{"product_id":"dekonstructing-the-kardashians-a-new-media-manifesto","title":"Dekonstructing the Kardashians: A New Media Manifesto","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ci\u003ePreface \u003c\/i\u003exi \n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003ePART I\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e1. Blueprints \u003c\/b\u003e3 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e2. Marilyn Monroe\u003c\/b\u003e 28 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e3. Princess Jasmine \u003c\/b\u003e49 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e4. The Kennedys\u003c\/b\u003e 74 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e5. O.J.\u003c\/b\u003e 92 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e6. The Spice Girls\u003c\/b\u003e 113 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e7. Paris Hilton\u003c\/b\u003e 139 \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003ePART II\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eArrival (2007-2013) \u003c\/b\u003e161 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Brady Bunch\u003c\/i\u003e - \n\u003ci\u003eI Love Lucy\u003c\/i\u003e - Girls Gone Wild - \n\u003ci\u003ePlayboy \u003c\/i\u003e- Catchphrases - Confession - Churches - Wrestling - Las Vegas - \n\u003ci\u003eThe Truman Show\u003c\/i\u003e - Ritual - Famous for Being Famous - Mug Shots - Memes \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eEverywoman (2013-2020) \u003c\/b\u003e214 \n\u003cbr\u003ePower Couples - Selfies - Kim 2.0 - Emojis - Disguises - Discourse - Political Postmodernism - Cultural Appropriation - Braids - Tequila - Disrupters - Recycling \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eThe Donda Era (2020-2024)\u003c\/b\u003e 287 \n\u003cbr\u003eScale - Kardashification - Marie Antoinette - Merch - Conspiracy Theory - Barbie - Archives - Robert Kardashian Sr. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eAcknowledgments \u003c\/i\u003e375 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eNotes \u003c\/i\u003e377 \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eIndex \u003c\/i\u003e425\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eMJ Corey \u003c\/b\u003eis 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 \n\u003ci\u003eRefinery29, PAPER, \u003c\/i\u003eVogue.com \n\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003ethe Museum of Modern Art, and \n\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, among many other outlets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A rigorous yet lively exploration of the way we consume media today, \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians\u003c\/i\u003e is \n\u003ci\u003eWays of Seeing\u003c\/i\u003e for the Instagram Age.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Maris Kreizman, author of \u003ci\u003eSlaughterhouse 90210\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eI Want to Burn This Place Down\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Corey's ambition is undeniable . . . and her meta-analysis . . . genuinely persuasive.\" \n\u003cb\u003e­--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Like the Medicis, had that family patronized only themselves--like the Carnegies, had they manufactured not steel but empty air--the Kardashians have ascended, in their case by proving that nothingness, in a culture that defers to images, can be the stuff of empires. They are also, as . . . MJ Corey argues . . . perfect metonyms for American culture. . . . Corey's book . . . reads less as a biography of one clan than as a study of the culture that elevated it. This makes \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians \u003c\/i\u003eparticularly compelling: To deconstruct the family, to treat them as a text to be read, as canon to be accepted, is to understand the media moment. . . . Dizzying in its scope . . . the book can read as a brief history of modern, and postmodern, thought.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Corey is at her best when parsing the ways in which the Kardashians resonate with their vast audience.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[Corey's] union of pop culture and media studies makes for a vibrant read. . . . Her perspective is refreshing. . . . By investigating the rise of the Calabasas-based family, [she] is searching for insights about where we are as a society and how media has seeped into every aspect of our lives. . . . An incredibly ambitious book [and] an important reflection on the digital world we live in today and how we got here.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Chicago Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Why, some wonder, would a perfectly sane psychotherapist be so intrigued by the Kardashian family? The answer is simple: because it is possible to argue, as Corey persuasively does, that they are physical manifestations of America's psyche; flesh-and-blood representatives of a post-internet mindset that prizes aesthetics over meaning.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eBookforum\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A cool, post-modern look at the American media juggernaut that is the Kardashians and how they mirror society's obsessions and foibles. Thoroughly entertaining, this book is for those who relish the intersection of theoretical ideas and pop culture, while seeking a way to make sense of the maelstrom surrounding one of the world's most famous families.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eHyperallergic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[Corey] argues that the family functions as a psychoanalytic mirror for society. Using postmodern theorists like Baudrillard, Boorstin, and McLuhan, she asks: Why are they like this? Why are \n\u003ci\u003ewe\u003c\/i\u003e like this? And what does our enmeshment say about media and meaning in the Internet age?\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eInterview \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"From the old Hollywood studio system to TikTok, media has become increasingly disjointed and self-referential, and Corey charts the rise of the Kardashian reality TV empire to explore exactly how and why that's happened.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eW\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Fascinating.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An exhaustively researched, extremely entertaining, and surprisingly profound study of a decadent American dynasty and the spectacle they've produced--which we participate in whether we love them or love to hate them. This is by far the best book I've ever read on celebrity in the twenty-first century.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Leigh Stein, author of \u003ci\u003eSelf Care\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"A special work of scholarship that goes far beyond its stated--and divisive--topic. Both Kardashian fans and critics alike, however, will find genuine gold (not to mention plenty of diamonds) here: MJ Corey helps us to understand how and why the Kardashian family was able to parlay humble third-tier reality TV stardom into an empire that colonized our feeds, news, minds, and conversations over the last two decades. Did they know it had to do with Hegel, dialectics, semiotics, and the underpinnings of the history of cinema? Probably not, but now we do, and boy do we have some smart thoughts to drop at our next dinner party.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of\u003ci\u003e Seinfeldia\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e When Women Invented Television\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Any hack can hate on the Kardashians, but it takes a true genius to use America's first family as an entry point for a thoroughly researched romp through the last century of media criticism. You don't need to know anything about Kim and the Krew, or even be a fan, to follow MJ Corey's argument about how they are the truest reflection of our country at this moment or the incredible impact they've had on television, commerce, social media, and the world at large.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Brian Moylan, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Taking on one of America's most self-documented and sensationalized families is no simple feat. But, M.J. Corey's \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians\u003c\/i\u003e enters this pop culture fray with rigorous analysis, clever close readings, and the type of deft social commentary that the Kardashian brand often eludes. To make sense of their rise, their constant reinventions, and the role that race, gender, and media spectacle play in both their production of self and the public reception of them is to hold a mirror to 21st-century American identity--this book is a crucial looking glass.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Salamishah Tillet, Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing critic-at-large for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"It is hard to get your bearings in a world where 'reality' is just a kind of television show and many of the people in our (para)social circles are entirely imaginary. Lucky for us, MJ Corey is an adept guide through the hall of mirrors that is influencer culture, screen addiction, and the shapeshifting nature of contemporary celebrity. \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians\u003c\/i\u003e is not just a brilliant analysis of one famous family and their physical and virtual empire, it's a guide for navigating the distortions and misrepresentations of what comes out of our devices. Corey reveals how much we go to the Internet to tell us how to live, and she helps us make sense of that impulse. Clever and funny, she writes with the venom of a bee sting and the impact of a frying pan to the back of the head.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Jessa Crispin, author of \u003ci\u003eWhat Is Wrong with Men: Patriarchy, the Crisis of Masculinity, and How (Of Course) Michael Douglas Films Explain Everything\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A daring and radical interpretation of the Calabasas family that assesses Kim and her sisters not merely as a mirror to our society or a symptom of cultural rot but as the distilled essence of American spectacle, the spray-tanned spirit of the age. \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians\u003c\/i\u003e is a rollicking trip through a century of mass media that seamlessly moves from California McMansion to ivory tower and back. The saga of a family self-made in every possible sense of the phrase, it's an immersive treatise on the kontradictions of fame, how a family with so few professed fans has so many followers, and how a woman can be both a cultural underdog and social hegemon. MJ Corey has written a must-read to understand not only our moment but what made it--and the Kardashians--inevitable.\" \n\u003cb\u003e--Walt Hickey, author of \u003ci\u003eYou Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"A critical tour de force.\" -- \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Much needed in our current media landscape. . . . Will delight the biggest \n\u003ci\u003eKUWTK \u003c\/i\u003efans and provide the uninitiated with an ultimate guide to one of America's most famous families.\"­-- \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Paired with a personal fascination with the Kardashian family's collective talent for narrative mastery, a postmodern sense of reality, and catchy episodic arcs, Corey cleverly and effectively fuses celebrity scrutiny and deft analysis with the famous family's personalities and creates a whirlwind of themes, abstract ideas, and some very solid truths about their roles in modern society and their impact on feminism. . . . Corey digs deeper into the meaning and the message of the \"pixel-perfect\" family's popularity, intelligently assessing how their tabloid-worthy, sensational fireworks keep the fires of celebrity culture and viewers' addiction to reality television consistently stoked.\"-- \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eFrom 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 \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"By far the best book I've ever read on celebrity in the twenty-first century.\"--Leigh Stein, author of \u003ci\u003eSelf Care\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\"Dekonstructing the Kardashians \u003c\/i\u003eis \u003ci\u003eWays of Seeing \u003c\/i\u003efor the Instagram Age.\u003ci\u003e\"--\u003c\/i\u003eMaris Kreizman, author of \u003ci\u003eSlaughterhouse 90210 \u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSince 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? \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians, \u003c\/i\u003eMJ 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, \n\u003ci\u003eDekonstructing the Kardashians \u003c\/i\u003einterweaves 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 02\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780593701348, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 03\/02\/2026 (EAN 9780593701348, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 05\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780593701348, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Pantheon Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496026997014,"sku":"9780593701348","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780593701348.jpg?v=1783050958","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/dekonstructing-the-kardashians-a-new-media-manifesto","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}