This 15-page paper was completed for a theory-based Perspectives on Literature course. 

Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the multi-million dollar reality television show, follows the lives of the members of the Kardashian family, chronicling their daily lives, including everything from their world travels to their weekly spray-tans. Perhaps the most popular of the three Kardashian sisters, Kim Kardashian, became engaged to NBA basketball player Kris Humphries in May 2011. Their courtship, engagement, marriage, and subsequent divorce is all documented by the show. Through the lens of feminist criticism, I will examine the depictions of modern marital expectations on working women through the arguments of Kim’s friends and family as to how she should operate within her marriage. Their suggestions and opinions indicate that successful modern women are still expected to perform as servant-like and submissive, sacrificing their professions and personal opportunities to carry out marital “duties.” Kim Kardashian is idolized as a god-like figure in popular culture, so the situations which she must manage on the show give an example to millions of viewers on how women should be treated in a marriage, sustaining patriarchal norms that are already in place and making progression more difficult. I will focus on episodes 14 and 15 of Season 6, which focus on the planning and executing of their wedding, as well as episodes 8 and 9 of the show’s spinoff, Kourtney and Kim Take Miami, in which the married couple experiences difficulty navigating the gender dynamics of their marriage. By using such a popular entertainment outlet, I hope to point out the shortcomings of the modern model which provides further harmful examples of what a woman is still expected to do in her marriage, despite her apparent “equality” to man.