A Thank You to Mrs. Kimberly Kardashian-West

The epitome of feminism? The notorious Kardashian family but of course. Quite frankly, this is what girls my age look up to while growing up. “Omg why can’t I be Kim?” or things like “Let me please be as skinny as Kendall Jenner”. One family thrown into a life of force ‘talent’ results in lines of clothing, hair products, beauty products, TV shows, and best of all virtual games. This week I paid close attention to a video game that was life changing for all of my friends. Many of who said I had to delete the game because it was consuming my life. When it was re introduced to me by a classmate, I decided it was a great idea to explore the make believe world of being Kim Kardashian’s E-list apprentice. The object of this game is to become the most popular person in Hollywood (obviously Kim trumps you always) by participating in photo shoots, having a boyfriend and dressing up nicely. In this game, the avatar you create is restricted to these things, what kind of job they have, the relationships with other characters, and the image that they have to uphold in the media.

In this addicting game, the things I had to watch out for to notice were the types of jobs I had to do, or the places I had to make appearances at. Of course, people will do anything to get famous; I now seem where Kim is coming from. The only jobs you can have in this game are limited to working in a boutique selling and folding clothes, photo shoots for magazine covers, commercials, and the occasional endorsing of a product at a nightclub. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t grown up and had a job for myself, but I’m pretty sure that there are other things to do in Hollywood. For instance, I am currently participating in a photo shoot fro ‘Metropolitan Magazine’ striking poses, fixing my make up and earning my vanity badge; There is no other way to get famous, I have to continue to wear my short dress and get over it.

Who you interact with in the game can play a pretty key role in the success of your status on the list. Right as you begin the game, you are forced to talk to some random guy with a crazy girlfriend who tried to sabotage your career. I needed to talk to my PR agent because it was getting too out of hand. This is one of those post modern situations where people think girls get into cat fights, it happens less than one may think. Just the other day as I forgot to check up on my own virtual boyfriend in the game he calls me up and says we should just be friends; I think I had been offline for 10 hours to sleep, and then BAM I’m single again. The worst part of this situation was that when he called to give the heart wrenching news, I had the option to ‘charm’ him into giving me another chance. This set me off, but of course women have that charm to get what ever it is they want or need.

Lastly is the image that you character is supposed to uphold in the game. Being a female in the game is quite interesting to say the least. You are told to go on dates, further your career with photo shoots and best of all is how you are asked to dress. Looking through the catalog of things to buy, there aren’t too many options that cover you up well enough. Also for footwear, you better expect to wear heels at all time because there are no other options for you!

This game while it can be unbelievably entertaining deserves some thought from those that are playing it. Some of the perpetuating stereotypes are being engraved in your brain. If you don’t take a step back and see that they just aren’t correct it becomes habitual to see, in my case, this is how a woman is supposed to act, dress, and live her life. I could pick at a few more topics in this game but these three are important and deserve the attention. Make sure you realize what you’re doing. Take a step back and laugh at how silly some of these things really are.