“There’s a lot of baggage that comes with us, but it’s like Louis Vuitton baggage; you always want it.” – Kim Kardashian

“Where would we go?” she replies. “What place would be better for us than this? Who wants us, outside? The world is full of terrible people.” – Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)

---

I have never watched more than an episode or two of The Kardashians (2022) and I probably never will. I cannot even tell you what the episode was about, nor can I tell any of the sisters apart. At the same time, I know so much about them. Their influence as a family has ranged from courtrooms to reality television, to healthcare and now to law itself as Kim Kardashian studies to become a lawyer. One could avoid any tabloid magazines or social media and still be affected by their divorces and brand deals. Who is this family? Touted as everything from the second coming of Jezebel to misunderstood, feminist icons, the Kardashian women read as the definitive novelistic figures. Think of Cathy from Wuthering Heights (1847): bratty, sullen, and disagreeable. Think of Becky Sharp who constantly vies for an advantageous marriage, not caring who she might be leaving behind. Numerous “difficult” women exist in the pages of books that we devour as voraciously as any magazine or Instagram reel. Think of Daisy Buchanan, floating on her money and influence even as dead bodies pile around her – even ones she passively piled, with her lover amongst them. I tell you though, the sisters that the Kardashian family reminds me the most of is not the Bennets, though many have compared the family matriarch, Kris, to Mrs. Bennet. It is the Blackwood sisters from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). 

---