The Obamas, not keeping up with the Kardashians... (Read the story)

Why is Obama laughing whole heartedly? (Read the story)


I read in the news that a 41-year-old Colorado woman, Cyndy Snider, started an online petition asking the TV network E! to drop the reality show "Keeping Up with The Kardashians." This stirred my emotions. The Kardashians' reality show is a controversial issue for me and maybe for most Armenians. On one hand, I like the exposure the show gives to Armenians. On the other hand, I agree that it is mindless, and emphasizes vanity and maybe even vulgarity.  But then aren't most of today's shows mindless? 

Today Kim Kardashian is one of the most popular celebrities and the very best known Armenian in the United States or maybe in the whole world. I personally love the fact that Kim and her sisters flaunt their Armenian heritage. We Armenians, whom William Saroyan once called "a group of unimportant people," get a lot of free press through the Kardashians. As the saying goes: "There's no such thing as bad publicity." 

Didn't Marilyn Monroe make a name for herself just as Kim Kardashian is doing now?  Hasn't Monroe's legacy lasted until today? In Chicago, they just erected a 26-foot giant sculpture of her in the famous pose from "The Seven Year Itch." 

A month ago when President Obama was a guest of Jay Leno on NBC's The Tonight Show, the Kardashians were one topic of their conversation.  It was very amusing to see that the President dodged Jay Leno's question about whether the President's daughters watched "Keeping Up with The Kardashians." Finally he admitted that he'd never seen it, but the girls may have watched it without his knowledge.  It was one of the cutest conversations I remember seeing on Leno's show.