“You’re like my twin soul”: postfeminist neoliberalism in Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian

ABSTRACT

Revenge Body with Khloé Kardashian premiered in 2017, adding a makeover show to the Kardashians’ already extensive media portfolio. This article contextualises the series in feminist media scholarship on postfeminism, neoliberalism and makeover TV. It argues that Revenge Body’s depiction of “experts” as potential sites of intimacy that facilitate inner and outer transformation furthers a postfeminist over-relation between bodily change and emotional wellbeing. By considering the show’s presentation of “experts” – both Kardashian and otherwise—this article contends that the bespoke matching of trainer and trainee plays into neoliberal conceptions of contemporary citizenship where subjects are instructed to transform and manage their own body in relation to the hegemonic expectations of their immediate social circle. Through various means, the series presents holistic lifestyle change as achievable through obedience, self-surveillance, and constant performative resilience.

KEYWORDS:

• Kardashians
• postfeminism
• neoliberalism
• makeover
• revenge body

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Various storylines focus on diets, unflattering paparazzi pictures, and the role of exercise in improving mood. For example, in “The Courage to Change” (2014b) Rob sees a doctor because the family is concerned about his weight, and in “MILFs Gone Wild” (2017) Kim is upset by unflattering paparazzi pictures circulating on the internet.

2. Good American (2018) initially included the phrase “extreme inclusivity” on their website as part of one of their core tenets. It no longer appears there but can be found in reporting about the brand (including in E! News, the Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post).

3. Anyone familiar with Khloe Kardashian’s Instagram will instantly recognise such scripts, in the form of numerous “inspirational” quotations and memes.

4. Conversely, the least financially successful member of the family, Robert Jr, is presented as being lazy or entitled in various episodes of KUWTK. In “A Thailand Vacation Part 1 (Keeping Up With the Kardashians, 2014a),” Kim says of her brother, “All right, you complain, you don’t like it, get up and do something about it.”

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Giuliana Monteverde

Giuliana Monteverde is a researcher and lecturer in Communication at the School of Communication and Media at Ulster University. She is the Course Director for Communication Management and PR, teaches media, communication and cultural theory, and supervises both undergraduate and postgraduate research. Giuliana’s research interests include postfeminism, neoliberalism, complicity, popular culture, reality TV, and the Kar-Jenner family. She is the co-editor of two edited collections: HBO’s Original Voices: Race, Gender, Sexuality and Power (Routledge 2018) and Resist! Protest Media and Popular Culture in the Brexit-Trump Era (Rowman and Littlefield 2020). Giuliana has published book chapters and journal articles on: complicity in contemporary feminist discourse; postfeminism, beauty and the KarJenners; and Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Donald Trump.