The camera NEVER lies…

In the news this week is Kloe Kardashian – a ‘celebrity’ who grates on me alone for the spelling of her name and before I even learn of why she is making headlines.

The Kardashians are in my mind of late because having just read and recorded Eclipsed as an audio book, there is a short section mentioning this famous family which has stuck with me and I think bears repeating…

This book was (first) completed in 2013 when The Impossible premiered in Los Angeles. I wrote then, that as a matter of principal, I would not update the book whatever happens to either Dad or son. I did not relish the prospect of being a parent putting his family life up for scrutiny. At this juncture, reality television had emerged but the phenomenal success of reality families like the Kardashians had yet to reveal itself. And no matter how much fame they have accrued or wealth they have banked, it is even clearer now that my instincts on this were correct.

I am miffed that the Kardashians are even in my head at all and taking up space on my finite hard drive. My memory is not one of my stronger muscles. Useful stuff I have acquired and worth retaining: principals, wisdom, arguments, theories, names, experiences…  but have all been lost and I expect to make room for vacuous shite like reality stars.

There is Kim of course who everyone is familiar with – correctly spelt with a K – who kicked the whole dynasty off when her sex tape was released and in our internet age of celebrity, it was the making of her.

A sex tape being a career move, who knew?

And especially since there is no shortage of sex on the internet. The web literally groans with films of people having sex – and yet our Kim managed to turn her frolic in to a billion dollar industry.

Is there a worse indictment on our modern world?

Anyway, back to Qlo-ee

Who it transpires is not the raving beauty her online images suggest she is. In reality, she is merely a normal looking person just like the majority of humans on earth. And with an ordinary physique too. Not honed, toned, ripped and smooth. But bumpy, flabby and with wobbly bits just like the majority…

Which is why I feel sufficiently aggrieved to write about this airbrushed and manipulated ‘beautiful’ family and why their reality makes them ironically, so unattractive.

Flaunting their grotesque wealth which is founded on millions of people buying whichever products they endorse in the hope to emulate these frauds and their phoney lives.

The face creams, the cosmetics, perfumes, clothes, shoes, swimwear, underwear…

When all is needed is a software package and an editor  – and accept that they must remain hidden and out of sight for the rest of their lives, so that no one can see them for real.

I feel this way because I know of a number of families with children whose lives are blighted with mental illness. Boys and girls with loving parents, nice homes, friends, good schools to attend and yet such trauma to contend with.

Kids with eating disorders who are hospitalised because their heart has stopped beating. Kids with counsellors for their suicidal thoughts. Kids prescribed tranquillisers for clinical depression. Kids prescribed drugs in order to sleep. Kids so paralysed with anxiety that they can’t even leave their homes, missing school and any sense of normality…

The internet cannot be un-invented and as useful as it is, why would we want to do such a thing anyway?

Streaming movies anyone? Online banking, shopping… and let’s hear it for the bloggers!

But we must also concede the pernicious realities of the greatest industrial breakthrough since the wheel.

The rise of the tech billionaires, more powerful than even our governments and more durable of course. Like Bond villains from  their all seeing lairs, how telling it is they send their kids to tech free schools and don’t allow them smart phones…

We are all publishers now. The internet and social media has created a new world order in which we must all find our place. A new metric for gauging success and status.

But at what cost? Impossible to ever audit or quantify.

I note that Kim has just become a billionaire. How heartening?

Good for her, some might argue. But much of her gargantuan wealth is rooted in misery and broken lives. People spending money, often they can ill-afford in the hope of looking and living like a Kardashian. I venture, often vulnerable people who cannot see beyond the veneer of this family enterprise with their battery of venal lawyers, craven doctors, grabbing agents, PR’s, managers and all underpinned by an ever willing mainstream media, that cares only about its clicks and income and not a jot for the welfare of anyone consuming this bilge.

And it is not just the Kardashians of course.

How is that I know who Cardi B is?

Instagram is awash with people playing this card. Posting faux lives for their own gain and to hell with the consequences. Shame on them. So riven by avarice and with no moral code. The only metric of interest to them being numbers of likes and dollars – the world currency.

Regular readers will know that this blog is usually a more gentle read. But this week, I had something to exorcise and that done, I will now conclude with some levity.

For the record and regarding my Instagram….

I do not edit my photos and nor do I use filters. How I appear is the real me. It is who I am. I just happen to be beautiful.

Furthermore, my Instagram is an accurate depiction of my life…

I love my family and my dog – but in fairness and I think this comes over, mainly my dog.