Kim Kardashian's money shows money makes star quality

The argument

At the forefront of stardom is wealth, and at the helm of both today is Kim Kardashian. Before becoming pop culture's social media behemoth, Kim Kardashian started out in relative obscurity as part of Paris Hilton’s entourage. She worked as Hilton’s personal assistant and closet organizer, even making a few appearances on Hilton’s reality show The Simple Life. After Paris’s fame peaked in 2004 due to a sex tape that illegally spread the very same year, Kim found herself in Hilton’s shoes when her own sex tape circulated in 2006. But with Kim’s early notoriety came even more fame and prosperity. As Hilton’s celebrity dropped, the Kardashian family successfully managed to transform Kim’s scandalous infamy into a reality television show. Soon, Keeping Up With The Kardashians (KUWTK) became the mother of all reality shows in tandem with Kim’s increasing popularity. As Kim Kardashian became even more prominent in Hollywood, her climbing affluence only helped her to become the megastar she is today. From this reality television show came a Kardashian empire. For Kim, that meant debuting a New York Times Bestseller, Selfish, launching an app, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, creating her beauty brand KKW, launching shapewear brand Skims, and dominating social media platforms like Instagram. From each of these many business endeavors came millions of dollars in profits and millions of followers turned customers. Kim successfully multiplied her celebrity with the help of her swelling finances, demonstrating the direct power cash has had on building and cultivating Kim Kardashian’s stardom. Today, Kim remains the same social media magnate and wealthy businesswoman that solidified her celebrity status in contemporary pop culture. The Kardashian surname has become a household name, synonymous with typical Hollywood fame. Kim turned this fame, with the aid of money, into massive wealth and great popularity. While Kim will profit for years to come, her stardom is proof positive that money is an all-important factor in forming a reputation in modern times.

Context

Currently worth around $370 million, Kim Kardashian has elevated her stardom in Hollywood from prior notoriety to an accomplished businesswoman and social media magnate. As the Kardashian surname becomes increasingly synonymous with fame, Kim’s massive wealth and reality TV work makes her the epitome of fame in modern popular culture.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Kim Kardashian's celebrity can not simply be attributed to her massive wealth, because it was a scandal that pushed her into the limelight in the first place. After her illegal sex tape was distributed, Kim became infamous for that tape alone, not because of her money. The bedrock of Kim Kardashian's star quality is an old scandal and not her wealth. Kim Kardashian's celebrity always had the potential to become what it has today, but not because of money, only since her father's own fame increased with the O.J. Simpson murder trial. When Robert Kardashian defended O.J. Simpson in court, as his primary defense lawyer, the whole Kardashian family quickly shot to fame. So Kim's fame today is nothing new since her family had held the spotlight before, and that fame is not remotely related to money but rather courtroom drama.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise's own sequence runs the wrong way for the conclusion: notoriety came first and the reality show followed, so the money arrived after the fame rather than producing it. [Rejecting P2] The book, app and brands are ventures that monetised an audience already assembled. They show fame converting into wealth, which is the reverse of the claim being made. [Rejecting P3] That "swelling finances built her stardom" is asserted rather than shown, and the counter-argument offers two rival explanations the argument never addresses — the 2006 tape, and the family's earlier prominence through her father's role in the O. J. Simpson trial.