1 Student #1 Peter Marra Eng 1020 11 November 2014 Rhetorical Analysis: How to Selfie Like Kim Kardashian The Kardashians and their fans, the Dash Dolls, engage in a materialistic lifestyle with a devotion to their physical appearance and social status. In order to successfully interact with the community, one must conform to the behaviors and attitudes of the Kardashian fans. Because the community’s primary goal is to be as attractive and popular as the Kardashians, it is essential to develop a similar narcissism and obsession with social status to be a member. In interest of successfully interacting with the fans and offering them a means of increasing both beauty and popularity, I created a YouTube tutorial explaining “How to Selfie like Kim Kardashian.” The Dash Dolls adore the Kardashians because of their extravagant lifestyle, complete with reality TV drama, beauty, fashion and exploitation. The Kardashian family shows expertise in the usage of beauty and physical assets to lure fans into their fashion and cosmetic merchandising. With hopes of having the beauty, bodies, fashion, and fame of the Kardashians, the Dash Dolls are concerned with how they are perceived by others. To target the vapid goals of the community, the “How to Selfie like Kim Kardashian” tutorial video offers fans a way to indulge in Kardashian related discussion, improve their physical appearance and increase their popularity on social networking such as Instagram. The video offers tips to improve aesthetic and manipulation of social media followers through the action of taking and sharing a selfie. The strategies are based upon the egocentric nature of the Kardashian fan community and help guide them further into building and managing their reputation on social media. Social media offers the Dash Dolls a way of manipulating how they come across to others, similar to how the Kardashians engineer their fame and beauty through selective publicity and media tactics. It is unlike the Kardashians to post unflattering pictures or video footage for the public to 2 see. Therefore the fans try to imitate this “flawless” media representation of their physical appearance and social lives. The tutorial video reveals the codes and conventions of taking an attractive picture but most importantly underlines the methods of influencing social media users to believe the glamorous, exciting, and fortunate lives that one’s profile portrays. For example, the video suggests “[Posing] with something expensive or cool” to show off your wealth and popularity in a Selfie. After this instruction is made, the video displays a number of Kim Kardashian’s selfies where she is featuring one of her many lavish possessions or luxuries. This includes her 1.25 million dollar engagement ring, her rapper husband Kanye West, and a helicopter ride. All of which are very expensive and cool. Although the video’s aim is to strive for Kardashian-level Instagram success, it is realistically not achievable, in terms of wealth, for the average teen to display such expensive possessions and celebrity lifestyle. Because of this, the video offers alternatives that reflect the individual’s affluence as well as maintaining their social responsibility of appearing “cool” to followers. The Selfies include high school parties as opposed to red carpet events, trophies instead of diamond rings, and pictures with the school’s football team rather than famous celebrities. The Dash Dolls have a common way of communicating and behaving within their fan group. This behavior is often inspired by the how the Kardashians act in the media. The fans use vocal fry and slang to gossip about the celebrity world or aspects of their personal lives. This is directly influenced by the vocal style and dramatic subject matter that the Kardashians display on their reality television show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Because the Dash Dolls’ goal as a community is to be beautiful and popular like the Kardashian family, the fans often self-promote their social networking profiles to gain followers and attention. This is comparative to the Kardashians’ manipulation of consumerist culture and their constant business advertising in the media. Despite the fact that the Dash Dolls do not make money off their Internet fame, they are fulfilled by the amount of followers and likes they receive on their profile. The whole premise of the Selfie tutorial video is to increase Instagram fame and the reputation of beauty and popularity. The video balances Kardashian related content with the promotion of my own Selfies as examples for the viewers to follow. The 3 audience is engaged by the Kardashian themed content however I assert my position as a Dash Doll by promoting my own beauty and popularity. At the beginning of the video I made sure that I was looking presentable for the viewers. I recognized the importance of having my makeup and hair done because the Dash Dolls are concerned with how they appear to others. Again, this is influenced by the importance that the Kardashians place on their physical appearance. I adopted the use of vocal fry in the video, which is explained by Rebecca Hiscott from the Huffington Post, as “a low-pitched, creaky-sounding speech inflection” and “slow, irregular fluttering of the vocal chords, resulting in a staccato, creaky or popping sound in speech.” The vocal fry is considered “a new feminine voice quality for young urban-oriented upwardly mobile American women,” according to researchers. It is considered a vocal style that helps young women fit into a social group and it was perceived positively amongst undergraduate students. The Kardashian fans have embraced this form of speech and believe that the sound connotes a laid-back attitude (Dr.Reena Gupta, What is Vocal Fry). By sounding like the Kardashians and members of the Dash Dolls, I further stress my place in the community. I included popular teen slang such as “making bank” and “Insta-famous” to reveal that my intended audience is 14-24 year old females in the fan group. Additionally, I wanted to incorporate content that would appeal to those within the fan group that like to criticize the Kardashians. I thought that this may spark more interaction with fans in the comment section and so I said, “If any talent at all, I have to admit that [Kim Kardashian] is pretty good at taking pictures of herself.” This relates back to the controversy surrounding Kim Kardashian’s fame and the idea that many believe she has no talent and is only famous for exploiting her body. The featured background music is Kanye West’s song, Kanye’s Workout Plan, and I deemed this appropriate for the video because he is Kim Kardashian’s husband, the song is well known, upbeat and coordinated well with the video slides, and the messages in the song follow similar objectives of the video such as taking extreme measures to be attractive. I kept the text in the video concise and easy to understand so that it would not be hard for viewers to read and enjoy the music at the same time. I also cut and edited the music to better fit the duration of the video. 4 The Selfies that I featured of myself are well suited to each tip in the video and I attempted to use the most attractive ones that I could find. My Selfies that follow the suggestion to “strategize your selfie partners” include my puppy, my prom date and my grandma when prompted to “pose with someone/something cute for guaranteed likes.” This section of the video offers fans more than just my selfies that are intended to display my beauty/attractiveness. By revealing some of my personal life through my pictures, fans may be more likely to follow me on my social networks. I posted the video with links to my social networking sites such as Instagram and Facebook. This allows fans to access my profiles, follow me and like my content, which fulfills my ultimate goal. With the release of Kim Kardashian’s 352-page selfie book due in April of 2015, fans are excited and openly discussing the upcoming date and expectations. The excitement surrounding the release date in combination with the fan group’s primary goal of being pretty and famous like the Kardashians, makes my choice of intervention very relevant to the community today. Through my video I have provided sufficient content and instruction for members of the Dash Dolls to both learn and be entertained. I expect both negative and positive content directed towards my video and the Kardashians in general, especially because I included criticism of Kim. As a new member of the Dash Dolls, I hope that I receive follow requests and activity/attention on my profile. This will reinforce that my “How to Selfie Like Kim Kardashian” video was successful to the communities’ standards. In conclusion, by appealing to the primary goal of the Dash Dolls, I successfully interacted with the community. I provided a means of increasing both beauty and popularity on social networks in interest of the fan community as well as promoting myself. Through the video content, language and style, I accomplished my personal goals as a member of the Dash Dolls as well as helping the group achieve their goals as a whole. 5 Works Cited "How To Selfie Like Kim Kardashian." YouTube. YouTube, 09 Nov. 2014. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVvxUlzvWBU "Faith Salie on Speaking with "vocal Fry"" CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. .