by Suzanne Titkemeyer

It seems these days you can hardly pick up a magazine or turn on the television and you will be deluged with information about either one of two reality famous families, the Kardashians and the Duggars. Even in places you would not expect to see one of them, like Vanity Fair magazine a few months ago, which featured an article on the Parisian police unit tasked to solve the robbery of Kim Kardashian West during Fashion Week.

While the Kardashians of E! network show ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ are much more famous than than TLC’s Duggar family of ’19 Kids and Counting’ and ‘Counting On’ there are some parallels between the two families.

Both families are famous for being famous. Their accomplishments do not line up with the with the amount of public adulation heaped on the families. No one is an athlete, an actor/actress, writer, philanthropist, or any other useful or understandable reason. The Kardashians are famous because of two things, their television show and Kim’s large derriere. The Duggars for having a large family and a reality show.
The men that flock to marry or have relationships with the family daughters usually end up either regretting it or being exploited by the show to their own detriment. Just look at the guys on the Kardashian show – Scott Disick, Lamar Odom, Kris Humphreys, Kanye West and many others. That’s a pile of drug and alcohol addictions post-Kardashians, nervous breakdowns, and general misfortunes. On the Duggar side there haven’t been mental hospitals or rehabs, but we’ve seen men with some college and real jobs leave their lives to become sycophants/satellites around patriarch Jim Bob Duggar without working again. It seems to change the men in the lives of the daughters in some profoundly negative ways.
Both families have made their names and every detail of their lives into a slick marketing promotion. They created their family as a brand and constantly shill out ever aspect of their lives for fame.
The brand empire is ruled over by a matriarch or patriarch. Kris Jenner oversees the Kardashian enterprises while Jim Bob Duggar controls everyone and everything involving the Duggars.
Both families think nothing of exploiting their own tragedies and goof ups. Just look at how swiftly the Duggars began the Fox News televised round of interviews after the news broke of Josh Duggar’s molestation of his sisters. When son-in-law Lamar Odom overdosed in a Nevada brothel the Kardashian clan showed up with cameras trailing them so that this could all be filmed for their show.
Both families exploit their youngest members and have raised their younger members in the glare of the camera, taking no pains to shield the more impressionable younger members from the negative influence of the media or making no attempt to preserve the privacy of the children.
Both families seem to have no idea how to function without the presence of cameras. This constant need for media attention seems to drive much of what both families do. It’s a rare week when there are no vanity pieces in the media about either family.

Here’s my question. Is this even a remotely healthy way to raise any of those children? Please let me know what you think in the comments below.

Read more about the Duggars by Suzanne Titkemeyer:

Ten Things Reality TV and Christian Patriarchs Have in Common

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Suzanne Titkemeyer is the admin at No Longer Quivering. She’s been out of the Quiverfull Evangelical world for nine years now and lives in the beautiful Piedmont section of Virginia with her retired husband and assorted creatures. She blogs at Every Breaking Wave and True Love Doesn’t Rape

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