By today’s standards, Kim Kardashian is kind of the dictionary definition of ‘famous’. And, in case you missed it, today is Kim Kardashian’s birthday.
The mother of three and entrepreneur who sits centre stage of the world’s most famous family turns 38 today (October 21) and the usual media circus has spouted speculation regarding how, where and with whom she will celebrate.
But Google is apparently having none of it.
When you’re Kim Kardashian, a hustler with an estimated net worth of $350 million, a klose-knit family, and all the opportunities nepotism affords, it might feel like everyday is your birthday.
But her fame undoubtedly comes at a price. With the exception of her loyal following of Dash Dolls, Kim is one of the least liked public figures to grace the mainstream. Like, ever.
Google ‘Why do people hate Kim Kardashian?’
The search engine – a modern day gospel according to the Internet – throws up about 32,400,000 results in 0.46 seconds, ranging from accusations of cultural appropriation to courting the press for attention.
Ouch. It’s impressive for someone who hasn’t contributed much of any tangible change to society, beyond perpetrating and encouraging narrow beauty standards in #spon posts, to evoke such a volatile reaction from your Average Joe.
But, therein lies the problem. Some people can’t come up with any rational or logical reason Kim Kardashian is actually famous. Even her own daughter gets confused, at times.
She’s disliked because the general consensus states Kim is undeserving of her fame and fortune, topping a Ranker poll of Americans who fit that bill, as well as another titled ‘Annoying Celebrities Who Should Just Go Away Already‘.
But, she isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
It all started when the socialite, stylist to Paris Hilton and daughter to Hollywood lawyer Robert Kardashian, signed over permission (allegedly) to publish a sex tape she’d made with her then boyfriend, the rapper Ray J.
From there, with more than a guiding hand from her ‘Momager’, Kris Jenner, Kim turned her trade to modelling, voiceover acting, movie cameos, designing her own line of clothes, founding a million-dollar beauty brand, and executive producing and starring in her family’s long-running reality TV show.
Arguably, they’re all day jobs, albeit unrelatable and born of nepotism, which discredit the argument she’s famous for being famous.
What Kim did differently to any other socialite with a sex tape was leverage her existing fame and market herself for more.
Enter apps and games and ‘kimojis’ and social media sponsored posts, which can earn up to $500,000, reportedly.
Her entrepreneurial instinct- or that of her team – is usually bang on, and she seems to know just how to prey on young and vulnerable who wish to keep up with her kalibre of Kardashian kwality.
In 2018, she was ranked number 54 on their list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women (her younger sister Kylie Jenner was ranked number 27), but almost no one was happy for the beauty moguls in the era of ‘extreme fame leverage’.
Forbes sparked rows over their use of the phrase ‘self-made’, and many didn’t think the Kardashian or Jenner’s nepotistic and materialistic lifestyles qualified for the title.
While her social media presence has occasionally been used for good – the plight of Alice Johnson springs to mind – the leveraging of her massive following is how we came to live in a world where almost no one doesn’t know who Kim Kardashian is and the fact it’s Kim Kardashian’s birthday today.
But Google apparently doesn’t want to play a part in the three-ringed circus that is the Kardashian’s klaim to fame.
Perhaps this negative narrative is why Google haven’t included Kim Kardashian’s birthday on a list of public figures born on October 21. When you Google search ‘famous birthdays October 21’, there’s a blindingly obvious omission.
Although a quick scroll through the ads and top search results finds Kim Kardashian’s birthday is listed on the top spot on most other sites, she’s nowhere to be seen on Google’s birthday card roster.
Take a look at this damning screenshot for yourself:
The implication is lost on no one: Google doesn’t think Kim Kardashian is famous. At least, her’s is a fame they don’t recognise.
The list boasts acting talent and all-round good egg, Carrie Fisher, the American country music singer and songwriter, Kane Brown, as well as Amber Rose, the sex positive activist and model.
Rose, who dated Kanye West before he was wed to Kim, feuded with the Klan publicly, giving Google’s omission perhaps a little sting in the tail.
It seems, though, Kim and Amber buried the hatchet years ago, so maybe not.
The list goes on: Glenn Powell, of Scream Queens fame, features alongside Academy Award nominee, Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima, The Last Samurai) and Andrew Scott, the Irish actor who dazzled as Jim Moriarty in the BBC series Sherlock.
There’s also Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist and the inventor of dynamite, who established the Nobel Prize. NBD.
Ricard Rubio also gets the Goggle nod for his fame, garnered for becoming the youngest basketball player to feature in the Spanish ACB League, aged 14.
He now plays for Utah Jazz.
Snaps to Google for including Cuban-born Celia Cruz, who gained 23 gold albums, a star on the Walk Of Fame and the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton during her career as the most popular Latin artist of the 20th century.
Other talents include Dmitry Gordon, the Kiev-born Ukrainian writer, journalist, and TV presenter, who is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Boulevard.
Another famous daughter also shares Kim Kardashian’s birthday: Patti Davis, the actress and author born to President Ronald Wilson Reagan and his second wife, First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan.
While it might seem odd she made the cut, but not Kim, perhaps this is Google’s way of championing an era in which fame was awarded for significant public contributions or personal skill.
Saying that, Kim is nothing if not a hard-working mum who’s changed the landscape of pop culture so much in her years at the top, maybe not even the online powerhouse can reverse the effects of Kardashian mania.
UNILAD has contacted Google for comment.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.