The Kardashians: citizens of surplus

Abstract

This article engages with the manufacture/purchase of feminine beauty, especially via cosmetic surgery, U.S. citizenship, and prosperity Christianity. It aligns the Kardashians’ form of capitalist beauty with their Christian rhetoric in context of their uptake of ‘surplus citizenship’. I argue that prosperity Christianity together with certain aesthetic body modifications reveal a contemporary version of U.S. citizenship that speaks of entrepreneurial self-enhancement, national belonging, and affluence. I show that this ‘new’ type of citizenship is rooted in deeply racialised practices and processes. A case study – the rise and fall of the so-called ‘Brazilian butt lift’ (BBL) – is offered in order to demonstrate these ideas.