Cultural critics reclassified the Kardashians as sincere art once elites endorsed them

Evidence

In the aftermath of the Vogue cover, critics began reevaluating the entire Kardashian phenomenon. Kim was no longer merely a bottom-feeding reality TV star or a tabloid fixture but increasingly seen as “self-created, self-aware, and sincere,” as Jerry Saltz observed. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 372

Categorization

• QUESTION: This reflexive re-evaluation — critics revising judgments purely because gatekeepers shifted — is a candidate signature of the era worth pressing on: is it audience conformity or genuinely new criteria?