Kim Kardashian is being hounded in the news again.
Shocker.
It feels like every other day the Kardashains are in trouble for one thing or another.
Kim, Khloe, Kourtney and Kris were on the latest cover of ‘Variety’ which featured an in depth interview into their lives, their work and their future in preparation for their new upcoming show on Disney+, The Kardashians. Kim was asked for business advice for women.
This is where it went wrong.
“Get Your F**king Ass Up and Work. I feel like no one these days wants to work”
When I heard the story going round my first thought was, what a stupid thing to say.
However if you watch the video where Kim is talking, it comes out with emotions that everyone seems to be ignoring. There appears to be a deep frustration as she says this and also when Khloe follows her up.
These women have been in the height of the Hollywood spotlight for over 10 years now. They have been slut-shamed, trash-talked, their intelligence has been questioned every day of their lives. Kim is now 41 years old, has just passed the California Baby Bar exam and has multiple businesses including Skims, recently valued at $3.5 million.
She is tired of not being taken seriously and tired of people saying she doesn’t work. That is where that comment came from. It was still not the right thing to say and ignorant of her privilege and wealth but with the way the Kardashians have been presented in the media for the past 10 years, I truly believe even if she and her sisters had worked their way up from nothing the internet would still be mad at her saying this.
I recently wrote a piece where Molly-Mae Hague was slammed across the internet for saying a similar thing. In both cases the internet decided that the rest of the interview was null and void. In both cases the rest of the interview showed both women to have some very interesting points.
Kim in her solo interview with Variety speaks incredibly eloquently about her work in the legal system. It is her dream to one day open a law firm where previously incarcerated people can come to work because she said these people are some of the most intelligent people she has met as they learn the law and their case to try and get out.
Again, I’d like to reiterate that this does not excuse the fact she completely ignored her wealth and the fact her parents had already carved out a position in Hollywood. It feels like a broken record writing about the likes of Kim Kardashian and Molly-Mae Hague flaunting their success and making it seem easy to be multi-millionaires. It’s insulting and exhausting for women to hear this from people but especially from other women.
Kris Jenner will always take the road of all publicity is good publicity. There have been theories for years that the Kardashians deliberately get themselves in the news when they are about to release something new or need more traffic drive around their name. I will say if this is true and all of this is a publicity ploy then we are falling for it time and time again.
Is it deliberate? Has it been blown out of proportion? Should she apologise?
The Kardashians and the news are a tale as old as time. This incident is not isolated and the background and motivations of such a throwaway comment play into a grander scheme. Kim Kardashian hasn’t just been in the game a long time, she now runs the game. People have been diminishing this woman for years, she has been through a lot. It does not give her the right to generalise everyone’s situations down to they aren’t working hard.
As long as people keep giving the Kardashians a platform the size they do, these questions will never be fully answered based on this outburst or the next or the last one. The toxic cycle of the internet deciding whether Kim Kardashian is our feminist hero, a Disney villain, ruining or improving women’s body image will never end until she steps out of the spotlight, something she said she can’t see doing.
So goodbye, until the next time I’m writing about the internet cancelling Kim Kardashian.
Featured image credit: Variety.
Film, Media and Journalism student who writes about things that catch her interest. Instagram @charlsutcliffe
