For years, the Kardashians have captured attention from all around the world — from conspiracies to companies to couples, each of them have established an undeniable, and seemingly interminable, stage presence. How much of their success is masterful marketing strategies vs simple privilege?
The entirety of the Kardashian Klan has continuously graced every headline since the mid 2000s. They’ve been clowned for their narcissistic tendencies, their long lists of relationships, and for putting themselves fully on display; and yet, they’re still gaining. Each sibling has created a brand within a brand, ranging from makeup, quality jeans, designer shapewear, and almost every other niche you can think of. But this begs the question, are the Kardashians, or more specifically Kim Kardashian, genius business women or have they just led a life of privilege and mastered the art of right place, right time?
This debate has sparked over the internet, even more, after the Kardashians did a recent interview with Variety. On March 9th, Variety posted the interview titled “Kim Kardashian’s Business Advice: ‘Get Your F**king Ass Up and Work’” on their Youtube channel and, almost immediately, backlash began. The line that has received the most criticism is one said by Kim: “Get your f***ing ass up and work; it seems like nobody wants to work these days.” Kourtney nods, agreeing with Kim, and says, “That’s so true.” Kim went on to say, “You have to surround yourself with people that want to work, you have to have a good work environment where everyone loves what they do because you have one life. No toxic work environments and show up and do the work.”
This quote immediately sparked long Twitter threads, TikTok compilations, and talk show conversations about the irony in Kim Kardashian talking about what it takes to be a working woman. On the television show E! Canada, the beginning of their segment featured some of these tweets. One tweet by Twitter handle @smcardle45 said, “If only Kim Kardashian would spend time with real people (i.e. the majority of us) she’d see many holding down 2 jobs and still being unable to afford their own place or even a smidgen of the luxuries she has.” English actress Jameela Jamil also tweeted an opinion of her own, saying, “I think if you grew up in Beverly Hills with super successful parents in what was simply a smaller mansion… nobody needs to hear your thoughts on success/work ethic.”
The hosts of E! Canada possessed similar opinions to the tweets in use. Host Ron Weston said, “It’s when she said people don’t want to work. That was the line. Everything else after that, who cares? It’s when she didn’t make it about herself and her hard work. She put it on other people that the reason they don’t have what she has is that they’re not willing to work hard enough, and that is where all the anger came from.”
The Daily Show host, Trevor Noah, agreed, “Because yes, Kim Kardashian works hard, but you know who else works hard? Most women. But what their asses don’t have is Kim’s luck to be born into a rich family with a famous lawyer parent and an even more famous Olympian step parent and all the access and connections that that brings you… don’t forget how much luck has to do with that success.” He also went on to say, “A lot of people work hard and they’re still broke, in fact, a lot of the time, the broker you are the harder you probably work.”
From these quotes, it sounds like the world is against Kim but not everyone holds that opinion. Guest host on the talk show The View, Stephanie Grisham, and former white house communications director, is very much on Team Kim. She said, “You know I grew up with a single mom, I was home alone all the time, and I would watch somebody like Kim Kardashian and be inspired.” This was an opposing argument to Sunny Hostin, the show’s host, who had previously remarked, “people born on third base shouldn’t talk about how easy it is to hit a homerun…It came off as being very privileged, it came off as being very elitist.”
There are many different arguments that can be made about the validity of Kim making these claims. On one hand, you can see that she is now a billionaire who successfully runs multiple companies. But on the other hand, one can also see that wealth is not a foreign concept to Kim and she did not get to where she is based solely on her hard work.
I personally believe that the Kardashians as people are hard working individuals. They have taken the spotlight they got from Kim’s released sex tape, and developed that spotlight into full-fledged billion dollar careers. However, I can say, with near certainty, that none of the Kardashians would have nearly as much wealth or influence as they do if they weren’t raised in a family that possessed great wealth and connections, along with one that’s supportive of their success and dreams.
As much as I think Kim was trying to defend herself from years of people arguing she did nothing to get where she is now, I find her comments to be very out of touch. Hopefully, the backlash from this interview will leave a lasting impression on her and the rest of her family — if that’s possible, at all.