Okay But...You Probably Don't Work As Hard As Kim Kardashian

The reality star and business owner said:

"I have the best advice for women in business. Get your f**king ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days. You have to surround yourself with people that want to work. Have a good work environment where everyone loves what they do, because you have one life. No toxic work environments."

People quickly fired back, pointing out the obvious: That Kim would not be nearly as successful as she is now had she not been born into a rich family that could provide for her basic needs and give her the safety net to pursue her chosen ventures.

There were also a few former employees who shared that they had to work ridiculously hard for very little money while employed by Kardashian - and that she was, in fact, sued for violating labor laws last year - though she claimed that a third-party hiring company was at fault for the mistreatment.

Now, if we were speaking directly to Kim Kardashian, we agree that we'd have a lot to say about this matter in solidarity with those who spoke up. We'd tell her that it is really not her place to give such basic and condescending advice to people whose struggles she does not and cannot know; Given what we do know about her philanthropic work and how much she does to care for the less fortunate, even when she tries not to take credit, we have to assume that the statement was not aimed at those people, though it sounded like it could be.

We might also advise her that, even if she were to make that caveat, there are other struggles besides monetary ones that would make it difficult for people to achieve some of the things she outlined:

• Not everybody in the world can have a good, non-toxic work environment where they love what they do. Those are actually pretty rare finds these days, which is part of the problem with the entire job market right now. If you have a job that you enjoy, that gives you financial security, AND with a work environment that doesn't make you want to cry some days, you've struck the motherload. Almost nobody can have all three. The fact that she is not aware of that is the main reason these comments pissed everyone off.
• "It seems like nobody wants to work these days" has become a bit of a Republican dogwhistle of late, which is really feeding into the bad optics of what she said. Also, the idea that nobody wants to work is coming from people who are working as hard as the people who tweeted at her, and wish that they had more time to themselves to do things like cook and clean their homes and take care of their mental health.
• Speaking of mental health, the number of depressed people in the world is probably at one of the highest levels it's ever been, which is another reason "people don't want to work" feels so...yikes-y. That's a symptom of a mental illness, and it is a serious problem right now, one that cannot be solved by advice as simple as that. Looking at what she said through that lens makes it feel especially cold.

That Being Said...We Think We Know What Kim Was Trying To Say

We've made it very clear: We know the optics of this statement were terrible, and Kim Kardashian clearly did not put enough thought into how that statement would be percieved by the masses and the complicated issue it actually is.

That being said, if you take all that at face value and take into consideration what life looks like from her perspective, there is still a nugget of value in what Kim said.

Kim Kardashian is a very hard worker. People make fun of her for being "famous for being famous," and they love to point out that all of this started with a leaked sex tape but the thing is...that's impressive, when you think about it.

The public has such a short attention span. It was maybe a little longer back when the Kardashians were first taking off, but it still wasn't that long - celebrities come and go in relevance like the wind.In order to keep herself and her whole family in the spotlight like that, Kim Kardashian had to do a ton of work.

And then, on top of that, she also started several businesses, had a family, did SO MUCH philanthropy work (much of it without publicity) lobbied for criminal justice reform, studied for and passed the baby bar, and is now dealing with one of the most tumultuous and public divorces in recent history with a grace and poise that should blow any old, stereotyped image of her as a drama queen out of the water.

We're not saying she would be able to do all of this if she hadn't been born rich. She wouldn't. But nobody EXPECTED her to, either, and that's what people should remember about her.

She didn't need to hustle for anything - she could have just sat back and been an heiress, or just had the one business, or stayed a reality star. She was able to have the security to find that passionate drive because she didn't need to be financially motivated to stay alive, yes - but she didn't need to find the drive at all.

What Kim Kardashian meant to say (we think,) was that if you want to make it as a businesswoman, you have to hustle - more than you think you have to hustle. She should have chosen a much, much better way to say it - but anyone who tries to say that she didn't hustle for what she has clearly doesn't know what they're talking about, because she absolutely did.

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Kim Kardashian