Kim Kardashian was shocked that everyone had been so angered by her “get your f**king ass up and work” statement. Yes, really!
During a new episode of The Kardashians on Thursday, the 41-year-old reality star opened up about the backlash she received for her viral conversation with Variety earlier this year. For those who don’t recall the controversy, Kim was interviewed along with her sisters, Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian, as well as momager Kris Jenner, back in March. She was asked to offer up some advice to women in business to achieve success and answered:
“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, and show up and do the work.”
The second half of that is reasonable. But the “nobody wants to work these days” rhetoric? Yeah, that didn’t go over so well. While we’re all for a strong work ethic, when such a statement comes from an extremely privileged person who’s detached from the real world’s current conditions, it sounds “tone-deaf” to say the least — and the SKIMS creator was instantly called out!
Related: Kim’s Sex Confession With Ex-BF Pete Davidson Involves HER GRANDMA?!
Following the controversy, Kim insisted to Good Morning America that the comment was “a sound bite really with no context” and that she’d been provoked by a prior question about her being “famous for being famous.” However, the reporter who conducted the interview, Elizabeth Wagmeister, shut down her claim on Twitter, writing:
“It’s not what she claims. I just reviewed the raw footage. The question was very direct: ‘What would be your advice for women in business?’ The question about being famous for being famous came after that question, actually.”
The whole thing was a PR disaster.
But in the new episode, filmed months ago, Kim addressed the public’s criticism over her viral comments, telling her sisters Khloé and Kendall Jenner that she felt “so blindsided” by the response. Umm… really, Kim? She expressed:
“There’s just been so much going on because of that Variety interview. I said what I said about people working. Do I believe in that? Yes, I believe that you have to work hard in order to do that. But I was just so blindsided by how angry people got. Enough people were triggered, so I want to be responsible and understanding [of] why people feel the way they do, and I do understand that a lot of people weren’t given the same opportunities as us.”
Khloé was quick to support Kim, naturally, noting that she thought the entire situation was “frustrating” because of people’s misperceptions:
“They’re always gonna say, ‘Well, what do you know? You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth.’ But it’s frustrating when the world doesn’t want to see you for who you are, and they want to always make whatever you say a personal attack.”
Trying to defend herself, Kim denied the idea her life has been as easy as everyone seems to think, saying:
“I think people would assume that I got everything handed to me, being on a TV show. But being on a reality show, let alone a reality-show girl with a sex tape, does not open doors. I always felt like I had to work extra hard and harder to be taken seriously and for people to forget about my past.”
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum also explained she learned her work ethic from their momager, who “started her career and making money at 50”:
“Growing up and seeing her hustle and seeing her get up every day with all these kids … that she had to take care of, I saw her work her ass off and figure it out … and that really inspired me to work.”
Later on, Kim went on to apologize (again) for her remarks, saying she never meant it as “a blanket statement to all women” at the time:
“When I made that statement, it wasn’t a blanket statement to all women, like as if I didn’t think women work hard or respect the work that they do, because I see it every single day. The most important people in my life, that have shaped my life, shaped my career and helped me get to where I am today all are women. So I hated that that got misunderstood, and for that, I’m so sorry.”
She’s sorry the actual working class misunderstood her.
It seems like Kimmy Kakes still does not understand why her comments were so problematic. Again, while she pointed out how much her words have affected others, she still failed to mention anything about her father Robert Kardashian‘s fame and fortune, and the privileged upbringing she had during her climb to stardom. This isn’t to discredit how hard she has worked over the years, because she certainly has, but there were other factors in her life that have helped her get to where she is today — and she still has yet to fully acknowledge it. Of course, what can you expect? She doesn’t have a basis of comparison, so of course she just thinks she worked harder than everyone who didn’t start with those advantages. That’s what privilege is, right?
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers? Do you think Kim will ever learn from this controversy? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via Variety/YouTube, The Kardashians/Hulu]
