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I'm a fan of Kim Kardashian. She somehow managed to build a an empire based just on her name. Then, she used that empire to fight to release people from prison

by lghh 7y ago

I'm a fan of Kim Kardashian. She somehow managed to build a an empire based just on her name. Then, she used that empire to fight to release people from prison and spread awareness for the Armenian genocide. I'm normally not one for "spreading awareness", but there are a lot of people who don't know about the Armenian genocide, and the US government won't acknowledge it happened in a unified and official fashion. She doesn't do anything particularly scandalous other than maybe being too materialistic. Her show mostly revolves around being there for your family. Overall, she's a net positive.

throw_m239339 7y ago
> I'm a fan of Kim Kardashian. She somehow managed to build a an empire based just on her name. It's not like she did not come from a very wealthy family… That porn footage wouldn't have been news worthy if she was a rando… One can still acknowledge her financial accomplishments yet, I wonder about her negative influence on young girls who will believe that a sextape or nudes are going to get them rich quickly like the Kardashian…
- BoorishBears 7y ago
  Sometimes I read people's comments on her sex-tape and almost start to wonder if it's a form of subtle sexism. I mean, she had already been on reality TV before, her family already had the idea for a reality TV show, Ryan Seacrest had already expressed interest in producing the show (there was even a precedence for the show, "The Osbornes"), she already had a fairly successful career with extremely marketable skills. The 2nd movie Sylvester Stallone ever did, which he credits for saving him in the pits of desperation, was softcore porn, but I've never heard anyone say "I wonder if he's a negative influence on poor people who believe that softcore porn is going to get them rich quickly like Sylvester" It turns out having useful skills and a vision is what made them successful in both cases. There are plenty of people with famous, rich parents who never end up building billion dollar brands, do you really think a sex tape built a billion dollar brand? Isn't it a bit much to reduce all her accomplishments to that and think that will be the takeaway of her success?
  - rchaud 7y ago
    Over the past decade, companies spun off from her brand have been more profitable than several major startups, so her success is indisputable. But her connections and surroundings most likely helped get her that initial momentum. She wasn't just a rich lawyer's daughter, she grew up in Hollywood circles and was close friends with Paris Hilton, who set the template for this kind of success. She took those lessons and scaled her brand far beyond what the former accomplished. That might not have happened if she was a regular person who moved to Hollywood at age 18 without any inside knowledge of how things work there. It's not significantly different than Bill Gates' mom introducing him to an an IBM exec who she knew because they were both on the board of United Way. While the homebrew hobby club was giving everything away for free, Gates no doubt understood how enterprise software was sold, and made his fortune by getting into that market early.
    - BoorishBears 7y ago
      I agree that her environment was a huge part of her success, and don't separate her success from the environment she was in and what it afforded her, but there's also definitely an unusual fixation on her sex-tape and trying to reduce her accomplishments to a simple result of it. I mean the comment I replied to is trying to imply, out of all the factors involved, the sex-tape is what young adults would take out of it. Meanwhile I don't see people saying all they expect young adults to get out of Bill Gates' success is you should drop out of school...
      - rchaud 7y ago
        True, she will be judged on the basis of that tape by some people. I did too, at least back when Ray J was the more famous person on it. Long-term, I see it differently. She owned her sexuality and leveraged the notoriety to sell an image of an aspirational, fun, no consequences lifestyle that average people could never afford, but are happy to gawp at. Hence the long-running success of their reality show. > Meanwhile I don't see people saying all they expect young adults to get out of Bill Gates' success is you should drop out of school... I've seen my fair share of bad IG "motivation" and "hustle" posts that push this exact message, although they use Zuck as the dropout in question. This will become more common as college costs keep rising while post-graduation incomes remain stagnant. Lifetime earnings compared to people with HS only are of course better but when you see a sticker price of $60k on 1 year of college, lifetime earnings differential isn't what you'll be thinking about.
- lghh 7y ago
  If it does get them rich, I don't see a problem. Additionally, I think her sex tape incident was far enough back that it's no longer really relevant for young girls, it's mostly people in their 20s that were the age where they could be influenced by it. I think her influence now is generally positive.

by lghh 7y ago

throw_m239339 7y ago

> I'm a fan of Kim Kardashian. She somehow managed to build a an empire based just on her name. It's not like she did not come from a very wealthy family… That porn footage wouldn't have been news worthy if she was a rando… One can still acknowledge her financial accomplishments yet, I wonder about her negative influence on young girls who will believe that a sextape or nudes are going to get them rich quickly like the Kardashian…

BoorishBears 7y ago
Sometimes I read people's comments on her sex-tape and almost start to wonder if it's a form of subtle sexism. I mean, she had already been on reality TV before, her family already had the idea for a reality TV show, Ryan Seacrest had already expressed interest in producing the show (there was even a precedence for the show, "The Osbornes"), she already had a fairly successful career with extremely marketable skills. The 2nd movie Sylvester Stallone ever did, which he credits for saving him in the pits of desperation, was softcore porn, but I've never heard anyone say "I wonder if he's a negative influence on poor people who believe that softcore porn is going to get them rich quickly like Sylvester" It turns out having useful skills and a vision is what made them successful in both cases. There are plenty of people with famous, rich parents who never end up building billion dollar brands, do you really think a sex tape built a billion dollar brand? Isn't it a bit much to reduce all her accomplishments to that and think that will be the takeaway of her success?
- rchaud 7y ago
  Over the past decade, companies spun off from her brand have been more profitable than several major startups, so her success is indisputable. But her connections and surroundings most likely helped get her that initial momentum. She wasn't just a rich lawyer's daughter, she grew up in Hollywood circles and was close friends with Paris Hilton, who set the template for this kind of success. She took those lessons and scaled her brand far beyond what the former accomplished. That might not have happened if she was a regular person who moved to Hollywood at age 18 without any inside knowledge of how things work there. It's not significantly different than Bill Gates' mom introducing him to an an IBM exec who she knew because they were both on the board of United Way. While the homebrew hobby club was giving everything away for free, Gates no doubt understood how enterprise software was sold, and made his fortune by getting into that market early.
  - BoorishBears 7y ago
    I agree that her environment was a huge part of her success, and don't separate her success from the environment she was in and what it afforded her, but there's also definitely an unusual fixation on her sex-tape and trying to reduce her accomplishments to a simple result of it. I mean the comment I replied to is trying to imply, out of all the factors involved, the sex-tape is what young adults would take out of it. Meanwhile I don't see people saying all they expect young adults to get out of Bill Gates' success is you should drop out of school...
    - rchaud 7y ago
      True, she will be judged on the basis of that tape by some people. I did too, at least back when Ray J was the more famous person on it. Long-term, I see it differently. She owned her sexuality and leveraged the notoriety to sell an image of an aspirational, fun, no consequences lifestyle that average people could never afford, but are happy to gawp at. Hence the long-running success of their reality show. > Meanwhile I don't see people saying all they expect young adults to get out of Bill Gates' success is you should drop out of school... I've seen my fair share of bad IG "motivation" and "hustle" posts that push this exact message, although they use Zuck as the dropout in question. This will become more common as college costs keep rising while post-graduation incomes remain stagnant. Lifetime earnings compared to people with HS only are of course better but when you see a sticker price of $60k on 1 year of college, lifetime earnings differential isn't what you'll be thinking about.
lghh 7y ago
If it does get them rich, I don't see a problem. Additionally, I think her sex tape incident was far enough back that it's no longer really relevant for young girls, it's mostly people in their 20s that were the age where they could be influenced by it. I think her influence now is generally positive.