The news of Kim Kardashian beginning a Law Degree has received significant spotlight in World News in the last few weeks and I think it’s safe to say that not a lot of the feedback has been strictly positive. She has been mocked in interviews, had articles written about attempting to follow her father’s footsteps and had to defend her choices on multiple media platforms. As with most endeavours the Kardashians put their name to, this too has come with a shroud of controversy. If you place your finger to the wind, you can get a pretty good sense of the temperature of the current climate for her career pivot. People seem to feel her life and lifestyle do not mesh with someone of the legal persuasion. It appears people are not on board with the imagery these two supposing opposites conjure up.

“She had sex on tape, becomes famous and what now? She wants to be a lawyer?!” one internet commentator guffaws.

“Is she getting herself a law degree or is she buying it?” is another common critique, as is “she didn’t even finish college”.

Truth be told, as someone who went to University for over 5 years and earnt a double degree, one of which being a Law Degree, I’m actually not that fussed or phased if Kim gets a law degree or not. I don’t really care if she joins the ranks of the thousands of us out there who sat through hours of lectures on case law. Truly, what skin off my nose is it if she gets herself the piece of paper?

What I am fascinated by, however, is the public’s responses to this choice of Kim’s. The collective groan of the internet that, on the surface, seems highbrow and steeped in the protection of the profession but if you listen closely enough, sounds a lot like “stay in your lane, Kim”. If we peel back the top layer of the commentary ever so slightly, you can hear “your image doesn’t match what we think of when we imagine a lawyer”…or if we cut the bullsh*t, what’s being said really is, “you can’t be a sex symbol, a Reality Television Star and a symbol of intellect in the public sphere at the same time.”

What we seem to be saying is, “pick your image and stick to it.” It would appear that sex symbol turned business woman is something we can stomach, but sex symbol to lawyer? Unpalatable.

Now, I can see where people are coming from. We want our lawyers to be paragons of virtue. Pillars of society. Privacy experts and most of all, we want them to match the image we have of them in our minds. Grey suits. Low heels. Briefcase baring. Straighty-180. We want our flash lawyers to be on Suits and not in our Law Firms.

And I get why. I really do.

It’s the same way we want to think our Doctors go home and are tucked into bed at 8:30 each evening after only ever indulging in one glass of organic red wine. That they’ve never touched a cigarette and they don’t own a lick of lingerie. We want our lawyers and doctors to leave work of an afternoon for their white picket fences houses and study each night before kissing their spouse politely goodnight, rolling over and sleeping a full 10 hours straight.

Strangely, but maybe not surprisingly, the cultural collective seems to want to enforce this in a much more severe manner upon women. And maybe Kim Kardashian’s foray into the field of law from the field of play is the modern-day contrast of Madonna and the whore.

It seems, since the dawn of time (ok, maybe slight hyperbole but go with me…), Society has wanted women to fit into one type of character. We are the hero or the harlotan, the wife or the witch, the bombshell or the baby-maker. But heaven forbid, we are both. That’s what this boils down to, to me.

And I am here to put my hand up and say, “Kim Kardashian, go you good thing!”

I’d like to reach out and tell her Torts Law is really interesting but Constitutional Law will make you want to pull a Nicholas Cage National Treasure and steal the goddam thing so no more students ever have to sit through ConLaw Lectures. I want to tell her that Contracts will be surprisingly like formula and that everyone wants to do Criminal Law until you realise you will be spending your career, likely, with…criminals. I have decided to place myself firmly on the side of Cheerleader here. And that is because what is happening here speaks to a message that I don’t think women hear enough.

We can be more than one woman, at one time, in one lifetime. I will cheerlead because being beautiful does not mean that you are not smart. Using your beauty can be smart. And using your smarts can be beautiful.

Being sexy does not make you less intelligent. Being in touch with your sensuality does not diminish your ability to problem-solve, make astute decisions in business or network. Being interested in fashion does not exclude you from being interested in human rights, or politics or even…the…law. And being interested in the law does not exclude you from flicking through glossy magazines whenever the hell you want.

Wearing a bikini on a Saturday should not eliminate you from the Boardroom on Monday and wearing lingerie should not kick you out of the locker room. These things can exist in parallel. And they can, in fact, form a well-rounded human being. If anything, discomfort with the multitude of sides of a woman often only highlight the lack of creativity or the staleness of those who find it uncomfortable.

Now, I am not saying that having sex on camera should be a career aspiration and I think learning and respecting professionalism is key to a successful career. I am also not saying that I necessarily think she will make a good lawyer, nor do I agree with many choices, both personal and professional, that Kim Kardashian has made. But I do not believe that fragmenting women benefits anyone other than those who wish to keep powerful women in their imposed boxes.

If Kim Kardashian’s serious and concerted attempts at a Law Degree do anything to open up the minds of the public to the concept that life is long and careers can be varied and women can find purpose in more than one endeavour, then I am all for it. We need to open our minds, get out of these boxes and savour all our facets and fallibilities. We need to let people explore all the sides of themselves that they find passion in. Because, once more for the people in the back, being a beautiful woman does not you cannot also be a deeply intellectual one. And being a deeply intellectual woman does not mean you can’t be a glamour!

Hell, think of all the kinds of women we could be if we all just got out of each other’s way!

 x

Image curtesy of Doré