‘You don’t belong’: Grim reality behind Kylie Jenner’s Oscars attendance

Billionaire Kylie Jenner is being trolled for going to The Oscars because she wasn’t “deserving” of being there, but fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos also attended, and no one blinked an eye.

Jenner, 27, attended The Oscars alongside her boyfriend Timothee Chalamet, 29. Chalamet was nominated for his performance in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. 

Jenner didn’t walk the red carpet, but she did sit beside her partner throughout the ceremony and later shared photos of her gown on Instagram, only to be trolled for daring to attend the prestigious event.

“You don’t belong at The Oscars,” one troll claimed, and another said that her attendance was a “disgrace” to the industry. 

Someone else claimed she wasn’t “deserving” of attending The Oscars and also argued that she didn’t belong there. 

The backlash to Jenner’s attendance is pretty clearly sexist. For some reason, a powerful woman is still not considered worthy of attending a fancy event. 

The reasoning behind the sexism seems pretty clear: Jenner’s success is considered frivolous. 

She’s made her money from make-up and social media, which I guess doesn’t have as much prestige attached as e-commerce or acting. 

So therefore, she doesn’t get to attend nights like The Oscars. Of course, that rule doesn’t apply to all billionaires. 

Bezos, who owns Amazon and is worth over $200 billion, isn’t even dating a movie star, and he attended and no one cared. 

Host Conan O’Brien poked fun at him in his opening monologue, but if anything, that made it clear he was very much part of the event.

The 61-year-old owns Amazon Prime, a subscription service with a movie and television streaming platform. 

That gives him a reason to attend the event, but Jenner’s boyfriend being nominated is also a valid reason to go. 

Somehow, though, Bezos is seen as a successful businessman who is welcome at The Oscars, but Jenner is seen as a woman who doesn’t know her place in the media landscape. 

Claiming Jenner is somehow not worthy of attending is sexist and elitist. 

Yes, she’s not traditionally self-made, or from old-school money; she’s from a reality television dynasty, but why does that matter? 

She born into immense privilege, being the youngest daughter of Kris and Caitlin Jenner, but she’s also carved out a successful career. 

She has over 350 million Instagram followers and runs the successful Kylie Cosmetics company that took the makeup world by storm in 2015. 

In 2019, Forbes magazine declared Jenner the “youngest self-made billionaire’. Since then, Jenner’s net worth has fluctuated; now the magazine thinks she’s worth around $700 million. 

The fact she was called “self-made” spawned a lot of criticism, and Jenner even addressed the backlash. 

“I can’t say I’ve done it by myself if they’re just talking finances. Technically, yes, I don’t have any inherited money. But I have had a lot of help and a huge platform,” she told The New York Times. 

In 2020, she sold 51 per cent of Kylie Cosmetics, pocketing over $600 million, but the sale valued the cosmetics Company at over a billion.

Jenner is one of the most influential women in the world, and even she’s still coming up against people telling her she doesn’t “belong” in certain rooms. 

What hope do other women have? None.