Nicola Alpe: Kim Kardashian seems to have it all - here's why I still feel sorry for her

Fans accused Kim Kardashian of being "disrespectful" when she wore a lace off-the-shoulder dress on a tour of the Vatican in Rome. Photo / Backgrid

OPINION:

It's not often that I feel sorry for a Kardashian, but as the northern hemisphere opens up and fully vaccinated friends and hordes of others travel throughout Mexico, Europe, the Med and Hawaii, pumping their USD into desperate economies, my heartstrings pulled at the sight of Kim K on her Roman holiday.

The pictures were thirst trap after thirst trap after thirst trap. Why she still sees the need to do this is beyond me, as by and large she has it all, other than it seems, the ability to choose a steady and stable life partner. I guess with a new generation of girls who seem to think the Kardashians are funny and are there for the converting into users of lip kits, undergarments and more, it's a never-ending quest for relevance.

It's bad enough that she chooses to navigate the cobbled streets in stilettos, when a pair of flats would do the trick nicely. But it's the pictures of Kim all alone, nobody in the background and no friends with her aside from her MUA and other employees paid to help her achieve her earned beauty.

All of us have inherited beauty, something wonderful about our human form that we didn't do a thing to achieve, it just came to us via our gene pool; mesmerising eyes, great hair, clear skin, a piano player's fingers, a full-lipped smile.

There are some people in the world who don't have to work for their looks and have buckets of inherited beauty and these people get slipped cards from modelling scouts while they are meandering around the streets of Paris on a school exchange. Earned beauty is what we work to achieve.

At times I feel like I know Kim K's body better than my own, that's how much I've seen of it and how often I've seen it, whether I wanted to or not. She was an attractive young woman, but she has worked hard to earn the beauty that she is lauded for.

The hours, the staff and the bandwidth that go into the make-up, hair extensions, nails, injectables, working out, calorie deficits, surgery and constant discipline. It's an epic amount of work and maintenance that few could be bothered with, however let's not forget this is a situation entirely of her own creation and one she can step back from at any moment if she wished.

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Kim, like so many others, is praised when she looks great and torn apart when she isn't red-carpet ready. Kim is lauded for her beauty but scorned for working so hard to earn it. She is accused of being vacuous but is studying for a law degree, yet we throw shade at her for not attending law school.

Earned beauty is something we all work at, it's just that for most of us it's on a very different scale to that which Kim, most of her sisters and so many others we see online do.

Many men would see Kim's pictures and want to date her. Many women and girls would see the pictures and want desperately to be her and to look like her. I see her pictures and I acknowledge the grind and intense discipline that she makes to earn her beauty. I also see a woman my age, with a sweet young family at home, any amount of financial independence and growing academic achievements standing alone, all made up in the small hours of the night to get a shot to keep her relevant and influential. That's what makes me feel sad.