We turn to Vanderpump Rules to be entertained, right? Watching a gaggle of people approaching middle age who are attractive, youthful, and leading lives so different from our own is low key, non-stressful fun. The cast interacts with each other on a level that will never be required to gain admittance to a high-level IQ society like MENSA. The excessive drinking, partying, and vacations they can spontaneously take are part of what makes the show watchable.
Reality TV star fame is the (hopeful) consequence of landing a spot on a show of this nature. Fans start watching and listening to those “stars” who branch out from the task of regular filming. Stassi Schroeder has become an expert in this area. She has launched an accessory line, a successful podcast, and even wrote a book. Stassi is also becoming an expert on watching what she says because not everything is perceived as “funny”. Having a mass audience can be a blessing – until that audience starts to check you on the words you write and say.
This season of Pump Rules, viewers have seen Stassi in the midst of writing her own book. In it, she reflects on a troubling period in which she received quite a bit of repercussions due to some, completely ignorant shall we say, insensitive comments. Stassi was horrified when advertisers from her podcast pulled their funds after a very unfortunate Instagram photo, labeling her outfit as Nazi chic. Ugh. Then there was the time she decided to voice her opinion on racism after the 2017 Academy Awards. Ugh again. And one mustn’t forget her comments on the #MeToo movement in a (now deleted) episode of her podcast called, “Are we on a male witch hunt?” Radar Online has an excerpt from NEXT LEVEL BASIC: The Definitive Basic Bitch Handbook, where Stassi discusses some of the difficult lessons she has learned about society.
Stassi revealed her “nose exploded with blood” when her podcast advertisers started running for the hills. She claims she was “devastated by the backlash” when she shared her views, but the Nazi comment on an Instagram post was the last straw.
Stassi wrote in her book, “So, the term ‘Nazi chic’ became a joke between me and my friends, which we never intended to be offensive in any way. But then I went and posted an OOTD in an outfit with a monogram and I captioned it ‘Nazi chic’. Obviously, not a smart move, since I now realize it looked like I was glorifying Nazism.”
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Where to begin. Did Stassi mean to glorify being a Nazi? No. Does it give the impression maybe she thought the Nazi dress code was cool? Maybe. It’s one thing to share something you think is funny with your friends, but when you have 1.6 million followers on social media, honey, someone is going to call you out.
She explained, “After that, I lost every single sponsor, so it was basically like starting over. I have never cried so hard. I cried so hard that my nose exploded with blood and it looked like I had murdered someone in my bedroom.”
She even confessed, “I know now that the things I said and wrote were and are so insensitive, and after the nose-exploding-in-blood incident, I learned to listen to other people, because that’s the only way I can be better, as a true Next Level Basic bitch.”
Lesson learned? Let’s hope so. What about her effort in wanting to “start a dialogue” on aspects of #MeToo? Stassi shared the comments that led to all of her sponsors giving her the boot. “It sounded like I was shaming victims, which makes me incredibly sad because that’s so sacred and personal and I would never want anyone to think I was shaming them” She should know, right?
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Considering Lisa Vanderpump had to pay off that douche canoe Frank for a sex tape. Would she have considered herself a victim if that had come out? I’ll go out on a limb and say yes. Meanwhile, within 2 hours of that podcast going live, the majority of her advertisers fired her.
She continued, “I am a feminist and I love strong women, and I was trying to work out my own thoughts about the issues, and I happened to do it very publicly, and maybe not in the most enlightened way.” Someone, please send Stassi, Lala Kent, and anyone else on what is essentially a show about imbibing alcohol, a book on what feminism actually is. Getting wasted and kissing girls, or being mean to other women for no reason, is not the definition of feminism. Ladies, you’re doing it wrong.
And whoooo boy, when she attempted to tackle racism after watching the Academy Awards in 2017, please don’t try this at home… “I’m like, really sick of everyone making everything about race. Everyone giving their impassioned speeches about race and all of that stuff, I’m like, ‘Why is it always just about African Americans?’” Fans and advertisers took her to task for that one as well.
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“The whole thing made me realize that for better or worse, what I say has an effect,” Stassi wrote. “It also made me realize that I am super ignorant about so many things and unaware and it has motivated me to want to sit and listen and learn from what everyone’s different opinions are, and to be careful about how I say something. I’ll always be opinionated, but I don’t want to be that person who is like, “Whatever—I tell it like it is so deal with it!” There’s a level of respect that everyone deserves, so I don’t have the right to say whatever I want. That was a hard pill to swallow.”
Fortunately, Stassi learned her lesson, as shared in her book. Because it’s one thing to be a basic bitch, but quite another thing to be an insensitive basic bitch.
TELL US- DO YOU THINK STASSI WAS WRONG WITH THE NAZI CHIC COMMENT? DO YOU FEEL LIKE SHE LEARNED FROM THESE ISSUES? WHAT I REALLY WANT TO KNOW IS, ARE YOU GOING TO BUY HER BOOK??
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
