Kiekie: How I resigned job after employer’s comment on pretty privilege

Bukunmi Adeaga-Ilori, the skit maker and actress better known as Kiekie, says she once quit a job over her employer’s comment about her pretty privilege.

Kiekie, in a chat with the media entrepreneur Chude Jideonwo, recounted how she requested a salary increase from her former employer.

She said she resigned after her boss suggested she shouldn’t be bothered by low pay because she is “a pretty lady” who “big men will see and give money.”

The concept of “pretty privilege” in contemporary usage has come to capture situations where a person has or is expected to have more opportunities to be successful in their career life because of how physically attractive they are.

This, in many cases, brings to question how much of a person’s success is due to hardwork beyond their aesthetic appeal.

Kiekie said she became concerned that her employer didn’t value her contributions to the company beyond physical appearance.

“I once had a boss I complained to that the salary he is paying is not sufficient and I asked if he could pay more,” the actress said.

“This man asked me why I am stressing myself. He said I’m a fine girl on TV and that big men will see me and give me money.

“That was how I sacked myself on that day because if that’s the orientation you have, it means you have no value for what I’m doing.

“And if you have no value for what I’m doing, then it means you have no value for the establishment that you have. So, that’s not a place for me.”

Kiekie, aged 32, addressed people who troll her for being born into a privileged home.

“I may have come from a very comfortable background but that doesn’t change the fact that I was able to identify that I’m supposed to be who I am,” she added.

“I have a vision, I have a path, I have a destiny that needs to be fulfilled.

“If I did not take the course, if I didn’t decide to take that journey in 2017 into 2018, I’ll probably still be calling my daddy [when] I want to travel.

“There’s also still a limit to what your parents can do for you. Nigerians know how to hate you but is it my father that is helping me to present?

“Is it my father that is helping me to write scripts? Is it my father that is helping me to create content? I believe that, as a people, we really need to do better.”