Kickass Masterminds Intern Controversy

Overview

Kickass Masterminds Intern Controversy refers to an online backlash that occurred in response to the Austin, Texas-based marketing company Kickass Masterminds posting an applicant's bikini picture to their Instagram Stories to warn other prospective employees not to share unprofessional social media accounts with potential employers.

Background

On October 1st, 2019, Twitter user and Kickass Masterminds applicant @emilyeclow^[1] tweeted "i was objectified earlier today by a company because of a picture of me in a bikini. they claimed it made me an 'unprofessional.' they screenshot the photo, posted it on their insta story and called me out" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 2,500 likes and 200 retweets in a day. She then followed the tweet up with a screenshot of the company's Instagram story (shown below, right). The features a picture of Emily Clow in a bikini captioned "do not share your social media with a potential employer if this is the kinda of content on it." The tweet gained over 800 likes in a day.

Notable Developments

On October 1st, 2019, Twitter user @SheRatesDogs^[2] tweeted a summary of the situation and gained over 47,600 likes and 5,400 retweets in a day. Within hours, the Kickass Masterminds Instagram account was spammed with hate comments. Twitter user @molleylj^[3] tweeted a picture of some of the comments (shown below, right). The tweet gained over 2,000 likes in a day:
"updates on “kickassmastermind” within MINUTES of this twitter post LMAO GOOD FOR US"

That same day, Twitter users began mocking the company's website. Twitter user @jake_shredz^[4] posted screenshots of the site captioned, "These look like some seriously edgy 'entrepreneurs' that think woke capitalism empowers women 😂" (shown below, left). Many Twitter^[5] users commented on the fact that Kickass Masterminds deleted their website, Twitter account and made their Instagram account private (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References