The Kardashian family has spent their entire adult lives being a spectacle, tabloid fodder, whatever you want to call it. They have plenty of fans, and also plenty of haters. 

But the recent Kim/Kanye/Pete Davidson debacle, it’s been on my mind lately, and not just because it’s the most recent Kardashian drama. 

It is much more serious. And for reasons that you might not realize. 

So, to recap: Kim and Kanye were married for a few years, they share four children – and then they split, and she goes on SNL and meets Pete Davidson, and then they start dating, and Kanye essentially loses his mind. 

He starts posting very public slams on Pete Davidson and he even goes so far as to create this very bizarre music video where a claymation version of Kanye literally decapitates a claymation version of Pete Davidson. I’m not going to post a clip here because I find it seriously disturbing, but I’m sure you can Google it pretty easily.

More recently, a series of screenshots of text messages between the two men were leaked by a friend of Pete Davidson, in which Davidson first jabs at Kanye, saying “I’m laying in bed with your wife,” and sending him a selfie – not the most mature choice, but then Davidson pivots to talking about his own mental health struggles and offering some help. 

Pete Davidson has been very, very open about substance abuse and mental health over the years, so these offers carry real weight. 

Here’s what disturbs me, beyond the obvious. 

The way that Kanye West – or Ye or whatever we’re calling him now – is treating Kim and Pete, but mostly Kim, is called “harassment.”

Just because Kim courts publicity and is very famous that doesn’t mean that she can’t be harassed by an ex-husband. 

Fame and harassment are mutually exclusive.

Kanye has also publicly struggled with his mental health. He also constantly courts publicity. But again these two things can exist at the same time: Fame and a mental health crisis. 

By treating this issue happening between three actual real human beings as, you know, grab the popcorn, we’re ignoring the fact that we are watching a genuinely upsetting and potentially dangerous situation unravel in real time.

Which brings me to my next point: Many, many, many women experience the type of harassment that Kim is dealing with right now, perhaps not as publicly.

And if someone like Kim Kardashian, with all of the money and power and resources in the world, can’t seem to find a way to get out herself of this visibly upsetting situation, an ex-husband who simply will not leave her alone, well where does that leave the rest of us?

Look, we don’t have to like Kim, or approve of everything she does, in order to acknowledge that this is real harassment happening to a real woman in the real world. Her lifestyle, and character, and choices shouldn’t even be a part of the conversation.