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No matter what you think about Kim Kardashian and her family, you can’t ignore the fact the she has experienced what many other women have faced: harassment by an ex. Yes, she and her family are tabloid fodder and certainly seek attention, but the attention she and Pete Davidson have recently received from her ex, Kanye West, is more than disturbing.
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.
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 herself out 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.