The Carrier editorial reflects a consensus of the editorial board.
On Sunday night, Kim Kardashian-West was robbed at gun point. People aren’t talking about millions of dollars worth of stolen jewelry, a concert cut off abruptly or a woman’s life being threatened. Instead people are tweeting about how Kim Kardashian-West “got what she deserved” and how “it’s a shame that her armed robbers never pulled the trigger.”
Kardashian-West is known for her reality TV shows, her sex tape, her body, her husband — you can fill in the rest. As a society, we have made her out to be a character. Instead of relating to her as a person, we see the extravagant and almost comical life she leads on TV. But she’s human. Instead of being empathetic, people have been tweeting hateful things just because they don’t agree with her lifestyle or don’t like her based on the media’s representation of her. It is sick. It is anti-feminist and degrading.
Even people like fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld are victim-blaming her. In a video published by the Telegraph, Lagerfeld said, “You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you.” He equated theft and threat to sharing and somehow placed blame at Kardashian-West’s feet. Would he have trivialized a theft of the same caliber had it happened to him? Or to any male? He is suggesting here that she should hide her wealth and lifestyle to prevent bad things from happening to her, which echoes arguments like those saying women should wear modest clothing so that they don’t get raped.
Jimmy Kimmel decided to joke about Kardashian-West’s robbery for a majority of his late night show on Monday, according to USA Today. In a disgusting show of what he thought was humor, he issued threats to the robbers, “We will tape you up and we’ll lock you in a room, and you know what we will do? We’ll force you to watch ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians.’” Instead of using someone else’s tragedy as a punchline on national TV, showing empathy and compassion for a fellow human being like James Corden did, would have been a much better response.
On The Late Late Show, Corden tweeted in support:
“People making jokes about Kim Kardashian tonight would do well to remember that she’s a mother, a daughter, a wife, a friend. Be nice or shut up.”
He makes a great point. Regardless of how you may feel about Kardashian-West, feminism means standing up for women’s rights and for fair treatment of all people. Ryder McEntyre, a Carrier alum and writer for Wussy magazine, said it best.
“We’re most likely all a little jealous of her wealth and success, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also be incredibly aware that feminism must exist at every intersection,” he wrote earlier this week. “She’s a victim in this scenario, regardless of her status, proving that not even in the height of wealth and status in a private, secretive hotel room can a woman be safe from attack.”