As a hugely enthusiastic fan of television shows, I am known for following all of the latest celebrity news. One celebrity that I have never been able to gain an interest in, however, is Kim Kardashian. Although her show is popular and her name is known widely around the world, I have never cared much for what is happening in her life; for me, Kim Kardashian has always been the woman who spent a ridiculous amount of money on a wedding for a marriage that lasted less than eighty days. For me, Kim Kardashian has never been important; atleast, not until I heard about her attack.
Just a few days ago, Kim Kardashian was tied up and robbed at gunpoint by men dressed as police officers in Paris; the robbers made off with over $10 million in jewelry. Now, it’s no secret that I am not a huge fan of the Kardashians or how they choose to spend their money, but what I do know is that Kim’s money belongs to her rather than to the robbers that placed a gun to the temple of her head and locked her in a bathroom. What I do know is, had it been Kanye West or any other male celebrity in that hotel room, such an event, nor the resulting backlash received by Kardashian, would have occurred in the first place.
Kim Kardashian, however controversial she may be, is one of the most successful women in the world; she has reached a level of financial success that most people, both men and women, could never achieve. She has been reduced to just a “pretty face” by the media, but she has been able to use that label to her advantage and build her empire from the ground up. As a woman, her success as an entrepreneur is both a rarity and an important example for other women everywhere. In a nation where women earn seventy nine cents for every dollar men earn, Kim Kardashian’s financial prosperity is a miraculous sight that reminds all women that such economic advancement is indeed possible. She is obviously not considered a spokesperson for all women, but her success, self-sufficiency, and self-earned name have most definitely helped even out the playing field between men and women.
Do you think that the fact that Kim Kardashian is a rich and successful woman had nothing to do with the public’s response to her attack? If you were to answer honestly, would you say that the same backlash would have been received by Robert Downey Jr. or Leonardo DiCaprio following such an attack? Are women not criticized more harshly for their success than men, and do these criticisms not influence the way that such attacks are talked about after the fact?
Kim Kardashian may be a sex icon, but that does not invalidate her right to live, and it most definitely does not justify the experience that she had. Robbed at gunpoint by robbers who probably considered her to be just a fragile and defenseless drama queen whose face is always on television, Kim Kardashian experienced something that women all over the world face on a daily basis: resistance against their success. Women with high rates of success and self-sustainability, in a world still stuck in a phase of income and gender inequality, are beacons that attract judgment, criticism, and most of all, jealousy; the media representation of Kim Kardashian has led people to see her as a weak and defenseless woman, and it is this chronic representation of Kim that had caused her robbers to target her. By portraying successful women as weak and undeserving of their success, people have made women like Kim Kardashian susceptible to such attacks. Kim is one case of many; when women are seen rising from the ashes, people seem to do everything in their power to drag them back down, and as a feminist, I am sick and tired of it.
Kim Kardashian has no significance in my life, but as a woman, it is my job to speak about the injustice that is occurring against other women on a daily basis. Kardashian was targeted because she has been portrayed as artificial and a “rich bitch,” and such connotations only serve to invalidate every woman’s hard work and struggles. In a world where female Olympic gold medalists are referred to as “so-and-so’s wife” rather than by their own names and where actresses and models are claimed to acquire their success by accepting the scraps thrown at them from their male counterparts, successful and well-acclaimed women like Kim Kardashian are targeted and abused by others and later judged harshly rather than treated as the victims that they are. The fact that I have heard people say things like, “Kim Kardashian deserved what she got, she’s just a rich bitch!” and “I don’t care about what happened to Kim Kardashian, she probably staged the whole thing,” made me realize that successful women are not seen as human beings, but as inanimate objects that deserve no concern. The feminist in me is upset that, if the same attack had happened to Kanye West or even Chris Brown, fans and media would have been outraged rather than delighted by or indifferent to the news.
You do not have to watch Kim’s show or even like her, but next time the topic of her attack is brought up and someone says that it is “not a big deal” or that she “deserved what happened to her,” let them know just how wrong they are. Remind them that she is not just a television star or entrepreneur; she is a woman, daughter, sister, wife, and mother. She is someone who almost lost her life because she was viewed as an easy target due to biased and unfair media representation. She is someone who is ridiculed by the misogynistic American media that thinks that a bunch of male robbers are more deserving of ten million dollars than she is as a successful businesswoman. Ask them, “Would you feel the same way had it been a man in that hotel room?”
