Amber Rose is mostly famously known as Kanye West's ex and for her many confrontations with various celebrities. However, not many people know the story behind Amber Rose and how she turned what some people call her "15 minutes of fame" into a full career. During her journey to building an empire, Rose has experienced many set-backs, most of which come from people trying to tear her down. Through it all, Amber Rose has managed to become one of the most empowering feminist activists ending the shame associated with sex or dressing "provocatively".
As mentioned before, Amber Rose comes from an early life of struggle but she’s turned that struggle into an empire. Born into a lower-class family, Rose turned to stripteasing at the age of 15 to support herself and her family after her parents divorced. Soon after, Rose posed for a Louis Vuitton advertisement featuring Kanye West’s sneaker line. In 2009, she signed with Ford Models to launch a career in modeling. She made appearances in music videos from Nick Minaj’s “Massive Attack” to Ludacris’ “What Them Girls Like.” She went on to release a single herself, launch a clothing line, and even published her book, “How to Be a Bad Bitch” in which she offers advice on finances, building a career, love, and fashion. Rose went from $0 to $5 million real quick just by networking and showing people that anything is possible when you work hard and play the game right.
You may have heard about Amber Rose’s recent statement regarding Beyoncé as the BeyHive, Beyoncé’s fanbase, swarmed Rose for allegedly attacking their queen bee. Rose commented on the criticism sex-workers face stating and in no way spoke badly about Beyoncé, she simply pointed out the hypocrisy that current and former sex workers face when they’re called worthless or a “slut” for using their body to make money. Obviously Beyonce doesn’t only use her body to make millions, as she has an incredible voice and is dominating the music industry, but why does everyone support embracing sexuality and using one’s body to make money when one has a talent deemed worthy by society? It takes incredible training and skill to be able to use all your upper body strength and legs to support yourself on a pole or even dance on a stage all night but you don’t see strippers or dancers called talented — only socially constructed derogatory terms. Rose is calling out the double standards that women face when they’re told it’s okay to be sexy and sexualized by the media and music industry but when women do so voluntarily outside of those industries, they’re seen as a hoe. I won’t even begin to go into Rose defending Kim Kardashian’s nude photo because I could go on for pages, bottom line is — Amber Rose is the queen of body positivity and putting even slut-shaming people to shame.
In 2015, teaming up with Funny or Die and Matt McGorry, Rose released a comical truth bomb with her video titled, “Walk of No Shame”. The video begins with her leaving a one-night stand after sleeping over and chronicles her journey back to her home, running into interesting characters on the way. Her main message is that sex is not a shameful act - especially for women. She takes the “walk of shame” and transforms it into the “stride of pride”. It also illustrates that this is how men are usually treated after sex — they're congratulated and respected while women are torn down and looked at disgustingly. What makes this video powerful is that it puts women in the position of men and shows the viewer what life would be like if women were treated the same as men when it comes to having sex. I don’t want to give away too much so this epically funny video can be viewed here in its full glory.
As of last year, Amber Rose has started a SlutWalk in Los Angeles. A SlutWalk is a transnational movement of protest taking the form of a march, mainly by young women, where some dress as "sluts" in revealing, sexy attire such as short skirts and revealing tops. The marches call for an end to rape culture. Participants mainly protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a person’s appearance such as what kind of clothes they were wearing. The rallies began on in April of 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, after a Toronto Police officer suggested that "women should avoid dressing like sluts" to avoid rape and sexual assault.
This event is hosted in the United States by The Amber Rose Foundation, a non-profit organization Amber started to support her core mission of uplifting, empowering, and enhancing the platform of women across the globe. She raised money for the event through a GoFundMe page.The message of these walks is proudly displayed on the Amber Rose SlutWalk homepage stating, “This event will have a zero tolerance policy on all hateful language, racism, sexism, ableism, fat-shaming, transphobia, or any other kind of bigotry. Further, we recognize that shaming, oppression, assault and violence have disproportionately impacted marginalized groups including women of color, transgender people and sex workers, and thus we are actively working to center these groups in this event."
Rose uses her privilege of fame and wealth to raise awareness for slut-shaming and the hardships women, whether they're sex-workers or not, endure. Although Amber Rose faces daily backlash for her past and her beliefs, she still fights the good fight to end slut-shaming and spread the feminist message of acceptance, empowerment, equal treatment, and love.
