When I first heard about the Kim Kardashian Glastonbury flag I was horrified. Like, truly horrified. I was the type of horrified that can only be felt by immediately placing yourself in someone else’s shoes and experiencing that initial pang of empathy for what was surely a terrible situation.
Kim Kardashian’s crime? Having sex, of course. The flag displayed an image of the 34-year-old mother of one engaged in a sex act with former boyfriend Ray J. The person responsible for the flag has yet to be identified but I’m sure their parents must be very proud.
Unsurprisingly, the image was picked up on social media and has done the pre-requisite rounds on blogs and news sites. People unabashedly laughed at an exploitative photo of a pregnant woman simply because they don’t like her husband. Kanye West was the subject of an absurd petition to have his slot removed from the Glastonbury lineup.
For a nation of people who eagerly tweeted #heforshe when the great feminist icon Emma Watson spearheaded the movement, I’m shocked that the general response to this is apathy. How can a man tweet #heforshe in support of the (affluent mainstream) feminist movement and then retweet/favourite a photograph of a successful businesswoman performing a sex act? Newsflash! Those mindsets and behaviours are completely incompatible.
Your dislike of Kanye West does not erase the fact that Kim Kardashian is his wife and the mother of his child(ren). Imagine if someone came to your place of work and passed around photographs of you or your partner engaged in a sex act. No matter what you think of the couple, no one deserves this.
I am beyond shocked at the callousness exhibited by people who have shared this photo and hope that, one day, we can understand and eradicate this internalised misogyny.
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