For those who don’t keep up with Twitter beefs between reality stars and hip-hop models, there was quite the social media brawl when the latter (Amber Rose) disparaged rapper Tyga for allegedly dating one of the former (underage Kylie Jenner). When asked on a radio show what she thought of the relationship, Rose said:
She’s a baby. … He should be ashamed of himself.
This statement set Twitter abuzz, and Khloe Kardashian, Kylie’s older half-sister, shot back that since Rose started stripping at age 15, she doesn’t have any place criticizing little sis, who actually has a “career.”
In a mic-drop response, Rose tweeted that she would “be that lil whore to support my family like ur older sister [Kim Kardashian] is a whore 2 support hers. We’re even.” The tweet has since been deleted, as well as some of Khloe’s.
The dust on the feud seems to be settling, and Twitter’s brief attention span has moved on to other trending topics. But what won’t go away are questions about race and privilege that the Twitter fray brought to the surface.
Who is allowed to claim agency and who isn’t? Why is a choice made from privilege applauded, while one made out of necessity shamed?
There are distinct similarities between women of the Kardashian clan and Amber Rose: They’ve all capitalized on their appeal to famous men (Rose is a former girlfriend of Kim’s husband, Kanye West) and stayed relevant because of it. They all profit from their sex-infused images. The main difference between them is that the Kardashians come from money, which has cushioned their life decisions, while Rose grew up in poverty in South Philly and became a stripper to help her family escape homelessness.
When you are a woman of color from a lower-class background, all of your choices–especially ones concerning your body– are questioned and closely scrutinized. At the other end of the race and class spectrum, however, you get to claim you’re just sexually liberated.
It’s the same reason why Kim Kardashian’s greased-up rear gets to #BreakTheInternet, but the cover for Nicki Minaj’s “Ananconda” single spawned countless think pieces on the nuances of Black sexuality.
As Charing Ball writes over at Madame Noire:
It is Kim K’s sexuality that gets endorsed and institutionalized by the system, while the blogs are debating if the pictures of Rose standing on a balcony overlooking a beach in a string bikini makes her looks like a classless slut, or worse, a classless slut and bad mom.
The Kim Kardashian path to fame–which started with a sex tape–would never work for a Black woman, at least not on the same scale of success.
Khloe’s swiftness to slut-shame Rose for doing what she felt needed to be done to survive is not only mean-spirited but shows how blind the Kardashian sister is to the privileges her race and class have garnered her family. It’s a problem that moves beyond catty tweets and clap-backs and into how our society mistreats women of color and their bodily autonomy.
Photo courtesy of rower2012 via Creative Commons 2.0.
