It literally sounds like an analogy used by a frustrated feminist to describe the lunacy of victim blaming.
After surviving a horrific ordeal many of us can barely imagine, the Internet was swift with turning an act of violence against Kim Kardashian West into a punchline. After all, Kim has had like, a lot of sex, right? And her show is like, super bad, and once she was married for 72 days, right? That’s the kind of person you want to see tied up, and robbed of millions of dollars worth of private property while a gun is pointed to her head. Right?
If the situation couldn’t get any more infuriating and heartbreaking, fashion mogul and professional pasty person Karl Lagerfield offered his unsolicited input on the whole situation. To be more pointed, he claimed that the situation was at least partially Kim’s own fault.
“I don’t understand why she was in a hotel with no security… You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you,” Lagerfield opined, likely on the way back to his retirement home in time for Bingo Night.
There’s definitely irony in the fact that Karl Lagerfield, whose entire career is built upon opulent showcases of wealth is now blaming another celebrity for being robbed. Kardashian is after all a multi-millionaire and a business mogul, with connections to the fashion world. It only makes sense that she owns and wears designer products. Her wealth is even a fundamental aspect of her wildly successful reality show- even if you don’t like Kim, you can see why it’s a wise career move to reflect a certain degree of wealth if it reinforces your personal brand and helps with ratings.
More importantly, Kim Kardashian is a rich woman and deserves to showcase that wealth in any way she pleases- and unless Karl Lagerfield’s trademark suit and sunglasses are from the Wal-Mart clearance rack, he does the same. Regardless, the world-and her robbers- already knew Kardashian West is a millionaire. But more importantly, she is unable to stop bad people from doing bad things.
Regardless of whether she wears sweatpants or couture- which many of us probably would if we had her income- she cannot stop people from deciding to do horrible things. She cannot stop someone from gagging her or holding a gun to head or taking her jewellery. It is not up to her to do so, either.
As for the security comment, the reality is it can be hard to know how secure a hotel is. In a way, Lagerfield is making a double insult- he’s saying Kim has been throwing her wealth in our faces while implying she was staying at a cheap hotel. Most hotels have the same level of security- and regardless of his comments, one cannot simply stay in a hotel where “no one can come near the room”. Few hotels have a shark-invested moat outside their luxury suites, Karl. Maybe you’re just confused and need to talk to your nursing home about cutting back on the day passes.
The men who robbed Kim Kardashian impersonated police officers. There is no five star hotel in the world with employees who are willing to die rather than lead them to their client’s rooms. If someone holds a gun to your head, you let them into your hotel, regardless of whether you’re a Motel 6 or a Hilton. Kim also let these men in- once again, she thought they were cops. They took advantage of her trust in authority- and that’s something that could literally happen to all of us, regardless of where we are staying.
Kim Kardashian West is a victim. People made the choice to be violent towards her, and she has nothing to do with that choice. It does not matter what she wears, where she stays or how many people know that she’s rich. She won’t get robbed unless people make the active choice to be violent towards her- without that choice, she faces no violence, and that choice isn’t hers to make.
This is, of course, hardly the only time a woman has been blamed for the violence perpetrated against her. Every day around the world, women are blamed for sexual violence committed against them. We decide that wearing miniskirts means a human being deserves to be raped, exposing your shoulders means you’re “provoking” teachers, and not reporting a crime out of fear is a sure fire sign that you’re lying.
We like to talk about how this case “wouldn’t be such a big deal” if it weren’t a famous person- as though being robbed and kidnapped is an everyday occurrence, and as though if this happened to a more socially acceptable, less “slutty” female celebrity, like Taylor Swift, we wouldn’t be reading op-eds about how brave she is and how this is the result of our toxic obsession with celebrities. But this case is actually an extremely telling example of how we treat women around the world.
We’ve seen Kim be mocked, blamed and subjected to further harassment. We’ve decided to punish her for being a victim. You can’t deny that Kim’s treatment has nothing to do with sexism (would we blame a man for experiencing violence- we didn’t during that brief time we actually believed Ryan Lotche had been held at gunpoint), racism (do you think Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfield are told that they are “flaunting” their wealth in an inappropriate light), and slut shaming (not even going to list an example, but you better believe that this story has exposed the worst from Internet trolls).
You don’t have to like Kim. You don’t have to watch her show. You just have to accept that she is a woman and a human being who deserves respect, and that no matter what the crime, men blame women for everything.
