Any woman who spends more than five minutes in the spotlight has more than likely been subject to slut-shaming. So often if you're a woman actively engaging in your own sensuality, you're violating society's unspoken rules. Kim Kardashian is very familiar with such backlash — at least she should be. She's all but made a career of flaunting her body and her sexuality, and she's gotten plenty of grief for it. So, why did Kardashian hurl the phrase "fucking whore" on Sunday night's episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians?
The episode focussed, as many do, on the tenuous relationship between Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian. Disick, who has three kids with the elder Kardashian, is not currently with Kourtney, but that doesn't mean the show won't keep teasing a potential future relationship between the two. During a trip to Dubai featured on Sunday night's episode, Kim Kardashian discovered a woman hidden in Scott Disick's bathroom. (E! teased this part of the episode in a clip released Friday.) Kim noticed an errant purse in Scott's hotel room and went hunting for the accessory's owner.
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"Something is up," Kim said in a talking head confessional. "Scott is like pacing and something came over me that I was like, 'He has a fucking girl hiding somewhere and we're gonna find her.'"
It's not clear why Kim is so offended by the woman's presence. To be clear, Scott and Kourtney split officially in 2015. They have not been together since, although they remain friendly co-parents to Mason, 7, Penelope, 4, and Reign, 2. The show enjoys hinting that the two are "meant to be" — reality TV's version of Ross Geller and Rachel Green. But the fact of the matter is that Scott Disick is single, and so is Kourtney Kardashian. Scott has every right to have a woman in his hotel room.
Nevertheless, when Kim discovered the guest in Scott's bathroom, she declared her a "fucking whore."
"What the fuck are you doing here?" she inquired. "Seriously? You're just like a fucking whore. Such a tramp. Get your shit and get the fuck out of here. Fucking groupie. Get your shit and security will escort you the fuck out of here!"
There's no quibbling about it: This is slut-shaming. Aside from invoking the term "whore," a word laden with gendered judgement, Kim wagged her finger at a woman only culpable of hanging out in a bathroom (and having a really cool purse).
Kim should know better. In American pop culture, she has often played the proverbial woman in the bathroom. In March of 2016, the social media icon posed topless on Twitter, sparking a mini-flame war with Piers Morgan.
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"Just a thought @KimKardashian @emrata - but you could always try wearing a little dignity?" Morgan wrote in a since-deleted tweet regarding the selfie. He later added, "RIP Feminism." (In 2017, Morgan is still coming for Kardashian, claiming the right to criticize Kim's body on Good Morning Britain in April because of her Kimoji Products. "Flaws should not be celebrated. My thoughts are, she's just launched her new emoji of her backside next to an ashtray — which she's called it 'ass tray' — so I think her posterior is fair game," Morgan, 52, said.)
And let us not forget how her career started. Hint: It was with a sex tape. In a post on her website in 2016, Kardashian implored the media to focus on something other than her body.
"I don't do drugs, I hardly drink, I've never committed a crime — and yet I'm a bad role model for being proud of my body?" she asked. "I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin. I am empowered by showing the world my flaws and not being afraid of what anyone is going to say about me. And I hope that through this platform I have been given, I can encourage the same empowerment for girls and women all over the world."
She completed the essay by stating triumphantly: "I am allowed to be sexy."
So, Kardashian is allowed to be sexy, but the anonymous woman in Scott Disick's hotel room is a "whore"? This doesn't compute. Kardashian seems to be applying the anti-slut shaming rhetoric selectively. More than likely, this scene was exaggerated for the sake of drama. But please, Kim. Don't let feminism die at the hands of television ratings.