Making the choice to make a joke or a meme about Kim Kardashian West's situation is base and callous.
After turning on the TV this morning, I saw the familiar a.m. news setup of a newscaster with a graphic over her shoulder, and the words “ROBBED AT GUNPOINT” underneath a close-up picture of a woman’s face. I didn’t recognize Kim Kardashian West at first, but when I did, my first thoughts were along the lines of, Oh no, what happened? Is she OK? I hope she’s OK.
The newscaster said little more than just those three words with some vague details and a location, Paris, so I did what most of us do these days when TV isn’t enough — I hit the internet. I started to search, and I think I had typed out K-I-M K-A before the search bar autocompleted to “Kim Kardashian robbed.” What happened next was bizarre.
That search turned up more results about people making fun of Kim Kardashian and other celebrities clapping back at those people on social media as it did about the actual incident.
Now, I’m no fan of Kim Kardashian. It just needs to be said. I don’t care for that genre of entertainment, and I don’t enjoy celebrity contributions to society that center persona and lifestyle over artistic endeavors. When I’ve been around her in person (entertainment makes for strange bedfellows or something), she has come across as sweet but not someone I’d be interested in being close friends with. (Which is fine; it’s not like she’s asking.)
It bears mentioning, though, because if there are any two celebrities in the world who I’ve gone on record as really not enjoying, it’s Kim and her husband, Kanye West. I don’t think my negative assessment of anyone for reasons that are more about taste or personal experience, as opposed to detrimental affect on society, put any good into the world, so I generally keep them to myself. So for me to have publicly bemoaned what Kim and Kanye put forth is a big deal for me.
And yet. AND YET. Not for one second would I mock this woman in this moment. I was genuinely shocked to see that enough people made enough shitty jokes and memes (which I will not share here) that that became news itself. It's a rare moment when social media still manages to surprise and disappoint me; I really didn’t get it. I would say, What kind of monsters…etc., but I don’t think such hand-wringing serves us at this moment.
“Monsters” are imaginary, or at least rare. People who would hear news of Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint and not feel empathy for her are all too common.
Of course, we are each allowed to draw our own personal boundaries (and it’s imperative that we do), so if hearing of an attack on someone that you don’t know personally doesn’t move you, I can’t relate, but I can certainly understand. Perhaps hearing that it is this particular woman led you to register that she appears alive and safe but ultimately you still wish you weren’t seeing another Kardashian headline. Kardashian Media Fatigue is real.
However, none of those responses would naturally culminate in publicly mocking the victim of a violent crime. No; to do that, you’d have to either think you’re the funniest person in the world and/or also have a livelihood that depends on you saying the worst thing at every possible turn.
Or, perhaps you know you’re no comedy pro and you’d just like to throw your hat into the ring anyway, popping off your one-liner from underneath your comfortable cloak of online anonymity in the hopes that
your tweet will garner attention, negative though it may be, and you can bask in the meaningless glow of retweets.
0 comments:
Post a Comment