On Feb. 13, former girlfriend of Kanye West and model Amber Rose threw digs at the Kardashian clan on the Power 105.1, The Breakfast Club radio show.
When asked about 17-year-old, Kylie Jenner's relationship with the 25-year-old rapper Tyga, Rose stated, "She's a baby. She needs to go to bed at 7 o'clock. That's ridiculous. Tyga should be ashamed of himself. He has a beautiful woman and a baby and left that for a 16-year-old who just turned 17."
In defense of her baby step-sister, Khloé Kardashian took the high road and used Twitter to address Roses's radio remarks last Monday, stating, "Please stop talking about us in interviews mama. None of us talk about you."
The Kardashian sister went on to call out Rose's previous profession as a stripper. After that punch was thrown, Rose took to Instagram and Twitter to acknowledge the infamous sex tape scandal of West's current wife, Kim Kardashian.
Throughout the Twitter altercation, the two women threw around words like 'bitch' and 'whore' in an effort to insult one another.
Although the Kardashian clan is literally famous for their drama, Kardashian and Rose are adult women and need to start acting like it. They need to get over whatever beef they have with each other, and move on. With 2.6 million followers on Rose's Twitter account and 12.9 million on Kardashians' — they have a significant following and a significant influence on young people.
Loosely using terminology like "whore" and "bitch" to describe other women, perpetuates the argument that a woman must be virginal, demure and passive. Using those words to degrade women practically welcomes slut-shaming culture. Labeling a woman as a "whore" dehumanizes them and says to many that we should only focus on a woman's sexual behavior and dismiss her fears, hopes, and past experiences.
Young women and men will look at this scuffle between Rose and Kardashian, and deem it acceptable to call other women "sluts," "whores" or "bitches." Although those words are common slurs, when used in a derogatory sense, they can be extremely harmful.
A Nova Scotia teenager, Rehtaeh Parsons, was sexually bullied by her classmates until she took her own life in 2013. Parsons isn't the only one who has suffered from this kind of bullying. Nearly every woman, at least once in her lifetime, has been called a "slut," "whore," "bitch," "skank," "ho" — the list goes on.
Not only are Kardashian and Rose encouraging this language but, the feud also bludgeons the work of women's rights activists. As women, we need to stand together and support each other. Kardashian and Rose have it backwards. This kind of girl-on-girl fighting only empowers men in the most wrongful sense. The two need to put their quarrel to rest, for the sake of women everywhere.
As Tina Fey says in the movie Mean Girls, “You’ve got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it OK for guys to call you sluts and whores.”
It's time we take words like "whore," "slut" and "bitch" out of our everyday vernacular. Including you, Amber Rose and Khloé Kardashian.
Reach the columnist at ambice@asu.edu or follow @AllieBice on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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