You know those films where a police officer, or an assassin, is due to hang up his officer’s badge, or his assassin’s knife (?), but then he gets one last job? And then that job turns into the biggest job of his life? That’s a slightly more dramatic interpretation of how I feel every time I have to jump to Kim Kardashian’s defence. I don’t stand for her, I don’t follow her on Twitter, and I don’t think what she does is great or not great. But then I see the hate she gets and have to step in.
This time, Kim Kardashian’s been robbed - not burglarised - but robbed. Burglary is when someone takes advantage of your absence and steals stuff when you’re not in. Robbery is when someone takes advantage of the weakness of your presence and steals stuff, right in front of you.
In Kim’s case, five masked men, disguised as police officers, handcuffed the concierge, held her at gunpoint, tied her up in the bathroom of her rented Paris apartment and then fled. They took with them a jewellery box with valuables worth up to €6m (£5.2m) and a ring worth €4m (£3.5m). They also took Kim’s two mobile phones, doubtless containing personal information and photos.
Kim is, according to her spokeswoman, 'badly shaken but physically unharmed.' She has left the country in a private jet, cutting short her visit to Paris Fashion Week. Husband Kanye West left his gig at a festival in New York early when he heard the news, telling the crowd: ‘I’m sorry. I have a family emergency. I have to stop the show.’
Whatever you think about the Kardashian-Wests, it’s an intriguing story. Here you have a group of aggressive blokes waiving any snobbery towards caring about the Kardashians, in order to track Kim’s every movement until they could get to her jewellery. I hope the men get caught and justice is meted out. As well as the robbery, France is in a state of emergency following a series of terrorist attacks, and for any civilian to arm himself and impersonate a policeman is creepy and profoundly tasteless. But, according to some, Kim’s the one who’s made the whole thing up! She’s probably not looking at Twitter right now, but if she were, she’d see this sort of stuff:
This is muddled amongst accusations that she deserved to be robbed, that she’s just making a new sex tape(FYI, that first one was leaked without Kim’s consent!), that this multimillion jewellery theft isn’t newsworthy and that it’s just plain funny!
Maybe I’m naive to believe Kim’s telling the truth. Or perhaps I’m just willing to believe that if a French police spokesperson says something, it’s probably worth believing them. It’s not as if Kim and the police are in cahoots - we all know her thoughts on #BlackLivesMatter - and the French police are tough as it gets. There’s no way even Kris Jenner could strong-arm a gendarme into a bit of publicity-baiting. Sure, Kim has the capacity to lie. Just yesterday she tweeted a photo of herself at the Balenciaga show, along with the caption: ‘No make up today’, and she was clearly wearing make up. But one lie about one thing doesn’t mean a lie about another. It’s possible for someone’s mind and motives to have a duality. Unless you’re Ryan Lochte, obviously, who DID lie about being held at gunpoint while in Brazil for the Rio Olympics - police were quick to refute his claims.
I don’t want to spend my energy defending Kim Kardashian, but the way her womanhood is used as a means to attack her can’t be left to settle. You could say this is simply something that happened to a rich celebrity who leads a very certain sort of existence. But if not believing women’s testimony is such a common trope in our society that women will not go to the police after experiencing sexual assault or violent crime, then I’m happy to bet that questioning Kim’s veracity is very much down to her womanhood.
Yes, Kim’s a celebrity, yes, she’s made millions off of a talent that, like a dog-whistle, is imperceptible to many. But what she promotes are things entwined with the feminine: the beauty and fashion industries, reality TV and, by way of her photoshoots, a healthy enjoyment of a buoyant figure which she leverages to bring herself sexual pleasure. When people sneer at Kim, are they sneering at her, the woman who they don’t know, who is mostly inscrutable to even the most ardent fan? Or are they sneering at things that someone they see as a cipher for what women enjoy, and who women are? If we’re going to spend time thinking about a Kardashian, we probably take a moment to think about that.
Liked this? Then you might be interested in:
From SJP to Kim Kardashian, Why Are Celebrities So Afraid To Call Themselves Feminist?
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.