Sometimes you just need a little celebrity drama to brighten the day, so when we see things like #KimKardashianIsOverParty trending we have to investigate if only to find some distraction from, well, everything. I find this particularly interesting because I thought Kim Kardashian West was over or canceled years ago, but I guess I’m behind the times.
So, from what I gather, this all has to do with the feud between Taylor Swift and Kardashian West that’s been running for a long time, fueled but Kardashian West’s husband, rapper Kanye West. Kanye famously rushed the stage at the 2009 VMAs when Taylor was accepting her award for Best Female Video to proclaim that “Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” Their public back-and-forths and reconciliation have been going ever since. This is an extremely complicated entanglement with layers of cultural significance.
Now in February of 2016 (remember 2016? Sigh) West released the song “Famous” which contained the (extremely gross) lyric “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.” Swift called it out as misogynistic and said she’d never given permission for her name to be used that way. There was a lot back and forth between the West and Swift camps, including West’s very icky use of a fake, naked Swift in the video of “Famous.” And that’s where West’s wife, Kim, comes in.
Kardashian claimed Swift approved the lyrics and posted a video on Snapchat (remember Snapchat) that seemed to back this up. It seemed to show a phone call with Swift approving the lyrics. But Swift continued to claim that she was not aware of the “bitch” portion of the lyrics. The thing continued quietly for a while, with Swift calling out West and Kardashian’s bad behavior but trying to move on.
Now the drama is heating up again because a full video of the infamous phonecall has leaked, and it tells a different story than the video Kardashian posted years ago. One where Swift is uncomfortable with the lyrics and wants to hear the song before approving them. HMMMM.
So, this is why, I guess, Kim Kardashian is over (again), but the blow-up has gotten so much attention now (and people have so little else to do) that Kardashian West and Swift have commented on the kerfuffle. Kardashian West took to Twitter to defend herself, claiming she never “edited” the video, just shared clips. I’m sure the thousands of replies have reminded her that this counts as editing.
Swift instead went on Instagram to comment. Sort of. “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked,’ Swift wrote in her stories, “proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded that somebody edited, and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years). SWIPE UP to see what really matters.” Swiping up took fans to a place where they can donate to Feeding America.
So, there’s nothing new in this fight, really, just a re-opening of old wounds and celebrity high drama. But it is, I guess, an interesting look at celebrity culture and social media. It’s amazing that this thing has been going on for years, and the way fans of all these celebrities have made this into a sort of endless social media war.
And it’s a social media pit of despair with real fall-out—it’s probably not easy on any of the participants. But the “real” victims, if we can use that term, are the fans that will get relentlessly piled on and bullied by the other side in these kinds of fights. Especially with people having no outlet beyond social media right now, it can get rough and dangerous.
So, keep it real but keep it fun, youths. We’re sure they’ll be another [IntertCelebrityName Here] IsOverParty tomorrow.
(Via: The Hollywood Reporter; images: Left Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images, Right: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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