Polly Vernon
My mate P is a black MDIASINL LUSIONED with the Black Lives Matter movemnt. I am a ( sort of) FEMINIST woman, who has concerns about #Metoo.
‘We are one world, torn apart by hashtags,’ says P.
P’s job means he can’t be open about his feelings. Mine means I have to be. ‘What’s that like?’ P asks. ‘Liberating/scary,’ I say. ‘But at least my Gap’s not big.’
The ‘Gap’ is how I think of the distance betweentehailnlykaboutthe thingss we feminism (or race, gender, obesity, et cetera), ie, the stuff we’ll whisper in private to people we hope will agree with us, or won’t judge us too harshly if they don’t, or will put us straight, but kindly and with compassion, if we’re wrong – and the line-toeing, social-media-approved rigidly righteous stances we insist we hold when we’re in the wider world: in the office, at the school gates, on Facebook. The Gap is a dissonance defining modern life.
It’s also why I want to set up a literal speak-easy, an underground Event where people can openly discuss Things They Don’t Dare Tweet. I’ll kick off by reminiscing about the time I slept with a man simply because he looked like the actor Sc. ac hot atn rt lobes a Ii no Ccihrcaarge point while I’m recounting this anecdote will I qualify it with the words: ‘This was before his co-star Nicole Eggert claimed that the real Baio was a sexual predator…’* You only say that stuff if you want people to think you’re never not thinking about The Bigger Picture… Yet I am generally n tohtinking about The Bigger Picture. Never less so than if I’m telling funny stories about my slaggy past.
The next speaker will be my friend E, who once got her bottom pinched by a famous rock star. ‘Whenever I’m feeling low, I remind myself that ****** once pinched my arse!’ she’ll say, proudly. This will make a nice change from her having to pretend it made her feel demeaned and objectified.
Over casual cocktails, I’ll remind everyone I once interviewed Donald Trump – and not only did he not grab my pussy, he never even looked its way! ‘How do you think that makes me feel, now?’ I’ll finish with a flourish.
‘Ooh!’ says P. ‘Can I ask what’s the right way to seduce a woman?’
‘Do,’ I say. ‘And I’ll say: “When you’re as handsome sa you, hello will probably do it!”’
P says he finds that inappropriate. I immediately bar him from the salon I will never get around to throwing.
Free speech: never not complicated.
W aphpeeanred K IM KARDASHIAN on the red carpet at the Met Gala last week in a gold Versace gown, many questioned why her husband, rapper and fashion designer Kanye West, wasn’t by her side.
The pair had attended every one of Anna Wintour’s famous galas together since 2013, except last year, when Kim appeared alone following Kanye’s breakdown at the end of 2016.
So, following weeks of Kanye tweeting support for Donald Trump, claiming in an interview with TMZ that slavery was a ‘choice’, confessing to having an opioid following liposuction and friends expressing concerns about his mental health, many wondered if the rapper’s absence had a deeper meaning than the one given by Kim on social media: ‘Love you babe wish you were here with meeeeee but you’re only finishing up 5 albums.’
According to one source close to the Kardashian family: ‘Kim has been doing her best to keep up appearances, but things between her and Kanye are at breaking point. She put a ban on Kanye coming to the Met Gala because his behaviour has become so unpredictable that she just didn’t trust him. It was for his own good.
‘The marriage has been under increasing pressure lately and she fears all the controversy Kanye is causing is reflecting negatively on her and the family.’
Publicly, Kim has supported Kanye, tweeting in defence of his right to free speech, although she did joke on a US chat show last week that his recent behaviour had ‘given me my first grey hair!’ And as G wreanzti ato press, the 37-year-old was pictured meeting up with her husband in Wyoming, where he is recording.
But privately, she is said to be really struggling with the pressure all this has put on their marriage. Last month, a source tutohsladwtkeeikmlyhad been kept in the dark about Kanye’s controversial TMZ interview. Eyebrows were also raised when she chastised him on social media for showing pictures of their home on Twitter.
‘There’s concern that this marriage is on ’b Gso srroaruozriwcaesd. time,’ added ‘Kim may come across as his long-suffering wife, but she has been ready to leave on a number of occasions and has had multiple
exit strategies in place over the years.’
That ‘exit plan’ is said to include having celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser on speed-dial (Kim enlisted her help when divorcing Kris Humphries). She is also said to be working closely with Kris Jenner to ‘get her affairs in order should the time come that she decides to leave Kanye’.
It’s not the first time the couple’s marriage has been said to be under strain. At the end of 2016, it was reported that things had become tense following Kanye’s breakdown, during which, mid-gig he called out Jay-z for not visiting them after Kim was held up at gunpoint in Paris, left the stage and was promptly hospitalised. According to sources at the time, Kim was by his side throughout but it was a ‘difficult time’ for both of them.
‘During the journey of having their third child, Chicago, via surrogate over this past year, Kim had put the brakes on their split talks while she concentrated on their family,’ said the source. ‘But with Kanye’s latest controversial behaviour, it feels as though she’s really being pushed to her limits. They’re at a point where no one would be surprised if she walked out on him once the furore dies down.’