According to both TMZ and E! News, Kim Kardashian was gagged, bound, and robbed at gunpoint while in Paris for Fashion Week. Today, a CNN headline reads “Kardashian Heist: Police Say Social Media Made Her a Target.” The article goes on to say that Kardashian’s “visibility” made her a target of the $10 million robbery. Because she instagrammed a picture of a massive diamond ring only days before, police believe Kardashian was an easy target. CNN continues to victim-blame, quoting a cybersecurity attorney who said the robbery demonstrates the need to evaluate one’s risk profile.
Kardashian is frequently vilified in popular culture as vapid and materialistic for all her instagram posts; for CNN to subtly encourage Kardashian to stop posting, which is what makes her famous, is to encourage Kardashian’s demise. Furthermore, suggesting that Kardashian’s lifestyle made her into a victim of a crime is all too common when media discusses women. This is not a terribly far cry from slut-shaming: blaming a woman’s socially ridiculed lifestyle for a woman’s own pain.
According to TMZ, Kardashian claimed that as she was tied up and gagged in her own hotel room, wearing only a robe, and that she feared rape. She told the intruders that she had children at home and begged them to spare her life. Therefore, according to CNN’s analysis, if Kardashian had simply not flaunted her ostentatious wealth, which is her job, she would have no reason to fear robbery and rape.
For better or for worse, Kardashian is just as visible as President Obama. When the White House is fired upon or the President otherwise threatened, he is not advised to “keep a low profile;” it is the President’s job to be a public figure. But Kardashian, a public figure, is attacked and told to change her behavior.
The message is clear. Influential women should “be careful” but influential men “deserve” protection.