Misogyny Is Not A Mental Illness
Blaming Ye’s abuse of Kim Kardashian on “bipolar disorder” demonizes mentally ill people while letting abusers off the hook.
There was a time in my life — there was a time in everyone’s life, wasn’t there? — when I really loved Kanye West. I loved how his mind worked, the aggressive confidence he displayed in the face of a world that wanted to humble him, the way his work charted a soaring and agonizing arc between “I am a god” grandiosity and eight-minute-long epics of self-hatred.
I just loved Kanye West, and when female friends of mine would point out that Kanye West did not love women, I dismissed them. Lots of male musicians didn’t like women, and some did worse than dislike them; there was a reason that Kanye was a culture villain and John Lennon or Steven Tyler were beloved. For me, Kanye fit an established archetype, the Difficult Genius, the guy who may have rough edges and deep flaws, but who is nonetheless able to mine gold from his imperfections in ways that more “likable” artists never could.
It’s the year 2022, and Kanye West, now named Ye, is terrorizing his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, in public. The harassment includes, but is not limited to, publishing all her private communications, sending a full truck of roses to her front door, and…
