What Our Reaction to Amber & Wiz’s Divorce Says About Us
By Veronica Hilbring
The news broke last week that Amber Rose has filed for divorce from her husband of over a year, Wiz Khalifa. The news had barely been up on TMZ before twitter got a hold of it and you know how that goes. Memes and Kanye West’s best smiling photos have all been circulating the Internets as proof of…well supposedly something.
Take a look at Amber Rose or Wiz Khalifa’s Instagram pages and you’ll notice hundreds of comments ranging from genuine disbelief to the “I had hope for you” but the most common theme is “Well you know you can’t turn a hoe into a housewife #Thesehoesaintloyal"
Just a month ago, we were all watching (and sharing) Amber Rose’s twerk video and tweeting Wiz Won. (I know I wasn’t the only one.) But now it seems that that same eagerness we shared for that video was used as a way to condemn Amber’s character. I saw that “Well your wife shouldn’t be making twerk videos” make the rounds on twitter more than a few times, mostly by brothers who couldn’t even dream of a woman as beautiful as Amber.
I’ll admit that I was shocked by the news. They seemingly appeared to be deep in love at the MTV video Music Awards in August. I’ve been an Amber Rose fan since her early interviews on the Breakfast Club post-Kanye breakup. Her Philly accent and spirit won me over. I was happy to see her fall in love with Wiz.
But more than that, I’m thinking of Amber and what she’s going through. Not only is she dealing with the failure of her marriage but she’s doing so publicly. Not only as the wife of a well-known rapper but as a woman who has already had her privacy breached before in the form of stolen nude photographs. You all (most of y’all admit it) had already made up your minds about Amber Rose before her and Wiz were married. You judged her for her past and for being with Wiz after Kanye. I remember those tweets as well.
I’ll admit that a few years ago, I would’ve probably labeled her a few things ranging from hoe to groupie to jumpoff. But that was before I became aware of how disgustingly comfortable women felt about saying those type of things to and about each other and how it is up to us to stop that behavior. That was also before I was aware of the true effects patriarchy had on women, particularly young women of color.
As a person who has been in the spotlight for the last few years, I’m sure Amber has developed some very thick skin. I’m hoping she’ll avoid the viciousness of social media and take this time to heal for herself and Sebastian. But with Peter Rosenberg’s latest allegation about the breakup of her marriage, it appears that this divorce will get way messier before we see a peaceful resolution.
Take care girl.
Photo Credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com
Veronica Hilbring is a writer and can be found tweeting from her couch most nights. Follow her @veronicolumn on twitter.
No comments: