Kim Kardashian has been blasted for cultural appropriation over new photos
Reality television star Kim Kardashian has once again incited the ire of the internet after wearing Fulani braids on Saturday night when she attended the MTV Movie and TV Awards.
As we all know, this is not the 37-year-old's first run-in with the hairstyle. Earlier this year, Kim posted a slew of risqué photographs on her Snapchat and Instagram accounts. While the content of the polaroid snaps is explicit, showing her lounging in a white G-string and fur coat, that's not what people took offence with. Rather, it was the fact that she called her silver locs "Bo Derek" braids (in reference to the actress's hairstyle and role in the 1979 film, 10) instead of Fulani braids or cornrows.
In short, the whole thing reeked of cultural appropriation.
Twitter was quick to call out Kim on her choice of words, as the hairstyle should be attributed to black culture - not Bo Derek, a white woman. One social media user wrote, "Kim Kardashian said she got 'Bo Derek braids.' She is 100% out here trolling Black women. You can't convince me otherwise," while another added, "Kim said she did 'bo Derek braids'...now go look them up and tell me if that white lady created that style smh".
Some of Kim's fans, however, leapt to her defence. One Twitter user asserted, "Is it at least possible that she was simply copying Bo Derrick because she admired the woman. I'm willing to bet 'race' never crossed her mind. I just don't understand. Why get mad because race is a non-issue to her? I thought that was the goal, to be colourblind?"
Despite facing such backlash - and duly deleting the caption which referenced Bo Derek's slow-motion beach jog - Kim wore Fulani braids yet again on Saturday night when she attended the MTV Movie & TV Awards. She walked the red carpet with waist-length braids which were parted down the middle and left loose at the ends. And while her hairstylist evidently took great care when creating the style, it seems as if the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star didn't have one care in the world about having been accused of cultural appropriation in the past.
Certainly, the mother-of-three made her stance on the matter clear back in January. Shortly after the Bo Derek debacle, Kim showed that she had little regard for the historical, societal and cultural context of the West African hairstyle when she posted yet another photo of her wearing the braids, and seemingly responded to the criticism by asserting "Hi, can I get zero f*cks please, thanks."
While this incident hasn't incited the same furore that we saw back in January, this could be chalked up to the fact that the awards ceremony actually hasn't aired yet. This time, however, we can only hope that Kim finally realises that it's not ok to blatantly appropriate other people's cultures and pass them off as your own.