Why Weren’t Feminists Standing Up for Jordyn Woods?

While most of us may be over the Tristan Thompson/Jordyn Woods cheating scandal, I have pretty strong feelings regarding how so many of us still choose to talk about cheating. For the longest, I tried to avoid reading up on what happened because I hate giving the Kardashian-Jenner family the views or the satisfaction of being sucked into their drama. But when I saw a young Black woman — Jordyn Woods — being dragged, I realized I had to tune in because I was not about to sit back and watch this double standard play out.

After reports broke that Jordyn Woods and Tristan Thompson had allegedly hooked up, Twitter went ham trying to put all the blame on Jordyn. In fact, during her appearance on Red Table Talk, she admitted to host, Jada Pinkett Smith, that she even received numerous threats from folks and that if she wasn’t a stronger person she would have probably harmed herself. That alone is very telling. Jordyn was officially canceled both on the internet and in real life while Tristan continued to be excused and protected even by the woman he allegedly cheated on — Khloe Kardashian. If that’s not problematic, I don’t know what is.

There’s a reason why #TeamJordyn started trending Friday afternoon and that’s because folks were not having it when Khloe took to Twitter to not only accuse Jordyn of lying on Red Table Talk but for being the reason why her family broke up in the first place. But why did it have to take Khloe slut-shamming Jordyn on Twitter for the rest of the world to wake up to the double standard so many people fall in to when we find out about a cheating scandal?

Why are you lying @jordynwoods ?? If you’re going to try and save yourself by going public, INSTEAD OF CALLING ME PRIVATELY TO APOLOGIZE FIRST, at least be HONEST about your story. BTW, You ARE the reason my family broke up!

— Khloé (@khloekardashian) March 1, 2019

Tristan is equally to blame but Tristan is the father of my child. Regardless of what he does to me I won’t do that to my daughter. He has been addressing this situation PRIVATELY. If Tristan were to lie publicly about what conspired,then yes I would address him publicly as well

— Khloé (@khloekardashian) March 1, 2019

After being dragged herself by #TeamJordyn, Khloe has since changed her tune, opening up about how Tristan has publicly humiliated her and is the real reason why her family is broken up. Regardless, the fact that a grown woman of 34 years and a ton of folks on the internet, initially thought it was okay to put ALL the blame on Jordyn versus a man who has very obviously cheated before, speaks volumes about where society still stands when it comes to cheating and double-standards.

This has been an awful week & I know everyone is sick of hearing about it all (as am I). I’m a rollercoaster of emotions & have said things I shouldn’t have. Honestly, Tristan cheating on me & humiliating me, wasn’t such a shock as the first time.

— Khloé (@khloekardashian) March 2, 2019

What’s been harder & more painful is being hurt by someone so close to me. Someone whom I love & treat like a little sister. But Jordyn is not to be blamed for the breakup of my family. This was Tristan’s fault.

— Khloé (@khloekardashian) March 2, 2019

The entire dialogue surrounding the Tristan Thompson/Jordyn Woods scandal was sexist, to say the least. The idea that we would still put all the blame on the other woman versus the male partner feels backward and very outdated to me. I can’t tell you how many articles — from mainstream media outlets by the way — chose to slut-shame the hell out of Jordyn and what she did. Meanwhile, none of these stories went in on how Tristan has been a filthy cheater since day one. It was as if everyone suddenly forgot how Tristan cheated on Khloe while she was still pregnant with her daughter True. It’s 2019.  Why are we still doing this?

According to Jordyn’s testimony on Red Table Talk, she didn’t actually do anything other than put herself in a bad spot by attending Tristan’s house party. She claims he’s the one that kissed her — in front of everyone by the way — on her way out. Regardless of what happened, because none of us really know what actually went down, the fact that all the blame was placed on her says a lot about today’s so-called “feminists.”

We’re so quick to call ourselves feminists and talk about empowerment when we’re posting on social media or attending a women’s march. But it’s situations like this where we show our true colors when it comes to how we treat other women. This is not about posting an empowering quote on Instagram, it’s about advocating for women’s rights on the basis of “political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” We didn’t treat Tristan and Jordyn as equals — as two adults who made a mistake. We treated Jordyn like a home-wrecker and like a slut who deserved to be canceled from existence and essentially ignored Tristan and there’s absolutely nothing feminist about that. 

We have been so conditioned to place the fault on women that even Jordyn herself was quick to take all the blame. Though she claimed she had not engaged in PDA nor was she romantically or physically involved with Tristan at all, she still took full responsibility for attending the house party where it all went down. She kept saying on Red Table Talk that it was all her fault — and it actually wasn’t. She didn’t initiate that kiss, Tristan did. So why weren’t peeps or Khloe quick to call him out on his bad behavior?

How can we expect for treatment towards women to change when we are still oppressing and slut-shaming ourselves? It’s time we change the way we look at situations like this and start taking a much more progressive approach, and it starts with holding men just as accountable as we hold other women.