“Where is all this energy when it comes to worrying if his sons will grow up respecting women’s boundaries? Why is the onus entirely on his daughters?”
If you’ve been tracking the fallout of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s divorce proceedings, you’ll probably be well aware that co-parenting has been a major source of contention between the exes.
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Whether it’s 8-year-old North’s TikTok account or not getting an invite to Chicago’s fourth birthday party, Ye has made it clear in recent months that he and Kim aren’t seeing eye to eye when it comes to co-parenting their four kids — daughters, North and Chicago, and sons, Saint and Psalm.
Back in January, Ye first expressed his disapproval of North’s TikTok account which has been live since November and is managed by Kim under the handle @kimandnorth.
Speaking to Hollywood Unlocked, Ye aired his concerns about his and Kim’s co-parenting arrangements, and accused her of “antagonizing” him by letting North wear lipstick and post TikTok videos without his approval.
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“There’s two things I said, tell her — security not gonna be in between me and my kids, and also tell her, don’t have my daughter wearing lipstick on TikTok,” Ye said of a conversation his cousins had with Kim under his direction. “And don’t have her TikTok at all if I don’t approve that.”
In the months since, Ye has continued to slam his ex for allowing their daughter to use social media, even prompting a rare statement from Kim who suggested that his “constant attacks” are actually “more harmful” than anything North might create on TikTok.
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Interestingly, North’s TikTok account — which mainly consists of short videos of the mother-daughter duo dancing and doing activities in their home — has remained pretty quiet in the weeks since Ye expressed frustration with his daughter’s presence on social media. However, Kim and North returned to the platform over the weekend with another video.
The now-deleted TikTok — where Kim, North, and her cousin Penelope were seen wearing dark makeup and lip-synching to the song “Emo Girl” by Machine Gun Kelly — prompted Ye to speak out against her social media activity once again on Sunday morning.
“I told y’all before about this tik tok stuff,” he wrote on Instagram beneath a screenshot of North’s latest video. “Now my 8 year old on here signing she fell in love with an emo girl Leftists don’t want fathers to have no say in our childrens lives.”
In a subsequent post, he added: “My daughter will not be lead by people who don’t believe in God I am in a very good place and a very God place inside the will of God I am being still right now This all feels like a set up They want me to react.”
The same day, Ye shared a text message he received from rapper, The Game, in which he seemingly accuses Kim and her family of strategically using North to “trigger” Ye’s protective instincts as a father, going on to explain that using his sons in the same way would not garner the same kind of response.
“They’re trying to use North against you,” the text began, seemingly in reference to her recent TikTok upload.
“They know that’s your only trigger. They aren’t using the other kids because they aren’t old enough & are pretty much babies. Saint on Tik Tok wouldn’t trigger you as much because he’s your son & and our boys have US in them,” he wrote.
“North & Chi pull on your heart strings the most because they are delicate children. They’re girls & we our protectors due to our knowledge of women being abused in this world,” the text concludes.
Ye’s decision to share this message with his followers comes just several weeks after he was called out for “fixating” on the girls and women in his life, namely Kim and his two daughters.
In case you missed it, in February, Ye was criticized for seemingly sexualizing his youngest daughter, Chicago, after he reposted photographs where he felt she looked “too grown.” In the pictures — which were initially posted by Khloé Kardashian — Chi looked to be wearing makeup, leading fans to speculate that a face-altering beauty filter had been used on the selfies.
Along with perpetuating a wider issue by using the term “grown” to describe his 4-year-old daughter, Ye’s complaints about Chi’s appearance also highlighted that his co-parenting frustrations are almost entirely focused on his daughters and not his two sons.
Around this time, fans began discussing Ye’s approach to parenting his daughters, which some felt was rooted in an “obsession” with women’s appearances and control.
“Why does he insist on bullying his daughters? He’s obsessed with woman’s image I swear. If it’s his daughters looking too grown or his wife too sexy,” someone wrote on Reddit, making reference to the fact that Ye has been historically very vocal about Kim’s appearance too. “Maybe go worry about your fucking sons and stfu,” they added.
Elsewhere, another Reddit user wrote about her childhood experience with an overprotective father and homed in on the misogynistic and controlling implications rooted in some men’s urges to “protect” their daughters, while affording sons their independence.
“I was wondering how you guys feel about Kanye’s comments regarding his daughters’ appearances and his obsession with them being seen as potential sex objects,” the thread began.
“I grew up with a dad like Kanye … and one of the things that always creeped me out about my father was the fact that he was always making comments about how he needed to ‘protect’ us from the eyes of men. Not only was he misogynistic and controlling, but I always felt like he saw me and my sisters in the same way that he claimed men were looking at us — sexually, rather than as his actual children,” the user wrote.
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Fans in the thread began to theorize that Ye — like a lot of men — feels overly protective of his young daughters because he is “projecting” his internalized perception of women as sexual objects and worries about how this might impact them as they grow up.
“I think Kanye and most men are just projecting who THEY used to be and the behavior they loathe themselves for, so they believe they need to protect their daughters from men who think and act like they do,” one person wrote.
“They’re not even out of elementary school. Chi is in pre-K?? Kanye is sick and fully telling on himself in regards to how he views women,” another said, similarly highlighting that Ye’s fixation on his daughters speaks to his internalized feelings. “Where is all this energy when it comes to worrying if his sons will grow up respecting women’s boundaries? Why is the onus entirely on his daughters?”
Of course, if you’ve been following Ye for a while now, you’ll know that he has previously been very vocal about his concerns as a father, particularly when it comes to his daughters’ appearances in the spotlight.
When they were still married in 2019, Kim revealed that Ye had completely banned their daughter North from experimenting with makeup on special occasions and said that the topic had caused huge arguments in their household.
This came around the same time that Ye began speaking publicly about his newfound Christian beliefs, explaining during an interview with Zane Lowe that his faith had prompted a new perspective on parenting his eldest daughter.
“I don’t think North should wear crop tops just because I had her wearing a slip dress when she was 2 years old,” Ye said. “I think and feel differently now, now that I’m Christian, now that I’m founder of a $3 billion organization and married for five years.”
A year prior to this, Ye released a song called “Violent Crimes,” in which he raps about how his views on women changed after having two daughters, and opens up in explicit detail about his worries for when North and Chi eventually start dating.
“No, Daddy don’t play, not when it come to they daughters / Don’t do no yoga, don’t do pilates / Just play piano and stick to karate,” he raps in the first verse.
In the next line, Ye refers to Kim’s infamous silhouette and expresses concerns that his daughters will inherit the same shape, knowing it’s widely desired by men like him.
“I pray your body’s draped more like mine / And not like your mommy’s / Just bein’ salty, but n***** is nuts / And I am a n****, I know what they want,” he raps, before going on to hypothesize about men’s “comments” about his daughters’ bodies.
“I pray that you don’t get it all at once / Curves under your dress, I know it’s pervs all on the net / All in the comments, you wanna vomit / That’s your baby, you love her to death,” he adds.
After its release, the song sparked backlash among fans, many of whom were shocked by the way Ye rapped about his daughters, specifically North, who was 5 at the time.
Speaking about the song in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel a few months later, Ye clarified that — despite rapping that having daughters helped him to view women as something to “nurture,” rather than to “conquer” — his attitude toward women hadn’t drastically changed and joked that he still consumed pornography online.
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“You’re imagining your daughter as an adult, dating, and men looking at her, and you’re very very worked up about this,” Jimmy said. “Do you feel like your attitude toward women has changed since having daughters?”
In response, Ye said: “No, I still look at Pornhub,” prompting laughter from the audience.
Elsewhere in his music, Ye has also made it clear that he doesn’t hold these same concerns for his sons. Two years prior in 2016, Ye rapped on his track, “No More Parties in LA,” that he doesn’t worry about Saint in the same way he worries about North and Kim.
“I be worried ’bout my daughter, I be worried ’bout Kim / But Saint is baby ‘Ye, I ain’t worried ’bout him,” the lyrics read.
Interestingly, these lyrics closely echo the sentiments of the text message Ye shared on Instagram on Sunday, in which The Game likens Saint and Psalm to Ye, in an attempt to illustrate that there’s no need for Ye to control them in the same way that he publicly does with his two daughters.
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Coming to Ye’s defense on Twitter, rapper Consequence said that Ye’s need to “protect” his daughters should be respected, suggesting that, as a “girl-dad,” it’s Ye’s instinct to defend them.
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“Kanye is a ‘girl’ Dad, North is his 1st born, Instinctually, he’s just here to protect her, That should be respected no matter what,” he tweeted.
Kanye is a “girl” Dad
North is his 1st born
Instinctually, he’s just here to protect her
That should be respected no matter what
Twitter: @ItsTheCons
Fans were quick to criticize this perspective, with one suggesting that the rapper was defending Ye’s harassment of Kim and North “under the pretense of loving fatherhood.”
Disappointing when Consequence comes out defending all the abusive behavior and misogyny under the pretense of loving fatherhood. https://t.co/H1YxFZJIfd
Twitter: @real_mark_one
Others highlighted that Ye’s history of controlling tendencies when it comes to Kim and his children could actually cause more harm than good, with one Twitter user writing: “there’s a fine line between being protective and ruining the fun in your child’s life because you want control.”
as a girl with an overprotective dad who has controlling tendencies, i wouldn’t want north having to go thru this if i was her mom too. there’s a fine line between being protective and ruining the fun in your child’s life because you want control. https://t.co/EE0To5N8nT
Twitter: @hotlenax