If you’ve been following Kanye West on social media recently, you’ll have noticed a number of stalking behaviours - Kanye has been publicly stalking and harassing Kim Kardashian. In this post, we are going to break down some of the behaviours displayed by Kanye West in recent weeks and compare them to typical stalking behaviours.
Stalking behaviours
Stalking behaviours can typically be broken up into the following categories: unwanted behaviours, threats and abuse, malicious communications and reputational damage.
Stalking behaviour tends to be F.O.U.R - fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repeated.
In February 2021, Kim filed for divorce from Kanye, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’. In October 2021, Kim started dating Saturday Night Live star and comedian Pete Davidson. At the same time, Kanye began to publicly declare his ‘love’ for Kim and said that ‘God’ will bring Kim back to him.
Threats and abuse
In January 2022, Kanye released a song in which he threatened Pete Davdison: “God saved me from this crash / Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass.” This is the first of many stalking behaviours that have been in the public eye. Often, stalkers will threaten to physically or sexually assault their victims and these threats can extend to the victims family and friends.
Malicious communication
Kanye has continued to post on social media about Kim and Pete. His posts about Kim focused on his belief that they will get back together. This form of harassment falls under the malicious communication category of stalking, whereby stalkers will send unwanted texts, phone calls, emails or social media messages to their victims.
On Valentine’s Day, Kanye sent a truck load of roses to Kim’s house. Sending unwanted gifts is a common tactic used by stalkers, falling under the malicious communication category. Often, this type of behaviour is excused or seen as ‘romantic’ - but it isn’t romantic and it can be very distressing for victims.
Reputation damage
In the last week, Kanye started to post screenshots of his texts from Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson. This could be seen as an attempt at reputational damage, which happens when stalkers try to publicly humiliate and damage the reputation of their victims. This behaviour can take many forms and includes:
Distributing malicious material about the victim(e.g. flyers, web-sites, posters, newspaper ads)
Engaging in inappropriate or malicious social media contacts
Initiating false legal action
Making false complaints
Taking pictures/recordings of without consent
Sharing private images that are of a very personal nature
Kanye has since deleted his posts on social media and posted the following statement: “I’ve learned that using all caps makes people feel like I’m screaming at them. I’m working on my communication. I can benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers, and community leaders. Thank everybody for supporting me. I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability. I’m still learning in real time. I don’t have all the answers. To be a good leader is to be a good listener.”
It’s difficult to get a full understanding of the situation as we can only assess what we see on social media. However, it is clear that Kanye has displayed a number of stalking behaviours and has been publicly harassing both Kim and Pete on social media.
Many fans of Kanye have come to his defence, while others have made light of the situation. Stalking is not romantic, or a joke - stalking is dangerous and causes fear and distress for victims.
To learn more about stalking, visit https://www.stalkinginireland.ie/stalking
For help and support, visit https://www.stalkinginireland.ie/support
In an emergency, please call 999 or 112.