The Kylie Snub: What Does Demi Moore's Alleged Cold-Shoulder Tell Us About Fan Culture and Feminism?

By Pari Keshavji, Third Year English

At the Golden Globes, two significant events made headlines: Demi Moore finally winning an award after 45 years in Hollywood and Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner debuting their private and elusive relationship for the second year in a row. However, a particular moment of 'shade' occurred when these two worlds collided when, stood by Chalamet’s table, Moore spoke to Elle Fanning and Timothée whilst seemingly ignoring the makeup mogul, Kylie Jenner. In videos online, Moore’s passing over of Kylie is depicted as an intentional insult, and after a bold acceptance speech about being enough as a woman and ‘putting down the measuring stick’ as a method of empowerment, people are interpreting Moore’s actions as hypocritical. 

Moore’s daughter has denounced the whole incident as a total misreading by the internet, insisting her mother would have never intentionally ignore the reality star, and so whilst this snub may never have actually happened, it so quickly sparked so much vitriol for both Moore and Jenner, but mostly Jenner. Whilst all celebrities are allowed to bring a plus one, these usually being mothers, siblings, partners or children (non-famous folk), the bringing of Kylie Jenner, another famous person, sparked an enormous outrage; despite her own fame, she was deemed ‘out of place’. But how can another famous person be out of place in a room full of her sort?

The answer may lie in the very definition of celebrity; Chris Rojek splits the word into a tripartite definition, with there being ascribed, achieved and attributed celebrities. Ascribed are the nepo babies, achieved are the genuinely talented and well deserving, and attributed are the reality stars and Instagram influencers of our time; those famous for being famous. And so essentially, Jenner doesn’t fit into Chalamet’s category; she’s attributed, whilst he’s achieved. And we don’t need these definitions to confirm the bias, we see it all the time: when a celebrity, particularly male celebrity, dates a woman his fans deem ‘unworthy’ or not in his ‘league’, she is obliterated online. The problem: Kylie Jenner is too big a star in her own right to be so easily obliterated. And so the stans swarm. The teens and twenty-somethings who have built an intense para-social relationships with a celebrity, especially one who represents an ideal to achieve e.g. a dream career or a dream boyfriend. And when these celebrities couple up with someone that betrays said fantasy, they seek to destroy that relationship in order to maintain the fantasy that they feel entitled to. 

But why does our feminism go out of the window when it comes to a woman we don’t like? (And here, I use feminism as a loose verb to describe the respect and equity we should give to women). On the one hand, it is argued that the Kardashian/Jenners actualise a feminist agenda by being unapologetic about both themselves and their bodies. Yet their existence arguably perpetuates a lie, a lie that everyone can look like they do for free. Despite having a reality show, they curate their own truth to insinuate their beauty is organic, through facials and exercise, hiding their beautification rituals that go skin deep; namely, plastic surgery, regular facelifts and Botox. We should remind ourselves that celebrities don’t necessarily owe us authenticity, but when these celebrities profit from shows marketed as authentic and truthful depictions of their real lives, should they be free from criticism?

But back to the Demi Moore situation. It’s interesting to see the achieved and attributed celebrities mix like oil and water. Moore’s passing over of Kylie, deliberate or not, almost felt natural, in the same way that water and oil don’t mix, (I had to use this comparison again because the best Google synonyms could come up with was gum and nuts and ‘gum and nuts don’t mix’ sounds weird af). This tells us that there’s a problem. Comments online spoke to a sense of justice, an ‘aha, Demi showed her she’s not all that!’ attitude, as if Jenner had personally offended us all with her attendance. And to be honest, the attributed celebrity often does. Often, these celebrities go viral because people dislike them, rather than the worship the achieved celebrity is showered in. The damage the Kardashian/Jenner’s have had to female body image is well documented. But in this age of increasing closeness with celebrities, we forget that they do not owe us anything. We need to remember that these are para-social, one sided relationships, and they aren’t asking for our opinions.

There is an irony in Moore, having just won an award for a movie on unrealistic Beauty standards, being in such close proximity to Jenner, a perpetuator of such standards. Moore herself was so stringently maintained, so far away from the old, forgotten woman she plays in ‘The Substance’. Both women maintain the same injectable modes of beautification (allegedly), and yet Moore’s achievements outshine her plastic. If anything, Kylie Jenner, a teenager who got rich on the backs of her sisters and her love of makeup, is more accessible to us than Moore. We just have to stop confusing that accessibility with a license to scrutinise her choice of boyfriend. So please, either put down your phone or the next time you see a post about a celebrity you don’t like; don't comment, just watch, like, or scroll on. 

What are your thoughts? Did Demi snub Kylie? Or is it blown out of proportion?