Sigh. Kimberly. What are we going to do with you. This woman wore cornrows while referring to them as Bo Derek braids, got blasted for both cultural appropriation and for just generally sounding totally ignorant about their significance, immediately doubled down on the Bo Derek thing because she apparently gives no f*cks, and then stuck to her guns AGAIN in Elle in May. And now here she is once more, with feeling. Certainly, I understand that the line between appreciation and appropriation is one that many people are nervous to walk, or don’t know how to do while staying on the correct side, but in that situation my response would be: Err on the side of caution. Kim errs on the side of blankness. This all might play a bit differently if she’d shown signs in any of her various statements that she’s open to the larger discussion beyond just “Bo Derek is rad,” or shown any introspection or intellectual curiosity or ability to stretch her perceptions AT ALL. So instead, she just comes across as intractable and like kind of a jerk. I can’t tell if she actually just legitimately doesn’t care about the conversation, refuses to hear it, or sincerely doesn’t understand it. I think it’s a combination, heavily weighted toward Door No. 1.
