Tristan Thompson cheated on Khloé Kardashian.
This is not the most surprising piece of celebrity news. The beginnings of the relationship are a bit dubious – Thompson allegedly cheated on his ex-girlfriend Jordan Craig with Kardashian. Craig was pregnant when Thompson and Kardashian began dating in September 2016.
Then, in April 2018, during Kardashian’s pregnancy, Thompson cheated on her with Instagrammer Lani Blair.
As the saying goes, “once a cheater, always a cheater.”
But neither of these events stayed in the gossip columns for very long, and neither Kardashian nor Blair was blamed excessively for the cheating.
Jordyn Woods is a different story.
The Woods “scandal” broke around Feb. 20. Over the weekend, Thompson had cheated on Kardashian with Woods. At the time, Woods lived with Kardashian’s sister, Kylie Jenner. Woods moved out of Jenner’s house, Thompson and Kardashian split up, and it seemed that all might return to normal in the celebrity gossip world.
But, alas. Here we are, over a month later, still talking about Woods. Googling her name pulls up dozens of articles, some covering topics seemingly unrelated to cheating. Why?
In popular culture, the idea of the “other woman” is fairly popular. There’s even a movie about it. The other woman is on the other side of an affair, and she’s often blamed for the cheating.
In this case, every tidbit of news on Woods is related to her cheating, while news on Thompson and Kardashian is related to their occupations. Thompson is equally, if not more, responsible for his infidelity. Yet Woods continues to be the focus of the drama and has taken the brunt of the blame.
The Kardashian-Jenner family views the scandal as a betrayal because Woods was Kylie Jenner’s best friend. But Thompson was Khloé Kardashian’s boyfriend, so his betrayal should carry the same weight.
As a society, we tend to blame women for the failures of a relationship. The other woman is often blamed more than the cheater himself. This scandal is no different.
Worse, the Kardashian-Jenners have begun to use Thompson’s infidelity to make money.
In the trailer for Season 16 of their reality TV show, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” Khloé Kardashian said, “I’m not just a TV show. Like, this is my life.”
Then, the entire trailer focuses on the drama and recovery of this cheating scandal. Despite saying she would prefer to keep the whole ordeal out of the public eye, the entire trailer laments the pain she is in.
Kardashian claims to wish this scandal was kept out of the public eye. But everyone, from the Kardashian-Jenner family to the tabloids, is benefitting from Thompson’s cheating. The only one who’s not is Jordyn Woods.
