Stop Celebrating Tyga and Kylie Jenner's Relationship
As it stands now, Tyga's biggest consequence from dating the still very much a minor Kylie Jenner will be really bad casting on a future episode of Law & Order: SVU chronicling their relationship.
Seemingly aware of this reality, Tyga is reportedly gloating about it. The 25-year-old rapper is said to be "defiant" about his relationship with the youngest Jenner sister. Per TMZ, Tyga "doesn't care about the laws prohibiting adults from having sex with minors." So we've noticed.
In his mind, Tyga apparently feels that Kylie is "more mature than most adults." Tyga must not know many people his age group and up. His rationale, though, is that she is a millionaire who runs a business and owns her home. Considering Tyga's upper middle class background, the taxes his parents paid in year's past should've made sure he went to good schools who taught students how to think critically.
Sure, Kylie has a business, but it's a business run majorly through her mother and secured through the popularity of her older sister, Kim Kardashian. Such is the point of New York Times magazine profile of the Kardashian matriarch, aptly entitled “Where Would the Kardashians Be Without Kris Jenner?” As writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner notes with respect to the family’s very long list of successes, “The thing is, no one in her family knew what they were doing until Kris took charge.”
Tyga may genuinely like Kylie albeit illegally, but basing that allure on “maturation” is a joke. She’s not running the show; she’s merely a part of it. Now he’s enjoying the perks of jumping on the bandwagon. This is what Kanye West was alluding to in an interview with Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club/ “I think he got in early, I think he was smart," he disgustingly said. "They’re closer in age than a lot of relationships I know. I knew Tyga was smart, you know.”
Considering Kanye West has a thing for molding the women in his life, I imagine he would think Tyga “getting in early” would be “smart.” I’d love to see how “smart” he finds the man who may one day try this on his own daughter.
Regardless of what Tyga is said to feel about Kylie’s “maturity,” he has known her since she was a child. There is footage from the show of a then 14-year-old Kylie Jenner flirting with Tyga. That family can try to spin this all they’d like, but there’s something wrong with an adult man dating a teenager that he got closer to because his baby mama used to be BFFs with her older sister.
Unfortunately, none of this matters because TMZ highlights exactly why Tyga "doesn't give a f*** about what the law says": the police cannot do anything about it. They won’t investigate a statutory rape claim unless someone complains, and thus far, no one has. I wouldn’t expect Kylie’s mother to say anything ever. In her NYT mag profile, it is explained that Kris Jenner met her first husband, Robert Kardashian, when she was 17 while he was “a lawyer 11 years her senior.” This is probably the part in which people will counter, “See! See! It’s common.” What’s common and what’s right are not always intertwined.
Even so, as far as them being a couple, that is settled. That cannot be changed. What can and should, however, is how we collectively discuss their relationship. For several months now, I’ve watched media outlets — namely the news division of the network that airs Keeping Up with The Kardashians (nonstop) — gush about their relationship as if it is the cutest thing ever. I should not be reading headlines like “Kylie Jenner and Tyga Go Christmas Shopping Hand in Hand: 'They Definitely Looked Like a Couple'" that include sentences such as, “Prior to their sweet PDA-filled day of retail therapy, Kylie and Tyga were seen grabbing a bite to eat at trendy Beverly Hills eatery Spago on Thursday for a fancy little date night, and were all smiles as they left their late-night meal.”
This is the kind of write up R. Kelly would do. Well, if he could read. The same goes for stories about them doing charity together, “standing side by side and serving green beans and yams.” Cut it out already.
This sort of narrative normalizes statutory rape, and no matter the commonality some will argue, their relationship doesn’t deserve glamorizing. Tyga is not the first celebrity to get away with this. Just ask R. Kelly and Woody Allen. Uh, allegedly.
Nonetheless, even if no one can get the authorities involved, the least people who do know better can do is not write about it in a way that makes it acceptable. It only fuels Tyga’s belief that he’s not doing anything “morally wrong.” He can pretend to not to know any better, but a lot of the young girls reading these articles may not.