Kanye West: Is He A Bully And Should Hollywood Tolerate Bullies?

Kanye West went up the stage totally uninvited as Taylor Swift received an award during the MTV Awards held on September 13, 2009. West grabbed the microphone to say that Beyoncé should have won the award instead for best music video — even though the award for Swift had been rightfully bestowed by popular votes.

This Kanye West incident, for which U.S. President Barack Obama called the rapper a jackass, is probably the best proof that Kanye is used to having his way. It’s my way or the highway, his action seems to speak for itself. In the Rolling Stone article, the American president minces no words in name-calling the Life of Pablo rapper. Also, there was no denying that Obama was chastising Kanye West for his appalling action during the MTV Awards night witnessed by millions of TV viewers.

Now, try to put yourself in Taylor Swift’s shoes. How would you feel if Kanye West did the same thing to you? Surprisingly, there was no violent reaction on the part of the “Blank Space” singer on the night the incident happened.

Fast-forward to the present time, and Kanye West does it again, but with the help of his socialite and beauty queen wife, Kim Kardashian West. This time, West uses bait-and-switch tactics, which he has tried before, as source ABC shows. In a phone conversation now infamously known as Taylorgate, the rapper engages Taylor Swift in a conversation, reports Vox. Kanye reveals to her the main lyrics of his rap/song “Famous” — that’s the bait. And here’s the switch: West doesn’t tell Taylor that he was going to call him a b***h in his now infamous music composition.

Kanye knows only too well that had he revealed such crucial detail in the conversation, Taylor Swift would have hung up on him immediately.

Sharon Rachel Osbourne Calls Kanye West A 'Bully' Over Taylor-West Feud https://t.co/Qdw5VHxDrY #KanyeWest

— FilmiBeat (@filmibeat) July 21, 2016

Sharon Osbourne calls Kanye West a bully, advising Taylor Swift to just ignore what happened and move on.

“Everybody knows that he is a bully,” says Osbourne in The Talk, according to The Sun.

The Guardian, meanwhile, paints a picture of a conflicted Kanye West who is torn between trying to pass himself off as an avant garde artist and trying to make big bucks out of exploiting Taylor Swift in the “Famous” music video. The following is what the source says verbatim.

“Inspired by painter Vincent Desiderio and featuring lookalikes of naked celebrities, the video has art world pretentions, but insiders aren’t so sure.”

In order to dissect Kanye’s latest opus, The Guardian would consult a curator at a New York gallery. The curator, who declined to be identified, says the following.

“Kanye is using the body of Taylor Swift without asking her and putting her in this submissive position. Sure, he’s making a comment on television culture and appropriation, and he’s calling it art, but I don’t know if you can call something art just because it stirs up controversy.”

In October 2009, after the VMA incident, a previously scheduled concert tour featuring Kanye West and Lady Gaga was canceled according to Rolling Stone.

The Lady has always been a very vocal proponent of anti-bullying. In her social media pages, Mother Monster advocates that bullying should never be tolerated. She has also disclosed in the past how she herself has been victimized by bullying in school.

Although it cannot be fully substantiated whether the canceled collaboration between Lady Gaga and Kanye West was a direct result of the ugly VMA incident, some people have speculated that this may well be the case. And that includes Rolling Stone, which wrote the following.

“West stole the spotlight from Taylor Swift at MTV’s Video Music Awards on September 13th… the presale date listed on some of the concerts was just two days after the Swift incident.”

What about you? Do you believe that the canceled music collaboration between Lady Gaga and Kanye West had anything to do with the latter’s bullying of Taylor Swift? Also, must Hollywood celebrities continue to turn a blind eye on bullying within their ranks or must they take a concerted action to address the issue?

[Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images]