The Stigma Around Kanye
Source: NPR
Kanye West does not need help making a headline. Amid his public divorce and Instagram rampages, West’s mental health has become part of a public discussion commonly mishandled by the media. When is it appropriate to give culpability to his bipolar disorder for his behavior, and when is mental illness no longer an excuse?
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, bipolar disorder is a mental illness that causes extreme mood shifts, specifically inducing repeated episodes of depression and mania. West, who recently simplified his name to ‘Ye’, has exhibited manic and depressive behaviors since the beginning of his career, making controversial and concerning comments, tweets, posts and music that have kept his name in mainstream media headlines. However, his mental health took a considerable decline after the passing of his beloved mother Donda West in 2007 and again in 2016 during his hospitalization during The Saint Pablo Tour. West received his bipolar diagnosis in 2016 as well.
After witnessing these episodes of mania and depression, society has made West the subject of several jokes, with his bipolar disorder as the punchline. From memes about his stoic demeanor to the infamous “no one loves Kanye like Kanye loves Kanye'' gag, there are underlying slights to the symptoms of bipolar disorder West most likely experiences, including emotional lows, exaggerated self-confidence and delusions of grandeur. By joking about some of West’s actions that may be closely associated with his mental illness, we perpetuate the stigma around mental health by ignoring the very real symptoms and emotions he is experiencing.
"What I want to say about the bipolar thing is because it has the word 'bi' in it, it has the idea of, like, split personality,” West said in an interview with David Letterman in 2019. “You can become almost more adolescent in your expression or border into places. This is my specific experience that I've had,” he explained.
The rapper’s latest controversy surrounds his recent divorce from social media mogul Kim Kardashian. Kardashian filed for divorce from West in Feb. 2021, asking for joint custody of their four children. The two remained cordial throughout the process, with Kardashian even donning her wedding dress to recreate her wedding to West at the listening event for his album “Donda'' last summer.
However, once Kardashian began dating Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson – who West was previously friends with – in Oct. 2021, West began to harass the couple on social media through Instagram posts and stories. Kardashian refrained from engaging with West until he publicly questioned her parenting of their daughter North, asking in an Instagram post how to handle his eight-year-old posting to TikTok. He received major backlash, but that backlash has since been replaced by fascination for his apparently manic posting.
Prior to their divorce, Kardashian would often come to West’s defense to promote understanding of her husband’s mental illness. “As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand,” she said in a 2020 Instagram story.
“He is a brilliant but complicated person on top of the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bipolar disorder,” she added in a second story.
In the last few months, West has continued to write tirades on social media, posting to his Instagram grid multiple times a day in all caps about Kardashian and Davidson, and calling out fellow artists such as Kid Cudi and Billie Eilish. On March 2, he released the music video for his song “Eazy”, which depicts him kidnapping and burying Davidson.
When one commenter said West was “off the meds,'' he responded with "DISMISSIVE TO SAY IM OFF MY MEDS ANYTIME I SPEAK UP.” While medication can be a positive experience for some, it is still a personal decision that does not work for all individuals. It is unfair to West and anyone suffering from mental health problems to suggest that medication could obviously correct irrational behavior, when that is not how mental health medication works, nor are the two always related. It’s also offensive and potentially triggering to say someone is “off their meds” when you don’t know what they’re going through, in addition to increasing the public associations between words like ‘crazy’ and the concept of mental illness.
“When I would see Kanye go off in the past, I just thought it was a part of the show,” narrated Coodie in the third installment of “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy”, a recent documentary about West’s life by directors Coodie and Cike. Following West’s hospitalization for a psychiatric emergency in 2016, many of the rapper’s friends realized he was experiencing serious mental health issues.
Most of social media has belittled West’s situation, finding humor in his frenzied outbursts about friends and family. However, mental illness does not grant an individual the license to mistreat their loved ones, especially on a public platform. While West’s actions could be fueled by a manic episode, he still has to be held accountable for his behavior to help him and his family heal later on. West is privileged enough to have the resources to receive help, yet the stigma around his mental illness and controversial personality has put him at a severe disadvantage.
The media’s mocking attitude towards West and his behavior sets a dangerous precedent that celebrities are entertainment before people, that their mental health issues can provide us with humor. Kanye is not guilt-free in many of his actions, but he deserves the human dignity of not being laughed at. He also does not have any management to stop his social media use, which has damaged valuable relationships. Those close to him should be intervening, not only for his own well-being, but for his children who have to reckon with their father’s actions and the world’s inaction.