Another Kardashian family scandal has stormed social media. Tristan Thompson, the father of Khloé Kardashian’s baby True, cheated on her with Jordyn Woods. For those of you who are a little fuzzy on the names, Jordyn Woods is Kylie Jenner’s best friend and considered a part of the Kardashian/Jenner family. Although there are a lot of rumors circulating, those involved have confirmed the following: Jordyn Woods hurt someone she considered a sister by engaging in relations with their significant other. Khloé Kardashian is now a single mom, this being her second heart-wrenching end to a relationship. Kylie Jenner, who has been somewhat forgotten, has lost her support system and best friend. Tristan Thompson is a cheater, a heartbreaker and someone who shouldn’t be given the opportunity to commit.
Except, it’s not that simple.
Over the past few weeks, an insane amount of people have been expressing their hatred against Jordyn Woods online. Thousands of comments and messages are left daily tearing her apart as a person. People have even threatened her and her family to the point where they cannot leave the house safely. The punishment Jordyn Woods has been receiving for this mistake has been frightening. She’s taking the blame for her mistakes, but why is the internet taking this so far? It’s nothing new that when an accusation is made against someone, social media fights to ruin that person’s contentment. Except it’s important to reflect on how our judgments are contributing to the fire of hatred.
When Jordyn Woods decided to push Khloé aside and put her feelings for Tristan Thompson first, she slipped. I know there’s a time in everyone’s lives where they’ve put a crush or sexual opportunity before someone special in their life. For me, it was a middle school kiss with a guy my best friend was in love with. I still think about each detail of what happened and how wanting to get attention from a cute boy turned into losing an important person in my life. Days after my mistake, the school had heard and everyone was against me. People who once called me a friend shunned me; even the older students glared me down as I walked down the hallway.
The humiliation and isolation were intense, and I was reminded of my mistake everywhere I went. When I imagine the few people who felt hatred toward me multiplied by thousands, I shiver at the thought. This is exactly what Jordyn Woods is experiencing every second of the day. When you make a mistake, you have to deal with the consequences. How can we expect Jordyn to grow when these consequences are unreasonable?
The last day of middle school, I went up to the friend I betrayed and I started to cry. She let me hug her and apologize. I still remember to this day the way she looked me in the eye, smiled and said it was okay. Our friendship was never fixed, yet she taught me so much with just a short hug. Whenever someone wrongs you, they will be punished either mentally or by others. We must be bigger people by deciding not to join in punishing them but to respectfully forgive them.
We need to remember this when the Jordyn Woods scandal is being discussed and everyone’s judgments are thrown around. When a mistake is made, one can grow—but only with the help of others.