What We See in Bianca Censori’s Birthday Suit

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The Public Spectacle of Bianca Censori 

It’s hard to imagine Kanye West and his wife, Bianca Censori attending the Grammys — even if he is nominated. I imagine such an event is far too corporate and performative of an industry spectacle and that he would rather spend his night on X (Twitter) blaming the fiasco on “the Jews.” But there I was — watching a pre-Grammys livestream on my parents’ couch when my jaw dropped. West and Censori made a rare red carpet appearance and just when I thought she had bared it all, Censori stepped into frame wearing the sheerest, thinnest, minniest dress on planet Earth. Her body nude underneath. 

It didn’t take long for the world to react. And not in the form of the collective slut-shaming one might expect, but something different altogether — A collective consensus that her husband must be making her dress this way. And since the scene, West has gone on another X (Twitter) tirade of obscene, anti-semetic, racist and misogynistic rhetoric. And what does his wife have to say about all of it? Nothing. Again. And yes, this can aid as evidence in the conspiracy theory that West has completely revoked his wife’s autonomy, but might it also be indicative of complicity?

West boasts about their lopsided power dynamic, but I can’t help but wonder: To what extent is Bianca Censori accountable for both her own public image and her relationship with Kanye West — after all, are you defined by the company you keep?

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Is Coercion Illegal? 

Once a reserved model with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture, Bianca was catapulted into the limelight following a gig as a Yeezy designer. 2022 was a big year for West — his divorce from Kim Kardashian was finalized, he began dating Censori (his then-employee) and he declared his love for Hitler on Alex Jones’s podcast.  

“Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” he said on InfoWars. “It’s time to promote love… I do love Hitler.”

And though it might be easy to imagine yourself ending a new relationship with a man who just praised Hitler in viral clips that everybody is going to see, let’s peel back the layers — pun intended.

Naturally, West denies any claims of having the kind of control he’s accused of, but he did post this to X regarding Censori’s nude carpet look: 

“I HAVE DOMINION OVER MY WIFE.” 

Which isn’t great for his case. Nonetheless, he continued, “PEOPLE SAY THE RED CARPET LOOK WAS HER DECISION YES I DON’T MAKE HER DO NOTHING SHE DOESN’T WANT TO BUT SHE DEFINITELY WOULDNT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO IT WITHOUT MY APPROVAL YOU STUPID ASS WOKE PAWNS.” 

And in a move that I can only assume was a defense against claims that Censori is a victim of West’s coercions, he posted to Instagram a since-deleted screenshot of Google’s AI-generated “overview” answering a question: “Yes, coercion is illegal. Coercion is the act of forcing someone to do something against their will through threats or intimidation.” 

I'M KING. NOW, BITCH AMONGST YOURSELVES

This I believe is him insinuating that, though he does have “dominion” over Censori, he does not coerce her. And I find the chosen vocabulary fascinating as well. The term “dominon” is basically only used in the Bible and property law, predominantly laws pertaining to countries with monarchs — which interests me because it’s clear to see that the artist does see himself as a kind of god or king — something especially evident in his tweet that said, “IM NOT GENTLE  IM KING  NOW BITCH AMONGST YOURSELVES,” or his other tweet from the same day: “ONE THING ABOUT BEING GOD ON EARTH IS YOU HAVE TO CONSTANTLY FORGIVE EVERY HUMAN.”

So the artist has been out of the media for a year and makes his big reappearance at the Grammys, his wife in the nude, and spends the next week spewing obscene ramblings on social media — ramblings that are uniting neo-nazis and bigots from all over the world. 

Silence Can Be the Most Eloquent Response

As of today, Censori has not denounced her husband's hate-speech nor has she expressed unease in her attire — granted, she hasn’t expressed much of anything at all. Has Censori met and married a man who simply made space for her to finally express herself in the way she’s always wanted? Or does the man have dominion over her? What we can note is that West has a history of influencing his ex’s wardrobes. 

Most notably, he was married to Kim Kardashian — and when their romance was just blooming in 2012, fashion quickly became an innermost element of their dynamic. This isn’t speculation — In a post-breakup episode of The Kardashians, Kim, teary-eyed, discussed her complex relationship with fashion — without West — sharing that throughout their six-year marriage, he would go to extreme lengths to craft Kim’s style to his vision — including once flying to Paris just to help her with an outfit. Albeit, Kim’s look was a world apart from what’s being seen of Censori — the style choices were respected and admired. But she did confess to a dependency on Kanye’s opinion, saying that she felt she needed his approval on “almost everything” she wore — and that the void was felt. 

And despite being dressed under his vision, she’s provided no indication that she was ever forced to dress in his image — nor has his current wife. 

“I hope she’s OK”

Alyssa Farah Griffin said on The View that she hopes Censori is “OK because that whole [Grammys] thing was very uncomfortable for most women to watch,” and The View alum Meghan McCain posted to X that Censori looked like a “victim and a hostage” 

These ideas are perpetuated by the ever-reactive court of public opinion, and what has Censori said? Nothing. All things considered, privacy is not an unorthodox preference for those who marry into the spotlight, but those non-public figures aren’t often paraded in front of cameras… in the nude. 

A Decidedly Modern Fairy Tale

I wonder — when does complicity matter and why do we infantilize some women as “helpless” while others are held responsible for their choices? Take Melania Trump, and the #FreeMelania memes, for instance. While she received some criticism, she’s often portrayed as an aloof, unwilling participant rather than someone who has chosen to stand by Trump and defend him throughout his numerous scandals — from the Access Hollywood tape to sexual misconduct accusations. 

Though they’re not in the White House, Kanye seems them as royalty — and Bianca fits neatly into a familiar role. As The Atlantic’s Megan Garber puts it, there’s a “long-standing narrative in pop culture: the cheeky but also insistent assumption that the new first lady is the sad and sleepy heroine of a decidedly modern fairy tale.”

While, certainly, Censori’s case is a progressive shift from society scapegoating women for the actions of men — like when Yoko Ono’s feminine seduction was said to have broken up The Beatles or when the maniacal womanhood of Marla Maples wrecked the home of Ivana and Donald Trump. Of course The Beatles couldn’t have split because of work-related disagreements — It had to have been that… girl! And Donald Trump couldn’t have been accountable for his own relationships. That “homewrecking woman” destroyed their family — Not the fact that the relationship involved a man who’d later boast about not even having to wait because “when you’re a star, [women] let you do it… Grab ‘em by the pussy.” Oh pfft, that’s just locker room talk. “Boys will be boys, after all,” countless people have recited, punctuating critical thought.

But I do wonder — Under what conditions do we choose to condemn — and when are we concerned? Why do we infantilize some adult women? What has Censori told or shown us that leads us to believe she isn’t aligned with her husband’s actions and thoughts — or at least complicit to them. 

Free the Nipple

What Censori’s birthday suit does tell us is that — despite the work of the “free the nipple” movement and society’s perpetual advocacy for the autonomy of women, the world still can’t seem to imagine that such a choice would be her own. Indeed, West claims she has agency while simultaneously bragging about his dominion over her, but is Censori utterly void of responsibility? 

She’s nude, therefore she must be controlled by a man — or is it possible Censori wants to be… naked?