Opinion: Stop blaming Jordyn Woods for Tristan Thompson's bad behaviour

The internet, world, universe and beyond have all been rocked by the rollercoaster that has been the Jordyn Woods cheating scandal, and I’m going to stop you right there.

Can we please call this what it is: the Tristan Thompson cheating scandal.

When you lay a smooch on someone without asking, you’re missing the key ingredient of consent, and you become the central player.

Particularly if you’re the one with a family, and commitment and you know, a bigger stake.

We need to have a chat about power dynamics, consent and how the world’s most famous family have essentially ‘boy will be boys-ed’ us all and we’ve swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

My metaphor may be a little off, but not as off as the reaction to this story.

Honestly, everyone should be checking their calendars because it’s 2019 and we’re still holding a 20-year-old woman accountable for receiving a kiss from a 28-year-old, father-of-two, who has been proven unable to be in a committed relationship.

Now, I like my opinions as a side dish to a main of facts, so let me lay them on you.

The situation

So this whole mess unfolded because Jordyn went to an afterparty at Tristan Thompson’s rented home, sat on his arm rest, and then got hit with a surprise smooch on the way out the door, according to her account.

Jordyn told Jada Pinkett Smith on Red Table Talk that the kiss was unexpected and shocked her, she admitted responsibility for being drunk, and being present at the house, but remained adamant that she was kissed by Tristan.

Though Khloe said at one point that Jordyn had admitted to ‘making out with Tristan’, that’s the only reference we have to Jordyn changing her story, and it’s not really followed up.

Tristan told a different story, shifting the blame across both of them as recounted by Khloe.

“He already knew what was up and there was nothing else he could do but confirm it,” Khloe said on Keeping Up With the Kardashians last night, recounting what Tristan told her.

“I got my questions answered. Everyone left and Jordyn stayed. She was sitting on his lap on a chair, they were all over each other, they were handsy. They made out.”

So the classic ‘she said, he said’ situation unfolds and God knows why, but the Kardashians choose to run with Tristan’s version of events – probably because he’s been so steadfast and trustworthy in the past.

Boys will be boys

Remove the celebrity names and it’s an age old story that I’m just not swallowing anymore.

Because seriously, the fact that we still can’t believe women even when the odds are so stacked against the man is laughable.

This woman was drunk enough to be hazy on the details, her story has not changed, she’s much younger, and she’s not a known cheater or liar, and yet she - rather than the cheating dad - is the only person we’re talking about.

Tristan is essentially let off the hook because ‘that’s just the way he is’, despite the fact that as her baby’s father he actually owes far more responsibility and obligation to Khloe than Jordyn does.

"Jordyn and Tristan are both in the wrong," Khloé said. "But we all knew what Tristan is capable of.”

“Jordyn didn’t think about me, she didn’t think about Kylie, she didn’t think about my daughter,” she told the camera.

“She didn’t think about Tristan. And she didn’t think about herself.”

What’s happening here is that Jordyn is being held fully responsible for something that seems to have happened without her full awareness or consent, and blamed for destroying the family to the same extent Tristan Thompson is.

It is Tristan Thompson’s family.

By default he has more of an obligation to keep it together than his exe’s sister’s best friend does, and I hate that I even need to point that out.

They honestly may as well watermark the whole episode with: ‘Boys.will.be.boys.and.that.includes.fathers.because.they’re.still.boys.who.we.will.not.hold.accountable.’

And Jordyn cops the backlash

Just to pop a cherry on top of this concoction is the fact that Tristan Thompson is still riding high in a basketball career, while Jordyn was undone by the scandal.

Her Kylie Cosmetics collaboration was discounted in response.

Her campaign for Khloe’s Good America brand was pulled.

Her Instagram is flooded with abusive comments.

“He would be disappointed,” on an image of her and her late father.

“I hate you for what you have done to coco (Khloe),” on a bikini shot.

“YOU DESTROYED SUCH AN INCREDIBLE FAMILY,” on another.

She’s opened up about her family being under virtual house arrest in the immediate wake of the scandal thanks to the paparazzi camped outside her home.

Tristan’s Instagram? Not a peep.

Images of him with his daughter True at Khloe’s house include not one, single negative comment.

His whole Instagram page does not feature one comment about the saga, let alone any nasty comments holding him accountable for it.

He was on a plane when the whole thing unfolded, and is somehow still flying above the debris.

If Jordyn was dragged through the mud, Tristan Thompson got a speck of it on his shoes, flicked it off, and kept playing basketball.

And we’re the ones who let him do it, by swallowing this saga whole.

Changing tide

I’m not alone in my reaction to this episode either, Twitter is flooded with women saying the exact same thing.

I’m with this person, who like me, is hoping the Kardashians get called out for disregarding consent and shaming women based off the testimony of a known liar, pretty much just because he’s a man.

Now if we could please start holding men responsible for ruining their own home lives rather than looking for a ‘home-wrecker’ to shoulder the blame that would be great.

You know, let’s believe believable women for once.

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