Amber Rose's Instagram Made People Really Mad

Just when the aftermath of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s divorce was settling down in the media — as much as such a thing can ever settle down — other celebrities have taken it upon themselves to chime in on these very personal matters. But when Amber Rose reportedly posted some pictures of Angelina Jolie to Instagram, pictures in which Jolie is in intimate embraces with her ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton, people thought the pictures were both ill-timed and in poor taste. And I can’t say that I completely disagree with them. However, I also think people being categorically upset with Rose without understanding the reasoning behind her posts is a little short-sighted.

In the wake of these pictures reportedly being posted on social media, that is what a lot of people did. They jumped to conclusions and assumed that Rose was capitalizing on someone else’s personal life in order to gain likes or followers or any bit of media attention she could get. While I understand that Rose’s posts look like that at first glance, a closer look reveals a different reason behind those photos.

Each photo includes the hashtag “slutwalk2016,” referring to the Slut Walk that Rose started, whose mission, according to the website, is to “raise awareness about sexual injustice and gender inequality.” With the context of this hashtag in mind, I can totally see what she was trying to do with these pictures. Not only is she using Jolie as an example of a woman — a famous woman, no less — who has been, in the past, unjustly labeled because of her outspoken sexuality (when she was married to Billy Bob Thornton, their PDA was often the topic of conversation), but she’s also bringing awareness to all of the ways in which sexual injustices happen to women around the world.

The fact that women are criticized when they present themselves as sexual beings is just one of the things that the Slut Walk is hoping to shed light on and change.

Still, I do understand why some people, even after knowing the context in which these photos were posted, are upset. Rose definitely is capitalizing on someone else’s personal life during a very vulnerable time in their lives, and that, no matter what the initial intention, is not a very nice thing to do. But, thankfully, it seems like even she has realized this as well. Soon after the pictures were posted, the photos were taken down. The damage has been inadvertently done, but the removal of the photos is further proof to me of Rose's initial good intentions in making the posts in the first place — and a sign that the immediate backlash made her take timing into account after all.