It was a little surprising to see Kanye West and his wife, Bianca Censori, walk the Grammys 2025 red carpet at all, but their appearance still seemed designed to attract maximum attention.

West wore a black T-shirt tucked into black pants while his wife, Censori, was essentially completely nude. By which I mean she wore a completely sheer, flesh-toned slip with no undergarments underneath. When the couple first walked the carpet, Censori was wearing a black fur coat, which she then dropped to reveal her nudity beneath. Though West was nominated for a 2025 Grammy, the couple reportedly left shortly after the red carpet, suggesting that the whole appearance was merely a stunt.

 

In paparazzi photos together, Censori is often wearing very little to nothing at all, which has sparked feminist debate about her willing, or perhaps not-so-willing, participation in this public spectacle. Because it would be one thing if West wore his own mesh stocking and appeared equally naked. But, to see him fully dressed next to his unclothed wife simply feels exploitative and, frankly, misogynistic. I’m not going to sit here and speculate about the nature of the couple’s relationship or suggest that I know who decided on this particular look for the evening. However, the image it presents allows Kanye West to appear as a serious person while his wife is portrayed as a sex object.

It recalls the music video for West’s song “Famous,” in which he showed depictions of various celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Donald Trump, lying naked in bed with him—without his subjects’ consent to have their likenesses included. The video was compared to revenge porn on Twitter, a narrative that was cosigned by Swift herself when she liked the post.

 

There is also the fact that this is Kanye West’s first major public appearance since 2022, when his antisemitic tweets and public comments got his account temporarily suspended from Twitter and resulted in the termination of his partnership with Adidas, among other troubling controversies.