On last night's season premiere of Dancing With The Stars, Amber Rose introduced herself as a "talk show host, a model, and a full-time mom." While Rose's resume is impressive, a video clip playing while she ticked off her roles and accomplishments seemed to identify her as simply Kayne West's ex.
Rather than show a clip from her new show, Rose's intro montage showed her on the red carpet getting a kiss from her ex-boyfriend West. Their relationship ended back in 2010. Clearly this wasn't the most recent red carpet clip the producers could get.
Though, it wouldn't be the last time Rose's ex came up. Practicing for her first dance, she told her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, she felt they were both misunderstood. "Everybody has a Kanye moment, once in a while," he replied. Humph, talk about awkward. It felt like an odd time to name drop West, and Rose seemed uncomfortable, assuring him, "I don't."
It's true that in most circles, West's fame eclipses Rose's, so those behind the show may just have been trying to give their viewers a frame of reference to understand who she is. But that's really no excuse to frame any woman as just "someone's former girlfriend." Rose is an actress and an author with her own talk show. She deserves to be introduced to a new audience in terms of her achievements, not by who she once dated.