Entertainment

Blac Chyna's Lawyer Included A Specific Definition In Her Court Docs

by Lia Beck
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Last week, a couple of days after Rob Kardashian posted allegations about Blac Chyna and nude photos of her on social media, things took a turn when it was announced that Blac Chyna was working with lawyer Lisa Bloom. If it wasn't already obvious that this wasn't one of the former couple's usual online feuds, the fact that Chyna hired a well-known lawyer, who had recently declared victory in a case involving allegedly revenge porn with her client Mischa Barton, made it very clear that things were different this time.

Now, Chyna has been granted a temporary restraining order against Kardashian, and through the process of doing so, Bloom made sure to define terms like "slut shaming" and "revenge porn" in the court documents, so that the court was fully aware of them and the effects these tactics can have on victims. Bloom believes this situation goes beyond just Chyna vs. Kardashian.

"I feel strongly that this is an important women’s rights issue because revenge porn victims are 90 percent female," Bloom says via phone shortly after the restraining order was granted. "This is something to do that’s done to shame women, to slut-shame women. We’ve already in our brief explained slut-shaming in our brief to the court, so the court will be fully apprised of the issue here, that this is something that can be very devastating for women and girls when explicit images of their bodies are posted, and that we have the right to choose at two different times which images of our body are going to be made public."

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

The court documents, which were shared with Bustle, state, "'Slut shaming’ is an attempt to humiliate the victim, almost always female, by suggesting that she has low morals and is disgusting and unworthy." Of revenge porn, they read,

"With the rise of smart phones and the Internet, a new method of intimate partner abuse was born: revenge porn (also called nonconsensual pornography). Surprising as it may be to older people, the majority of young adults (61 percent) have taken nude photos or videos of themselves and shared them with someone else."

Bloom tells Bustle that filing for the restraining orders is the path she and Chyna are using for now, in the hopes that it will have enough of an affect on Kardashian that they do not need to sue him or go to the police. She notes that this is also the path that was taken with Barton: "I had a prior case where I won a victory for my client Mischa Barton, where somebody was trying to shop around sex pics of her, and we were able to immediately go in and get restraining orders and block that."

The lawyer made clear from the start that she viewed working with Chyna as being part of a larger issue. In a press release she shared on Friday, Bloom wrote, "Chyna and I both believe that this is an important women’s rights issue, as too many women and girls have been slut-shamed by exes."

Now, she says that she is pleased with the "total and complete victory" she and her client had in court on Monday morning, and adds that she supports other women fighting for their rights. "I encourage women and girls to stand up for their rights," she says. "You know, Chyna last week was very devastated and beaten down, and I think today she’s doing much better, she had a big smile on her face. It’s always scary to stand up for your rights, but when you do, you can win. And set a good example of a good precedent for everyone else."

As for Kardashian, he is being represented by Robert Shapiro, who appeared in court of his behalf. TMZ reported early Monday that Kardashian would not dispute Chyna's request for a restraining order. Shapiro also told TMZ that Kardashian's posts were "a spontaneous reaction that he regrets." After the order was granted, the lawyer told reporters (via People), “Now we move forward to do one thing and one thing only — whatever is in the best interest of the child.”