MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Kanye’s bare bum, his near-naked ‘wife’, her head in his crotch… all for the world to see. So will this vile new low be enough to bring him to HIS knees?

It seems that even this footage isn’t enough to sideline Kanye West.

This latest stunt marks the nadir of his misogyny: What appears to be an intimate act performed in publicin a boat in Venice, in a Catholic country at the height of the tourist season, his “wife” – always in scared quotes, not even giving her the dignity of formal recognition – can seem to be on her knees, her head between his legs Her face was not so much of ecstasy, but of despair.

It all feels so smug and desperate. Pornographic, really. But double standards are stubborn things, especially if you claim, as Kanye does, that you’re extremely Christian — to the point where you start your own church.

If this were Kanye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian, she would be called an unfit mother, a national disgrace, a slut and a whore.

Recall that Britney Spears, Kanye’s female counterpart as a fallen star, was ripped apart this summer for much less: chasing a newly minted NBA star through a Vegas lobby; installing a stripper pole in her house; posting videos of her dancing in crop tops; go divorce; lose her sons.

Her mental illness is still something the culture despises. Kanye’s is something the culture finds fascinating.

Lizzo’s alleged debauchery – unproven, just alleged – led to her prompt cancellation. HBO’s “The Idol” is no longer around and has been criticized for its pornographic misogyny and glorified rape fantasies.

But Kanye West, bare-ass hanging, his “wife” nestled in his crotch for tourists and long lenses? The outrage feels muffled.

He has rightly been called to account for so many unforgivable statements.

West is a fanatical anti-Semite. Perhaps his worst statement was this tweet from last October: “I’m going death con 3 against Jewish people.”

That same month, he wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt—the mantra of neo-Nazis and white supremacists—at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris that same month.

And Ye, as he’s now known, had real consequences: He lost fashion partnerships with Balenciaga, the Gap, and Adidas, a consequent $400 million loss in revenue that kicked him off his much-anticipated spot on the Forbes Billionaires List. . He was dropped by his law firm and Creative Artists Agency and lost athletic partnerships. He was denounced by many celebrities and is now, by all accounts, a fringe figure.

And yet he perseveres. However, there is one sin for which he still has to suffer, and that is his misogyny. Is it enough to bring him to his knees?

Also: Does anyone think Kim Kardashian would want this version of him around their four kids? Or the daughter he once publicly said he was thinking about having an abortion? By the way, at a rally he held while running for president of the United States in 2020?

Imagine Britney running for president. Or Lizzo.

Kanye West has always had issues with women. It’s been evident since 2009, when he ambushed Taylor Swift onstage as she accepted MTV’s Best Video by a Female Artist at the VMAs.

“I’ll let you finish,” he said—how kindly—”but Beyoncé had one of the greatest videos of all time!”

Swift was 19 years old.

Then came Kim Kardashian — a quid pro quo relationship for sure, but Kim later admitted that Kanye made her insecure: about her looks, her physical appearance, her level of taste. He insisted on giving her an extreme makeover, part of which was filmed for “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

“I always thought I had really good style,” Kardashian told a Business of Fashion panel in 2018. “Until I met my husband, and he told me I had the worst style.”

He threw out most of her wardrobe and filled her closet with designer clothes and shoes. He sent emails telling her what she could and couldn’t wear. He took her to Paris to meet high-end designers, but Kim was rejected.

“No one would dress me,” she said — except for Kanye’s close friend Riccardo Tisci, who was at Givenchy at the time.

The pair tucked a heavily pregnant Kardashian into a form-fitting floral abode for her first Met Gala in 2013. It became known as “the couch dress,” a humiliation that left her in tears.

“I cried all the way home,” Kardashian told Vogue in 2019. “There were all memes about me and this couch.”

After divorcing Kardashian in 2021, West moved on to C-list actress Julia Fox.

She too received a total image overhaul courtesy of West.

“After I met him a few days later, all my stuff was in boxes, gone,” Fox told Interview magazine last year. She was told that if she wanted to be seen in public with West, she had to meet his sartorial approval.

Fox went from a garden star to a serious-looking would-be sex bomb seemingly overnight. She lost weight, donned skin-tight leather S&M ensembles and crop tops, pieces of fabric that exposed her body, dark black eye makeup streaks that made her look like something out of “Blade Runner.”

Anything for a month-long romance.

Now Kanye’s new “wife,” Bianca Censori, has undergone a transformation just as rapid, but even more disturbing: wrapped head-to-toe in what appear to be sheer tights, her long hair cut off, her head often boxed or otherwise. obscured, effectively rendering a young, attractive woman unable to see, speak, or express herself in any way.

This is what Kanye West thinks about women.

We’ve heard all the excuses for his many transgressions: Kanye is a genius. He is mentally ill. He is a performance artist, a provocateur, an afterthought who holds up a mirror to our own cultural absurdities.

How about this: Kanye West is a misogynist. He seems to hate the women he associates with, and the more they submit to him, the more he seems to dislike them.

So add women to the population Kanye West despises. May this last humiliation finally make him a persona non grata.