The Casual Cruelty of Amanda Batula: A Deep Dive Into the Summer House Scandal

Until a few months ago, everything I learned about the cast of Summer House was against my will. Frankly, I did not care to learn who Amanda Batula and West Wilson were, let alone to know the details of their friend group dynamics or when they did or did not turn their locations off. Ciara Miller was just a beautiful woman who crossed my timeline every now and then, who seemed smart, savvy, and the perfect person to shine on reality TV. That was the extent of my knowledge of this trio before the bombshell scandal broke that Amanda and West were hooking up behind Ciara’s (her best friend and his ex-girlfriend) back. There’s also the juicy detail that Amanda is still legally married to Kyle Cooke, who was also good friends with West. They lied to the rest of the Summer House cast for months, causing a seismic rift in their friend group. It’s the perfect gossip storm, and enough to get me to tap all the way in. For the past few months, I’ve inhaled old episodes, watched every second of all three parts of the Summer House Season 10 Reunion and Summer House: The Aftermath bonus episode, and gone down Reddit rabbit holes for all the receipts, proof, timelines! (I’ve also gotten a crash course in Bravo lingo). The Amanda-West-Ciara situation is fascinating for a lot of reasons, but the biggest thing I’ve noticed is how so many people within the Bravo cast, the fandom, and on the internet keep treating Amanda Batula like a victim. 

Again, I preface the following thoughts with the fact that I’m new to the Summer House world, but in everything I have observed — especially during the reunion — Amanda is a cold, fraudulent, male-centered, vain social climber. From what I’ve seen, yes, she’s also ignorant, insecure, and careless. But I don’t think she’s stupid or oblivious. Amanda’s insecurity does not excuse her inhumanity. To paint Amanda as just another poor girl West Wilson has played would be completely depriving her of the credit she deserves. She didn’t meet West at a bar and unwittingly fall into the manipulation of a stranger she thought she could trust. Amanda watched West break her friend’s heart repeatedly, toy with multiple women, and still chose to enter into a relationship with him. That’s deliberate and diabolical. And if Amanda wasn’t white, I think we’d be having a different conversation. 

This is the narrative we are being sold: Amanda is weak, fragile, and just wants to be loved. West took advantage of her. West manipulated her. Amanda is the damsel in distress and West is the big bad fuckboy who locked Amanda in a tower and forced her to betray her best friend. In the bonus episode Bravo aired last night, Amanda sits down with Lindsay Hubbard, who fans affectionately call “Mother Hubbard,” and Lindsay gives her some tough love. Lindsay pulls no punches, but she also continues to push the idea that West tricked Amanda into dating him. When Lindsay calls out Amanda for going after the “one guy” who hurt Ciara over and over, Amanda goes straight to her defense that West “pursued” her and tearfully explains that she felt “unloveable.” 

After the reunion. Ciara was called “too harsh” and “mean” and a “bully” and yet Ciara showed more emotion on that reunion stage than Amanda did over the dissolution of their friendship. Ciara’s tears are interpreted as strength while Amanda’s are seen as fragility. As Ciara cried that she never thought they’d be in the situation they’re in, after she was there for Amanda during her worst years with Kyle, Amanda looked on stonefaced (and probably stoned). Amanda had little to say for herself throughout the reunion, dropping in halfhearted excuses or a “yeah, no, I know” every now and then with a defensive tone. She came across entitled and combative. The one time Amanda got visibly emotional and left the stage was after she admitted to feeling embarrassed that she was pursuing a relationship with West while he was seeing someone else (Meija Moreno and who knows who else). When castmate Mia Calabrese told her that yes, in fact, that detail is embarrassing, Amanda broke down and left the stage. We see Amanda get upset when it’s about her and her feelings, not Ciara or their friendship. In the moments during the reunion when Andy tried to get her to confront how much of a betrayal her actions were, Amanda would steer the conversation back to herself or make excuses. Wait, do beta blockers make you a bad friend?

It was the same playbook during the Lindsay Aftermath sitdown. The emotion only comes when Amanda is talking about herself and why she made her dumb decisions, not who she has harmed through her choices. I think that’s because Amanda doesn’t actually care about hurting Ciara. If she did, she wouldn’t have let it get this far with West. If she did, she wouldn’t have gone to Italy with West after she saw how much harm she had caused. The recklessness and entitlement cannot be divorced from Amanda’s whiteness. She’s the one who will get the benefit of the doubt. She can afford to make these irresponsible decisions because she knows that people will ultimately pity her. Ciara held Amanda’s face in her hands and told her she was worth something, told her that she loved her, and that she was there for her. Amanda refused to take the love and value that was being offered to her from her friend and instead decided to seek it from a man. She refused to accept Ciara’s invitations to go out and instead partied with West so she could feel chosen and “like [herself] again.” It’s self-hatred and deep-seeded misogyny on full display, but it’s also the same inclination we’ve seen so many white women lean towards throughout history. 

White women like Amanda will choose men and their own self interests (and choose men over their own self interest) consistently, and use their tears as a weapon.