Women We Love To Hate
With feminism and the current women support women attitude that permeates a lot of Millennial and Gen Z culture, it can sometimes feel like women can do no wrong. We’re lead to believe that feeling bad feelings toward another woman makes us bad women …but that’s bullshit. While I agree that women need to support one another, it’s ridiculous to act like a woman can’t just genuinely not like or have valid criticisms toward another woman. Personalities clash and bad actions hurt just the same (maybe more sometimes) even when the two parties are both women. Women need to hold each other accountable.
So while my last post focused on a list of famous women who are pretty much universally loved, this time around I asked followers to tell me the famous women they couldn’t stand. Are the criticisms and issues we have with these famous women valid? Let’s find out.
- In 2013, Kristen Stewart made Star magazine’s most hated celebrities list at number two. This came a year after wrapping up her time in the Twilight Saga and being caught making out with the married director of her movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, while dating Twilight costar Robert Pattinson. Fans were LIVID! She got so much hate for something that, at 22, was shitty to do but not the end of the world. The director, 41 year old Rupert Sanders, didn’t get half the hate Kristen did AND he was the one married, with children, and in a position of power. On top of the slut-shaming she endured, Kristen Stewart was accused of bad acting and having an asshole personality…two opinions that seem to persist with some people to this day. I’m definitely guilty of thinking she was an asshole during her Twilight tenure. Thinking she was ungrateful and had a bad attitude, but looking back on it now…I get it. She was young, thrown into the spotlight in a ridiculously popular series, and wasn’t a person who lived to be the center of attention. She was quiet and awkward as fuck in interviews and honestly…I’d probably be the same. In the years since, Kristen’s reputation has taken a turn. She’s been in a lot of indie films and has become the face of Chanel. She had a lesbian centered holiday flick come out last year that people seemed to be all about and she’s currently filming as Princess Diana in the movie Spencer (and looks great.) I heard a radio DJ say twice in the same day that she just isn’t a fan of Kristen Stewart after the Diana stills came out which got me thinking about why and if that hate is still warranted. What do you think?
- Yeah, I just talked about her while discussing the lasting power of GIRLS last month but I got a strong suggestion for her making this list saying, “GTFO Lena Dunham! I know you just did the GIRLS thing but she’s so problematic.” Like I've said before, Lena Dunham is controversial. She’s privileged as hell but likes to act as though she isn’t, as though her struggles are on par with those who come from less money and less opportunity. She’s been a part of a number of problematic events and statements including saying on a podcast in 2016 that “…I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had,” and later apologizing for her statement claiming it was “spoken from a sort of ‘delusional girl’ persona I often inhabit…,” she also, in 2017, accused a woman of lying about her own rape because the allegations were levied at a former GIRLS writer. Lena makes these statements as though there will be no repercussions for them and when there are, she always apologizes and promises to do better before inevitably putting her foot in her mouth yet again. Lena hasn’t been as outspoken in the last few years focusing more on her own health, she had hysterectomy in 2018 after struggling with endometriosis, but her penchant for white feminism in the past still leaves a lot of people with a bad taste.
- Oooh boy…this one is like stepping into a snake pit (which is fitting for T.Swift) but has to be included. Taylor Swift was, at one time, America’s Sweetheart and to millions of fans she probably still is. But her rabid fans and the way she unleashes them on any who dare to poke fun of or criticize her is the reason Taylor makes this list. Just last week, she took to Twitter to call out the Netflix series, Ginny and Georgia, for their throwaway line making fun of Taylor’s well-known serial dating past. Calling it “deeply sexist” and asking “How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as funny.” One tweet is all it took for her fans to take up arms against the writers, actors, Netflix, and people not even directly associated with the show. Death threats and harassment filled DMs and notifications and yet, Taylor has remained incredibly mum on the matter. She hasn’t called these fans off or reprimanded them for their abhorrent behavior. And this isn’t the first time. The same thing happened to Scooter Braun at the height of Taylor’s battle with him over her back catalog of music. She accused him of “incessant bullying” when it’s she and her fans that take bullying to the extreme. Taylor Swift has spent the last decade making herself the victim, it’s her favorite thing. She starts feuds with others with blatant disregard for their safety when she knows her fans are vicious and vile in their quest to defend her. If she wants to stand up to bullying, she probably needs to look in the mirror.
This post can easily be read as encouragement to hate on other women, these three specifically, but that’s not my goal. Instead, I’m hoping to encourage women to hold each other accountable. Through research and some personal opinion I’ve put together valid reasons you may not like the women above but it’s up to you to decide how you feel through your own research and opinion. What’s not okay, is to allow bad behavior to go unchecked in the name of feminism and female empowerment.
Which famous women have you come to loathe for one reason or another and why? Do you think your reasons are valid or, upon closer inspection, do they seem silly? Sound off in the comments below!