Actually, yes, she did. I'm talking about Wendy Williams again. Damn, she had me riled up yesterday. I feel like I'm becoming like one of the Howard Stern haters from Private Parts- where they said the people who hate him listen more just to hear what he's going to say next. I'm starting to be that way about Wendy.
I don't know if she would say it's a generational thing or what, but she's really the worst with victim shaming. She usually gets called out, then cue the next day crying and backtracking, pulling out the "fat Wendy as a kid" stories, lather, rinse, repeat. It's embedded in her though. She can backtrack all she wants, but she believes that how you dress, where you go, etc is what gets you into trouble as a woman. Then she says ridiculous, inappropriate, slanderous things about people because of it.
Yesterday she was talking about Jennifer Lawrence. I googled Wendy and Jennifer together later in the day because I couldn't imagine no one publicly called her out, but I didn't see anything. I did, however, see that Wendy had called Jennifer out in the past having to do with the naked pictures that were hacked a few years ago. So maybe Wendy just has an issue with Jennifer- I don't know.
Wendy was talking about the Harvey Weinstein scandal and how Jennifer finally spoke out. She played a clip of Jennifer talking about being sixteen, lined up by a FEMALE casting director or producer or someone high up, in just pasties, next to other women who were much thinner. Then told Jennifer that she should use the photo of her naked next to these women as inspiration for her diet.
After she played the clip, it was one hit after another- "where were here parents"- insinuating that her parents could've prevented that scenario from happening. As a mom who has been in the business, for like six years now, having a child who wants to act, goes on auditions, etc, I can tell you, it's not easy. You do the best you can to protect your child, but when everything is new, it's like being in a whirlwind.
Jennifer Lawrence's family is from Kentucky. Her father was in construction and her mom managed a summer camp. This isn't a showbiz family in the know. She was discovered on the street in NYC on a family vacation as a young teen. I'm sure her parents did the best they could. When you go on auditions or even work on a set- whether you're eight or sixteen, they treat the kids like small adults. They treat the parents like you've already gotten a Ph.d in child acting and should know everything going on. It's head spinning. I'm sure Wendy didn't even know anything about Jennifer's parents. So don't question where her parents were. They didn't send their daughter into a wolf's den knowingly.
Then Wendy went on to say that if she was sixteen and this happened to her, she'd have ran for the hills. Because "nevermind the money- when you're sixteen, you're not thinking about the money- you're thinking about the fame and whatnot". What the everloving heck are you talking about Wendy? When you're sixteen, you sure are thinking about the money. Money AND fame. My son is eight and thinks he's going to be a rockstar because that will make him millions of dollars to buy us a beach house. Nevermind that he just started playing guitar but he just knows a rockstar "makes a lot of money". Wendy doesn't *KNOW* Jennifer Lawrence or her family. Who knows what she was thinking about the money. Maybe she thought she'd be helping her family with any money she was going to make.
Regardless, even if the money wasn't Jennifer's be-all, end-all, or what she was thinking about, she didn't anticipate that scenario of the naked line-up! In the moment, when you're being told to do this, you don't have the where-with-all to "run for the hills". If you're raised with manners, as a kid, especially as a GIRL, you can get easily confused. A powerful adult is telling you to do something, so you feel like you're supposed to listen. You think this is just how it works. This is what you're just supposed to do. That's what abuse of power IS- using your experience, age and/or position to get people in "lesser" positions to do things they're uncomfortable with.
It's like telling someone mid-assault or just before it happens to "just get out of there". If only....
Wendy said something like - if or when she was a teen, she would've thought if someone was interested in her then, they'd be even more interested in her when she was older and more mature. I don't know what kind of horseshit that is, but it stinks. IF she really thought that way, she was an extremely mature kid, but I highly doubt that's the truth. If she's talking hindsight- fine. She's a fifty-something year old woman who should have mature hindsight by now. But she was talking about a sixteen year old actor, plucked from obscurity in middle America, expected to have the maturity and confidence to tell a powerful person in the entertainment industry to shove off and then just leave? Please.
Lastly, she then made the most infuriating inference of all. She said that Jennifer staying and doing that line-up gives you pause to think about how Jennifer Lawrence got where she has...basically saying she did it on her back. She didn't use those words, she just let it linger. The audience was audibly not in line with that thinking or let Wendy know that was a burn by the "oohs". Wendy said, that's not what she thinks, but.... Wendy then brushed it off and went on with her next story.
I can't connect the dots there. How does Jennifer having that experience at sixteen translate into her getting where she has up to now on her back? There is no correlation. To make it like there is a connection is totally wrong, inappropriate and just dumb.
Wendy did say in the midst of the rest of it that there should be someone from the courts or a social worker in the room for every audition. I guess that would be lovely but it's just impossible. I've been with E on like six auditions in the last two weeks. They see like hundreds of kids in a day. Having a court person or a social worker in every audition would be next to impossible. Social workers don't get paid that much. And where would they even come from? Naked line-ups also don't happen everywhere and for every audition. It's more important to change the culture of the business. To make it taboo to do things like that. Or have more stringent penalties for those who abuse power. To make it less attractive to cover it up if you're privy to it. I don't know how you do all these things. But you can't just say how it should be, with clearly no knowledge of the business you're also in, blaming the victims and their parents.
When the Hot Topics clip is up on Wendy's YouTube channel I'll add it or go watch the 10/17/17 show on demand somewhere. I find it really interesting too that there is video up from today, yet no Hot Topics video from yesterday where she says this. I have it on my DVR, and if I have to handheld video it for you myself, I will.
How do we stop this rampant, ugly victim shaming? How is okay to blame a sixteen year old girl and her parents for being abused by a high level executive in the industry? Wendy just needs to STFU regarding this topic. It wasn't the first and won't be the last time, I'm sure. The most recent before this was talking about the girl who accused Nelly of rape recently. Wendy said something like- you have to be careful where you go. Then, when she was called out, she cried about how men are disgusting and we just all need to be aware of our surroundings. Good advice to be aware of our surroundings, but that's not what she meant and I can't be convinced otherwise.
In light of all the women coming out now that say they were in some way sexually propositioned, traumatized, raped, and more, by Harvey Weinstein, Wendy should listen more, and talk less. Many of these women are famous women, famous actors, who have a story to tell. Who, at some point, felt they had no choice but to take his disgusting behavior. Either they were afraid physically, or afraid they would lose their career. Or not be able to have a career to begin with. It's no one's business to judge why it took them so long to come out with their story. They're victims and Wendy and a lot of other people need to learn what that word means.
I hope Jennifer Lawrence blast the living shit out of Wendy, and anyone else who blames her and her parents for what happened to her, and for insinuating that she got to the top by utilizing the casting couch.
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