Chrissy Teigen

[prisma]

Tom and Lorenzo touched on Chrissy in their latest blog post. Since it's short, I thought I'd put it all here. I think it's a good analysis and their final point they make is an important one.

In other pop culture news we’d rather avoid, Chrissy Teigen looks to be well and truly canceled this time. This has probably been one of the most over-discussed celebrity topics of the past week, fueled by Teigen’s return to social media with a long and seemingly heartfelt apology regarding her actions bullying Courtney Stodden a decade ago. We think the fascination surrounding this is of that classic celebrity-watching variety: the “there but for the grace of God” pity watch/roasting. Celebrities stand in for our own aspirations and our own self-consciousness, which is why we lash out at them so hard when they disappoint us or do things that remind us of ourselves. People love the Chrissy saga because it touches on our understanding of acceptable social media behavior changing over time (shitposting stopped being seen as harmless online fun after the 2016 election) and offers the awkwardness of watching a seemingly un-self-aware celebrity failing to deal with a fairly clear case of unhealthy social media engagement.

The least interesting thing we could do is parse and pick apart her apology, which is, after all, ostensibly not meant for us (although it’s way more about addressing the public than addressing the person she harmed), but we thought it displayed a somewhat alarming need for the public’s love and attention and a not-particularly admirable focus entirely on herself and her feelings. She’s had a rough year because of her miscarriage and (not coincidentally) the backlash she received on social media for how she dealt with it. And of course it’s been little more than a year when she was considered the victim of bullying herself in a (not coincidentally) social media-fueled brouhaha that erupted when foodie author and influencer Alison Roman made some unkind comments that were interpreted to be racist. She’s the definition of being Too Online and we think the emotional pleas to be loved and understood didn’t sound like they were coming from the healthiest of places. The cynical take is that she made the decision to post such a naked plea for forgiveness because she’s losing quite a few business deals over her past behavior, but we think it’s important to note that she’s displaying the kind of unhealthy neediness that comes with too much of a focus on clout-chasing and attention-seeking. She’d be doing herself, her business, and maybe even her family the most good by getting offline for good.

Having said all that, it’s extremely notable that in this year of powerful people complaining endlessly about a cancel culture that largely leaves them untouched, the one famous person who truly looks to be facing a public cancellation is a woman of color. We’re not saying she doesn’t deserve backlash, but it’s worth noting who faces consequences and who doesn’t.

[Beyle]

I think the reason Chrissy gets all the smoke for being a Twitter bully is because she's a celebrity influencer and pretty high profile. Plus she's one of the "most famous" avid social media users. It's like her lifeline.

She's able to get followers to do her bidding as far as attacking others.

Your Average Joe or Jane behaving like a troll or bully doesn't generate the same amount of interest. The average person is, in the grand scheme of the world, a nobody.

Even people who don't know much about Chrissy have probably heard of John Legend, and it wouldn't take them long to figure out he's married to her.

I don't think anyone is blaming only Chrissy for bullying Courtney Stodden. I, too, remember that poor young teen getting a lot of heat for marrying a 50-year-old man. That angry, nasty energy should have been directed toward her ex-husband and her shitty parents who basically gave her to him. That's tantamount to sex trafficking for me, and Courtney's parents should have been taken out and shot for what they did to her.

That said Chrissy knows better than to bully people and send horrific DMs telling people to kill themselves. That's not even a funny joke to make. That's another level of disturbing. It's why many of us aren't cutting her any slack.

If she's genuinely sorry, we'll all know in time because she'll show us she's sorry. I don't care if she tells us she's sorry. Right now, she's only really sorry because the negativity she engaged in is fucking with her income streams and popularity.

[wixy]

So many excellent posts here, too many to quote. To add on my 4.8 cents, you know what would be revolutionary with celeb apologies?

To apologise BEFORE you've been called out. If (as Chrissy says), she's done fifty leven years of therapy since, and has done the work and changed and grown and is more mature now... why didn't she use her return to Twitter to talk about it? (After she flounced off in a huff for 3 weeks). That was before Courtney came forward.

"Hey guys I'm back on Twitter etc etc, I'm also going to take this opportunity to apologise to everyone I've been nasty to here before. I've been in therapy and realised I've been nasty, a bully, horrible, etc etc etc... I hurt people and I'm sorry."

It's super easy to apologise and cry and say you're in therapy after you're named and shamed for being a bully. And suddenly, it's all, "I've changed! I'm learning to do better!" Since when? In the last 10 minutes?

[matti]

Jun 16, 2021 15:29:37 GMT -4 ahah said:

Jun 16, 2021 14:35:03 GMT -4 Ginger said:

What the pile-on of Michael Costello implies is that a person can only be one or the other, victim or a villain, and if he's ever mistreated anyone then it's ok for Chrissy to have done or said whatever she wanted because he was inherently deserving of it.

The same is true of Chrissy, no? There's a mindset right now that she's a vile and narcissistic person with no redeeming qualities because we've been reminded of her past tweets and seen DMs that she's sent. There are of course other stories that are true about her - including her spending a lot of money fulfiling the wish lists of teachers across the country in need of supplies when they were setting up their virtual classrooms. But many people have allowed social media to sway them into believing that a person can only be good or bad and there is no room for gray.

I don’t believe anyone is 100% horrible. While her philanthropic work is admirable - I side eye publicizing it.

The problem with Chrissy is there is now irrefutable proof that she has tried to ruin multiple people for no reason whatsoever. And if she had a personal connection to the person she tried to ruin, her issues / reasons were so incredibly petty.

To have someone fired because you don’t like the headline they wrote is extreme to say the least. To unleash your stans on a woman who simply said I think mass marketing / shilling your products is selling out - I mean where is the lie? (I understand why designers do it - getting your products in front of a massive market means $$$$$.)

Those 2 weren’t wealthy celebrities like Chrissy who could withstand the loss of their livelihoods. I mean I can’t imagine a USWeekly reporter is raking in the cash. Journalists ( the everyday kind) are notoriously underpaid. And to cancel Allison’s NYT column? For simply calling her a sell out? It blows my mind.

It is the level of her “ vindictiveness “ that is a problem for me.

I can’t even wrap my head around telling someone to kill themselves, gleefully telling someone I will ruin you and calling someone a whore whom everyone hates. I mean the MTV teen mom turned porn star is extremely unpleasant and not someone I can root for because she is such a damn Asshole - but good lord Chrissy was way out of bounds.

This is a pattern with her and it goes beyond “bullying” & “mocking” - she ruined lives.

[Neurochick]

Jun 16, 2021 17:55:04 GMT -4 cubanitafresca said:

What Chrissy said to Stodden in DMs was a horrible thing to say to anyone.

But it's ironic to me that all across the internet people are out for blood, screaming "how could Chrissy have said something so horrible to a poor victim of child abuse?"

But if you take a look back online, the majority of people were trashing that girl. Calling her ugly, no redeeming features, total trash trying to get into porn, ridiculed for going to church. There were articles showing pictures of her at 12 calling her an exibitionist and comparing her writing to a Penthouse feature. They even turned her into a Halloween mask.

None of that excuses what Chrissy said. But we've learned a lot since 2011, about Stodden, about #Metoo, about the sexualization of young women, about the dangers of social media, and the pile-ons that happen on social media. Maybe she has learned and grown as well. She's become a mom, she's experienced online bullying herself and stopped drinking. Chrissy went (way way) too far, but she wasn't alone, the whole damn internet was awful to Stodden. I'm willing to give Chrissy a chance to show that she's learned a lesson.

Jun 16, 2021 18:44:52 GMT -4 danadel said:

When did she learn, though? Both her apologies are pretty self-centered, and honestly, I think she just wants back on social media adulation.

These three episodes that we've been discussing happened 7-10 years ago. I think someone changes a lot between 25 and 35.

I don't think the apology was self-centered. I actually don't think it was an apology. Nor do I think she owes the world at large an apology. She owes those people she bullied an apology - and that needs to be between the two of them. I think what she wrote was more in the vein of a mea culpa. She owned what she did. She explained why she did it. But most of all it was a cautionary tale that a lot of people on the internet could learn a thing from. (probably myself included)

I have to agree with this. I'm not completely sure but weren't people on this forum talking about Courtney Stodden back in the day? I know people on many forums were and laughing at her.

I don't get the pile on about what someone said years ago. I remember this quote from Muhammad Ali: “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

[danadel]

I have watched her be mean to her husband online and he laugh it off in the last few years, so I don’t think this is 7-10 year old behavior. She also didn’t (and maybe still hasn’t?) apologize to anyone until after she got exposed.
But, whatever, she’ll blame it on her alcoholism. Her constant posting about how much she needs and wants to be beloved by internet strangers is super problematic. Hope she gets help with that.

[lordofthefries]

I think if it was just edgy comments on Twitter, people would move past it. As others have pointed out, a lot of them matched the prevailing commentary of the time, and people are allowed to grow and evolve. What pushes Chrissy's behavior over the line is the direct, personal harassment of people like Stodden and Costello and, more concerning, her blacklisting of people in real life. I hadn't heard the story of the US Weekly writer before the last few pages in this thread, but it's really unconscionable.

[Ginger]

I don't think Courtney ever qualified for a thread here until a catch-all reality star thread was created, and I think that was a little late to catch Courtney's reality star heyday. I think I mainly followed the sideshow as it unfolded through Dlisted's running commentary.

Between the reality shows, Courtney's instagram presence and p*** business, the pap walks, and the staged publicity stunts (including Courtney faking a pregnancy and a miscarriage), I think people making general commentary on what is being shown to them all over TV and the internet is natural. But that's really quite different than having such personal hatred for a reality show star that you direct message the person repeatedly to tell them they should kill themselves. That's way beyond, you know, watching Courtney and Doug on Couples Therapy and discussing it on Television Without Pity or something.

Courtney was done wrong by their mother and the 50-year-old "famous actor" they married, the point of which was always to use that as a springboard for a reality show career. Courtney, though only 16 when it started, worked very, very hard through the years to build the reality show career and fully exploit every money-making opportunity that came with it.

IMO, congratulations to Courtney for straightening things out and apparently getting on a much healthier path in life, and luckily, doing so at the still-young age of 26. But I'm not really interested in going back 10 years to assign blame to the entire world for Courtney's path. IMO, Courtney should primarily be taking those issues up with Mom and Doug. (Except Dr. Drew - it's always ok to condemn Dr. Drew for being the shmuck that he is.)

[matti]

Jun 16, 2021 17:55:04 GMT -4 cubanitafresca said:

What Chrissy said to Stodden in DMs was a horrible thing to say to anyone.

But it's ironic to me that all across the internet people are out for blood, screaming "how could Chrissy have said something so horrible to a poor victim of child abuse?"

But if you take a look back online, the majority of people were trashing that girl. Calling her ugly, no redeeming features, total trash trying to get into porn, ridiculed for going to church. There were articles showing pictures of her at 12 calling her an exibitionist and comparing her writing to a Penthouse feature. They even turned her into a Halloween mask.

None of that excuses what Chrissy said. But we've learned a lot since 2011, about Stodden, about #Metoo, about the sexualization of young women, about the dangers of social media, and the pile-ons that happen on social media. Maybe she has learned and grown as well. She's become a mom, she's experienced online bullying herself and stopped drinking. Chrissy went (way way) too far, but she wasn't alone, the whole damn internet was awful to Stodden. I'm willing to give Chrissy a chance to show that she's learned a lesson.

Jun 16, 2021 18:44:52 GMT -4 danadel said:

When did she learn, though? Both her apologies are pretty self-centered, and honestly, I think she just wants back on social media adulation.

These three episodes that we've been discussing happened 7-10 years ago. I think someone changes a lot between 25 and 35.

I don't think the apology was self-centered. I actually don't think it was an apology. Nor do I think she owes the world at large an apology. She owes those people she bullied an apology - and that needs to be between the two of them. I think what she wrote was more in the vein of a mea culpa. She owned what she did. She explained why she did it. But most of all it was a cautionary tale that a lot of people on the internet could learn a thing from. (probably myself included)

Yes but as far as I know, she is the only who quite literally told Stodden to Kill herself - several times no?

I can’t wrap my head around getting so worked up about something / someone that has absolutely zero impact on your life to the point that you are DMing a girl telling her to kill herself.

How could Chrissy Teigan feel that sort of vitriol towards someone who arguably only hurting herself. AFAIK CS wasn’t going around advocating for child marriage?

It boggles my mind. Telling someone to kill themselves when they have done absolutely NOTHING to you is next level crazy.

I am sure the designer is a prick but really Leona Lewis? Are she and Teigan friends? Does the makeup artist work with Chrissy? It seems very convenient.

[Neurochick]

I don't know. I grew up when people said all kinds of shit to each other. Back then I never took it seriously, I just saw it as trash talk, like the shit guys say to each other on the basketball court.

I guess I just never took anything Chrissie Teigen said seriously; like I never listen to someone who's drunk, or on drugs, or nuts.