Certain moments in pop culture, as they get older, look more and more like bouts of collective madness. Why did everyone hate Anne Hathaway all those years ago? Around 2013, despite winning numerous awards for her role in ‘Les Miserables’, it seemed like the actress couldn’t catch a break. Despite an absence of scandal or outright offensive behavior, she was “the star we love to hate” ” the wrong kind of theater kid,” “the kind of person who inexplicably upsets people.”
Since then, the criticism has all but faded from public consciousness, a half-remembered Hollywood fever dream akin to the days when everyone in tatters on Taylor Swift for writing about her exes or that concert in 2009 where everyone was ashamed Jessica Simpson.
Hathaway hasn’t forgotten, however, and she’s not the only one reminding people that scathing celebrity criticism — a treasured and lucrative Hollywood pastime — isn’t as fashionable as it used to be. used to be.
At Elle’s Women in Hollywood 2022 event this week, Hathway commented on the past “Hathahate” with painful intimacy, saying that the outer hatred only increased her inner self-hatred.
“When your self-inflicted pain is suddenly amplified, that’s one thing,” she said. Experience has taught her not to “keep space” for such language, for herself or anyone else. She also urged others to do the same.
“You can judge the behavior. You can forgive behavior or not,” she said. “But you have no right to judge – and especially not to hate – someone for their existence.”
Hathaway’s discussion of mental health highlights a relatively new addition to the conversation. Stars have been speaking out against bullying for a while, but it’s only been a few years since we’ve seen many conversations about how fame affects their mental health.
In her new memoir ‘Making a Scene,’ actress Constance Wu writes about struggling with her identity and balancing who she is and who she thought she had to be in order to succeed in the entertainment business. .
“I write about wanting to be the cool girl in my 20s, not wanting to make a scene”, she said to Shondaland. “Because I thought that was what would make me cool and loved and appreciated. But it’s not working because it’s not authentic.
Wu also writes about the sexual harassment she suffered on her sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat.”
“I endured all that sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse for the first two years of the show, but once it was a hit, I didn’t talk to my abuser anymore, and I was able to continue my work professionally and even happily,” she said. said. “So, I thought I was dealing with it. But I realized that abuse and repressed feelings don’t just go away because you want them to.
While the idiosyncrasies of being a celebrity may be distant for most people, overcoming trauma and dealing with damaging expectations are universal experiences. By discussing these issues head-on, women like Hathaway and Wu signal a sea change in celebrity culture.
Of course, ruthless celebrity gossip isn’t just a favorite pastime of the masses. It’s a lucrative cog in the Hollywood machine. Entire franchises, like Bravo’s “Real Housewives” series, are built around the sport of pitting women against each other in both real and imagined rivalries. But just as some stars are pulling back the curtain on the real effects of bullying and criticism, others are breaking those traditions closer to the root.
Social media recently experienced a minor meltdown when Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber posed together for the first time at the Gala du Musée de l’Académie. For those outside of the sphere of Hollywood gossip, that means absolutely nothing. But for those in the know — those who know Gomez is the longtime ex of Bieber’s husband, Justin Bieber, the timing was close to iconic.
Both women have long been pitted against each other by fans, with Gomez as the one who got away and Bieber as the second best usurping wife. They both used their platforms to warn against online hate and harassment, but the proxy feud fueled by their fans was insistent.
Seeing them together, then, was as monumental as a photo shoot with, say, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie would have been in the early 2000s, when everyone was “Team Aniston” or “Team Jolie” following the former’s divorce from Brad Pitt.
In today’s media environment, it’s not necessarily unusual for famous women to show solidarity with one another or speak out personally about the ill effects of fame. What’s remarkable is seeing fans so eager and receptive to these developments.
Comments on the photographer Tyrell Hampton’s Instagram post on Gomez and Bieber paint a clear picture of this:
“Is this what world peace looks like? »
“Everyone wants them to hate each other so much, and for what?”
“I’m proud of them.”
They are no different from reactions on social networks which followed Hathaway’s recent comments.
“Why did everyone hate Anne Hathaway for no reason?”
“They were just haters.”
It’s one thing for stars to reveal how cruel celebrity rumors can be. More often we see fans listening and agreeing, questioning their own role in these obsessions. Together, both sides of the screen seek a more positive relationship with fame.
