The Internet Turns on Blake Lively for Some Reason

I’ve been online for 30 years. That’s longer than many of the people who now use the internet, especially those who came of age online. There’s a good chance many of them don’t even know what life is like without this other dimension of reality. Each social media site seems to have its own small town where news cycles through the algorithms, attaches people to a viral idea and before long, a consensus emerges. I first noticed this with the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial on TikTok where suddenly, Johnny Depp was the protagonist and Amber Heard was the villain. I played along with it and was fully caught up in it. It did seem to move the needle a bit.

But, of course, as you can see the industry has continued to shun both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, although I expect she will have a more forgiving return than he will. The next weird thing I noticed was that suddenly, Jennifer Lopez was the one singled out to be trashed on TikTok. She was being mocked ruthlessly. People were coming out of the woodwork talking about encounters with her. It went on and on for weeks, even though she didn’t really DO anything. She was, for some unknown reason, the target.

Everyone on TikTok suddenly hated her, or it was cool to hate her. And before long, it seemed to have tarnished her brand. What’s interesting about this is that in the mainstream of our culture — Twitter, Facebook, all of entertainment coverage, Lopez would have had to do something to be demonized, canceled or purged. But on TikTok, she hadn’t done anything. It was just suddenly time to gang up on her in large numbers. I will admit, some of it was funny. It revolved around her two movies she’d released – one was her musical biopic that she’d spent millions on, and the other was the documentary about making the biopic.

One video of her talking about being a little girl in the Bronx – that she was still “Jenny from the Block” became the most lampooned, imitated, mocked video on Tik Tok.

https://www.tiktok.com/@mitsy270/video/7348269158125161771?_r=1&_t=8p98XXR4rVb

https://www.tiktok.com/@ruehalloway/video/7351540043611114795?_r=1&_t=8p98NpJJuko

@officialreinaldogarcia

My whole FYP lately #jlo #jenniferlopez #jennyfromtheblock #thegreatestlovestorynevertold #thebronx #bronx

♬ original sound – Reinaldo Garcia

It seemed to come out of nowhere, consume TikTok but not make it outside that bubble. No one was talking about it anywhere, not in the mainstream entertainment press. But then, she had to cancel her concert tour, and now, she’s getting a divorce. Are these things related? I don’t know, but it is worth noting that whatever happened on TikTok was not Lopez’ fault and it was not something her publicists could control.

Now, I’m seeing the same sort of thing with Blake Lively. Her movie came out and did well at the box office and all of a sudden they began turning on her on TikTok.

There is an interview where Blake Lively and Parker Posey are behaving in a bitchy way to a reporter who asks about the clothes. They respond in a way that makes the reporter visibly uncomfortable. And true, it’s snotty but enough to be deserving of this level of abuse? The journalist says it felt horrible and stayed with her for a long time. So, fair enough. But still.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7jyvDCTyjQ

One thing you notice quickly is how popular this kind of thing is. Content creators need to feed the beast to keep their view count high and nothing moves the needle like a pile-on.

I don’t know how one navigates something like this where you didn’t do anything exactly but you are now in the hot seat and everyone is piling on. Those who pile on probably don’t realize that, sooner or later, they’re going to be the subject of a pile-on. There is so much anxiety among young people growing up this way – that anything they say might turn them into someone who is publicly humiliated.

I can say from personal experience it is a terrifying thing to feel all eyes on you, judgmental, hateful, awful, dehumanizing people who decide it’s time to destroy you. I’ve been around for a while, so it’s a little easier for me. But I worry about the young ones raised to believe any of this is okay. It’s not. We need more people to push back and less people to go along with it.