With the constant hum of social media and cable news, there is never a shortage of people criticizing celebrities.
Here are two of the more recent celebrity scandals, explained:
Matt Rife
Matt Rife, the face of comedy and controversy, is known widely for his inappropriate and misogynistic ‘jokes.’
Rife’s rise to fame started during MTV’s show WILD ’N OUT, where he performed “as a teenager and showcased his comedic efforts to a packed crowd,” according to Resident Magazine.
Through his years of stand-up comedy, he gained many followers across platforms.
Rife has 19.7 million on TikTok, 10.7 million on Instagram, and 3.8 million on YouTube.
Rife uses his platforms to promote his jokes, most of which revolve around women, racism, and other problematic themes.
Through his years on TikTok, there has been some controversy around his crude jokes, including one recently performed during the opening of his Netflix special.
The joke revolved around domestic violence with the comment “if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye,” according to Business Insider.
This occurred while he was at a restaurant with a friend, and the female waitress had a black eye.
This led people to become very angry with the comedian, painting him as misogynistic for humorizing an issue as serious as domestic violence.
As most celebrities do, Rife posted an apology video to his fans, but continuing with his controversial actions, he included a link to “a website that sells special-needs helmets, resulting in Rife also being accused of ableism,” according to Business Insider.
“popular beauty company e.l.f. Cosmetics is the latest brand to come under fire for an ad campaign, according to USA Today.
Their latest ad included Matt Rife, even after his joke, and being a popular beauty brand that revolves around women, one would think Rife would not become the face of E.L.F.
Sydney Sweeney
Sweeney is a popular actress who has also been surrounded by controversy before.
The ad in which she shows off her American Eagle jeans has sparked a topic of “[promoting] eugenics, a discredited scientific theory popular among white supremacists that the human race could be improved by breeding out less desirable traits,” according to NPR. She is no stranger to these controversies.
“Sweeney…partnered with Dr. Squatch in May to create and sell a soap made with her bath water, “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss,” according to News Nation.
This also caused people to be upset and see it as inappropriate.
In which Sweeney responded with “it was mainly girls commenting… which I thought was very interesting,” according to Hollywood Reporter.
Sweeney remarked on the double standard after Jacob Elordi had positive receptions for his raunchy film scene, also dealing with bathwater.
But it all boils down to the way she advertises herself and how she responds to the issue.
This is what causes people to be upset, “and a lot of people are taking issue with the hypersexualized nature of the ads,” according to NPR.
The topic of sexualizing women through ads has been an occurrence for decades; this familiar pattern was seen with Brooke Shields in the 80s.
“15-year-old Shields starred in a series of print and TV ads for Calvin Klein,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Considering the overly sexualized content of the ad, it shares a similarity to Sweeney’s, almost like a cycle repeating itself.
Sabrina Carpenter
Another seemingly familiar scandal is Singer Sabrina Carpenter and her new album cover.
Many are arguing “whether the cover image was a brilliant subversion of misogyny or whether it was setting women back,” according to NBC News.
Women in the music industry have been put aside for years and want to be put at the top, but how far is too far? On the counter, some people may agree that the women are simply expressing themselves rather than purposely setting back feminism.
