Shaun White won his third gold medal at the Olympics, and people asked him about his bandmate Lena Zawaideh and her accusations that he sexually harassed her for years. He called the accusations “gossip” a few days ago, and then in an interview today, he did a terrible job of trying to explain that sh-t. [Buzzfeed]
I agree, I think John Kelly is getting fired very soon. [Pajiba]
Nelly is under investigation for sexual assault (again). [Dlisted]
The Black Panther fashion tour has been spectacular. [LaineyGossip]
I will #neverforget the day I mistook Iggy Azalea for Chloe Sevigny. [Go Fug Yourself]
South Korea really knows how to do statues. [The Blemish]
Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen are into crystals? [Wonderwall]
Wait, Curse of Oak Island has made it five seasons already? [Starcasm]
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills recap. [Reality Tea]
Oooh, I would love a bouquet of chicken wings for V-Day. [Jezebel]
Trump will hire a new Chief of Staff and their, I mean, his first job will be to fire the old Chief of Staff because LOL if you think Trump has the spine to fire people.
Thank you for mentionning the claims against Shaun White.
Anyway, I saw this article today and I liked it a lot, I’m leaving the link if some of you are interested and a good quote :
http://theweek.com/articles/749978/female-price-male-pleasure
“The Aziz Ansari case hit a nerve because, as I’ve long feared, we’re only comfortable with movements like #MeToo so long as the men in question are absolute monsters we can easily separate from the pack. Once we move past the “few bad apples” argument and start to suspect that this is more a trend than a blip, our instinct is to normalize. To insist that this is is just how men are, and how sex is.”
Have a good day/evening everyone!
@Léna: Thank you so much for the link! I read tge whole article just saying, “Yes…yes, YES.” I particularly appreciated the discussion on men vs women comparisons of ‘bad sex’ (and how that affects our greater outlook on not only sex but relationships, women’s ‘sensitivity’, etc) and also a major peeve of mine–telling girls from such an early age that they’re pretty (and the long term consequences of that).
Thanks Lena, a great article!
If you’re a famous person with any kind of accusations in your background and you’re expecting to be in front of a camera for any reason at all right now, how are you not expecting to get asked about it? How do you not have a non-dismissive answer prepared? Did all the PR reps in the world suddenly forget how to do their jobs?
It’s mind/boggling isn’t it? I don’t know if it’s bad PR training or just sheer arrogance and ignorance. Admittedly some awkwardness is not surprising if the question is out of the blue. Some will also point out that few celebrities have PR reps employed 365 days a year. Yes that makes sense, if you’re not promoting/staying under the radar why not save some money? But you’re going to tell me you weren’t PR ready for the OLYMPICS?! Mind boggling.
In that Buzzfeed article, Shaun White stated, “My friends, you know, love me and vouch for me and I think that stands on its own.” —Not really, bro. Given all of the people that are standing by Trump and Rob Porter, or all of the friends and family that came out to issue statements of support for Brock Turner (the Stanford rapist), friends and family “vouching” for you means absolutely nothing. If anything, it means friends and family can be loyal to a fault.
Shawn White has reputation as a egotisical jerk and unpleasant human being for MANY years in the snowboarding community. All his “All American” humble bro act is just that— an act. He is not a nice person, this is well known in mountain towns.
Could you elaborate? I have never heard anything about him except what a nice guy he is, but then again I hadn’t heard anything about his harassment suit until now and I am disappointed. That’s bad enough, but how has he behaved that makes him known in mountain towns? Genuinely curious. Thanks.
I think you’ll find that a great many professional, Olympic athletes are quite egocentric and not all that pleasant. It’s all about winning and being #1. You know, the American way. It’s all there in front of our faces. What do you think these “elite” athletes are going to be like personally? I know there’s some that are truly sweet people, although their managers may not be that cool, but SW is certainly not the first or last Olympic multi-gold winner that might be a jerk personally (or can be a jerk).
I don’t know many snowboarders. But I do know a bunch of older skateboarders and no one has ever had a nice word to say about Shaun White. We’re at the tip of the iceberg on stories about him.
Oh wow. I always thought he was a nice guy. And my son used to wear those Target SW clothes – I would have never bought that brand had I known all this.
Shaun White is awful. And it is gross of NBC to be featuring him so much. Team USA should be ashamed of themselves for allowing him on the team.
NBC loves to feature sexual abusers.
Thats what I was thinking. Why was he allowed to be on the team? This is unfair to others who have been kicked off the team for far less.
This is the first time I’m hearing these sexual harassment accusations against Shaun White. I’m so disappointed. Suddenly his exciting Olympic Gold Medal win last night seems tarnished.
Me too. A colleague just showed me clips of him earlier this week and we were both so excited about him and the sport in general. I didn’t know just quite how cool the stunts are they do.
And then I see this…
This has been the fastest time from getting to ‘know’ and like someone famous to being disappointed.
I’m going to talk about Cloe Kim instead.
Any woman has had to laugh off the bad behavior of men their whole life. Because men are dumb. There is some crazy shift in their brain when it comes to sex and romance. A man who is great as a friend can turn into a complete weirdo once sex enters the picture. There is a difference between a geek with no game and a guy who is malevolent and misogynistic. Too often when men are successful or powerful the no-game geek turns into the vicious and vindictive. It is pretty easy to tell the difference. Not paying back wages sounds like the latter to me.
I have four sons and I am married to a man. Men aren’t dumb. Our culture and the things we value are dumb. The way people raise their boys might be dumb. But not all men are bad, and not all men are dumb.
yeah, as much as I wanted to celebrate his win (I tend to leave cheery, happy comments on Tumblr olympic posts), I just couldn’t forget his recent sexual harassment lawsuit and the things he had told his bandmate and would have her do … So I ended up not saying anything at all because I have no desire to battle anyone, BUT I do hope people become privy to this. Shaun, own up to what you did – you can’t treat women like that and expect people to gloss over it just because you got a medal.
good thing we have other really cool non-problematic USA athletes to stan that don’t mistreat women <3
Or who are women.
I’m always happy when the Olympics are around, because it feels like the only time when female athletes are being cheered like this.
Yes!!
by the way, I was so stoked with Chloe Kim’s runs, especially her third one – did you see those back to back 1080s? :-O
I’m SUPER into crystals. I collect them and adore them. That said, I’m not especially woowoo about it. I do not think they have magical powers or anything. I just find them to be beautiful and spectacular to look at and find their formation to be kind of miraculous. They are treasures of the earth. Sparkly, amazing, geometrical earth creations. If I hadn’t become an English teacher, I’d have studied geology.
Re: crystals…you mean “super-duper” into them? Teasing, my friend. Blame Louise Linton for that turn of phrase. But what you said. Me too, not real woo here either. I just love interesting sparkley rocks. They’re very cool. And if you ever have the chance to visit the Tucson Gem Show, super-duper recommended 🙂
He apologized for downplaying the sexual harassment claims no the media.
He didn’t apologize for the actual sexual harassment.
He’s such a jerk.
Have y’all seen the video Black Panther Cast Answers the Web’s Most Searched Questions from WIRED? Such intelligent gorgeousness must not be missed!