This ^ is how I imagine Chrissy Teigen swanning back onto Twitter after 72 hours of shenanigans which left her deleting offensive old tweets about black children and temporarily making her Twitter account private after she was called out on her bullsh-t. There will always be people who like Teigen no matter what, and I get that. But I never have. I also don’t think it’s a good sign that her moment of self-reflection was so brief, nor do I think it’s a good sign that her Trump-like itchy Twitter fingers couldn’t wait to go back online.
To recap, chef Alison Roman did some white-lady hipster gatekeeping and called Chrissy a sellout. Chrissy then released a statement, only to be called out by other Twitter peeps about all of the times she’s bullied people and talked sh-t about children and teenagers. Chrissy made her Twitter private… for about 24 hours. She’s already back. She released a new statement about the Alison Roman situation and what she (Chrissy) has learned from this ordeal. She did that in response to a statement made by Roman, below:
I’ve thought a lot this weekend about my interview and the things I said. I know this is a lengthy note (succinctness has never been my strong suit). I appreciate you taking the time to read. pic.twitter.com/3iGAyN3c9d
— alison roman (@alisoneroman) May 11, 2020
I appreciate the late soul-searching from Roman, as well as her acknowledgement of her privilege. Here’s Chrissy’s response:
thank u for this, @alisoneroman. To be clear, it never once crossed my mind for u to apologize for what you genuinely thought! The comments stung, but they moreso stung because they came from u! It wasn’t my usual news break of some random person hating everything about me!
I don’t agree with the pile-on, ppl waiting with bated breath for apologies, deciding if that apology is good, the ppl who say u were right & never needed to in the first place – there are so many different types in this kind of situation & tbh, I just want it to be over
I think we are alike in so many ways. I remember the exact time I realized I wasn’t allowed to say whatever popped in my head-that I couldn’t just say things in the way that so many of my friends were saying. Before, I never really knew where I stood in the industry, in the world. Eventually, I realized that once the relatable “snarky girl who didn’t care” became a pretty successful cookbook author and had more power in the industry, I couldn’t just say whatever the f–k I wanted. The more we grow, the more we get those wakeup calls.
Oh! but how I still think some of those things. I just maybe don’t unleash on my peers on super public platforms lol. I often comment about how I wish I could get away with what I used to, now, but the truth is, I don’t. I’ve learned a f–kton from my years being watched (& read) and I can really say it makes you a better person! It makes u think about the impact of what u say/who it might hurt.
I still think you are incredibly talented. And in an industry that doesn’t really lend itself to supporting more than a handful of people at a time, I feel like all we have are each other! And honestly, for the past few days, every time I saw a shallot I wanted to cry, but I do appreciate this and hopefully we can all be better and learn from the dumb sh-t we have all said and done.
[From Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter]
To be fair, Chrissy and Alison and everyone else CAN say whatever the f–k they want to say. They just can’t be free of the consequences of those words. Which is the bigger problem, in both of their minds. Alison Roman wanted to be a racist hipster gatekeeper to “sellout” women of color AND she wanted people to kiss her ass for those opinions. Chrissy Teigen wants to live her life online and talk sh-t about everyone and everything AND she wanted people to kiss her ass for those opinions. Turns out, they did have something in common after all.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
Ok, great – I’m glad they both did some soul searching. I still don’t want to have anything to do with either of them. This drama is exhausting.
Teigen is half white herself and a multi millionaire but wants Alison to “remember her privilege” LOL
This is what happens when in a social justice world ,social capital is now based on who can be the biggest victim or the biggest savior
The hijacking of “victimhood” from truly marginalised communities and events diminishes and trivializes the initial intent of social justice reducing it to mere performative wokeness
Was Alison out of line ? Yep but not buying into this mortally wounded Teigen act especially when she herself is such a bully and racist to boot
Signed Unbothered Black woman
All of this!!! I’m tired of these privileged a holes playing the victim and having contests about who is the least privileged and most woke. Chrissy was a successful model who married a wealthy and famous musician and now bullies people. This chef lady is an idiot but I have zero sympathy for Chrissy at this point. She could be doing so much more with her fame and influence and help others more.
Yes! ^^
Did she say that? Or did other people?
I take you’re not mixed yourself…?
Well that’s a nice ending to that story!
“I appreciate the late soul-searching from Roman, as well as her acknowledgement of her privilege”
I mean… don’t you think that could be pretty hollow considering it seems like she JUST realized that Chrissy had signed on to be an Executive Producer on the show she was talking about in the interview? That, to me, makes it sound like she’s either trying to hang on to a deal, or she’s been given orders to walk it back.
Regardless of her apology, I find it pretty suspect that she felt it appropriate to take swings at two Asian women – she could have easily called out Goop who has literally bought herself this other insane sell out career as a guru or whatever. She goes on about how taking down women isn’t her thing… directly after taking down women. Roman literally has done partnerships with JCrew and Madewell. None of her ranting made any real sense, and it shows a huge hypocritical bias, and maybe some jealousy. She might be incredibly talented. But that was just all around lame.
Honestly, I think one factor was also that Goop’s target audience/market is simply also hers. That’s what she aspires to whether she admits it or not. So alienating that demographic and the patron saint of rose quartz is probably a bad idea. The only target market I belong to is Marie Kondo’s. So I’m doubly upset. I can see how that would be a factor.
I want to be compassionate and let the apology be whatever it is and continue moving forward with my life ignoring all of these people (no shade to Marie Kondo, I just haven’t gotten to her product yet. But if someone can inspire me to overhaul the depression-induced chaos of my bedroom, I’ll take it!), but something about this does read the wrong way to me. I don’t know, but I think you touch on it with the hypocrisy of someone doing campaigns for major mainstream retailers and then having the gall to call out others for the same. I do appreciate her acknowledgement of her racism and white privilege, but the people holding her accountable will have to see what actions come from that acknowledgement — her words mean nothing without action which will include not calling a “curry” a “stew,” and surrounding herself with a diverse array of voices in her production circle. She says she’s doing this all on her own, and it shows — had she had a diverse team, this might have been avoided. Or maybe she can go back to the incubator and really self-reflect and try again. I don’t think anyone is owed stratospheric success, and some mistakes are too big for iOS press releases.
okay, I have a question….I make a dish I call “curry chicken stew”, because it has chicken, curry and leftovers…..@osito, I don’t mean to be picky, but I need education: why is it racist to call a “curry” a “stew”? This is me being ignorant, ready and willing to be educated, not me being a jerk. Thanks,
@Prayer Warrior
My understanding (as a white woman, so anyone with better info please correct me) is that your curry chicken stew would be fine – you’re describing ingredients.
A curry is a dish that can be modified in many different ways with different meats and veggies, however it is a dish that was formed by and plays a large role in Indian food culture.
AR went viral for The Stew and built a career off of it, but she’s actually just made a curry and is therefore a white woman being treated as a genius for bringing a staple of another culture’s cuisine to more people’s attention. White people enriching themselves by bringing other culture’s practices or cuisines to the attention of other white people without acknowledging where they came from is not cool (the mass commercialization of yoga is another thing that comes to mind).
Anyway, just my two cents but very open to being corrected here 🙂
@osito, I really REALLY highly recommend Marie Kondo’s book. I feel like the actual message of her method has gotten a little lost in the post-Netflix popularity, but she really focuses on “what life do you WANT to be living, what un-useful or outdated messages/ideas about yourself are you holding on to that manifest in your living space as physical clutter and even obstruction.” She’s not a minimalist in any sense.
@Prayer Warrior: I feel like Tweetime really hit the nail on the head, but just to provide some additional thoughts: a lot of it has to do with acknowledging the contributions to global food culture that non-European cultures have made. Roman gets compared (unfavorably) a lot to Bourdain, who made a point of dismantling Eurocentric ideas about what constitutes “good” or “sophisticated” food culture. He wanted to show the time, care, and superior ingredients involved in food or food traditions that in America especially are routinely devalued as cheap or slapdash. There is a common assumption that, say, French food is elevated cuisine, while Chinese food is what you eat when you have a sodium craving or don’t want to spend money. Chefs and restaurant owners who come from non-European food traditions talk about how difficult it can be to open establishments of GOOD, quality food, because of the overwhelming belief of potential patrons that they shouldn’t have to pay more money for a food culture they associate with cheap takeout. So it’s not just a theoretical thing, this affects people in very real ways even today.
Roman does the opposite — she takes ingredients in her “stew” which are clearly South Asian or Middle Eastern in origin (chickpeas, coconut milk, turmeric) and calls it a stew instead of a curry, signaling it’s not scary! It’s just a stew! White people know what a stew is! Instead of taking her immense platform and using it to educate or make “alien” things accessible, she’s possibly catering toward an assumed xenophobia in her audience.
(I say “possibly” because at this point I assume the xenophobia is all Roman’s, who said “it’s not a curry, I’ve never made a curry in my life!” … why the hell not? I’ve made curries at least three times, and I’m not A PROFESSIONAL CHEF. That’s like saying you’ve never made a risotto, damn.)
Hi, Prayer Warrior. Tweetime was spot on in her explanation. *You’re* being a little redundant by calling your curry a “curry stew,” but I’m assuming that you’re not publishing the recipe in the New York Times as though you were the first person to have ever thought about putting turmeric, chilis, and garlic in a broth with veggies and letting it simmer for a bit. It’s been covered elsewhere, but after a minor controversy about the publication of that recipe, the NYT later *added* a short line about this dish being “evocative” of dishes from Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, which is still crazypants — AR did not invent this dish! If she did, then I did, too! And my best friend! And you, PW! Further, by calling it a “stew” she whitewashes and Americanizes something that already exists and has a name — curry — while also reinforcing the notion that things that have non-white/non-western roots are unsuitable for refined palates and presentation unless “modified” by a white westerner. To see someone do it right, go back to that video of Padma Lakshmi making a Moroccan tagine with her daughter: Padma isn’t Moroccan, but she takes the time to educate her audience about Moroccan culture and food in glowing terms. There is so much respect in that video for the food and the culture it comes from, and she did it without thinking. AR turned in a basic curry recipe to a team of editors and they still had to sneak in a corrective after publishing because white people don’t *have to* think about showing deference and respect to others if they don’t feel like it.
There’s a lot more good stuff out there if you want more education. A good dude to start following is Michael W. Twitty (@thecookinggene). He explores the intersections of race, heritage, class, and history through the context of food.
Hi KL! I just saw your comment, and your message to PW was much more elegantly stated than mine.
Thank you so much for this: “ what un-useful or outdated messages/ideas about yourself are you holding on to that manifest in your living space as physical clutter and even obstruction.” I needed to read and meditate on that today. It actually made me a little teary (in a good way). I will definitely check out Marie Kondo if she can get me like that.
I feel the same way. She’s been nasty to women (and women of color before), but didn’t commit to learning until “baby’s first internet backlash” as she first called it. It’s a good read, but I am still wary. And her bias has a long way to go, considering she has been so stubborn about cultural food appropriation. I hope she learns, if only for people who will have to work with her, and for those cultures who see her recipes benefiting from them, I always hope people get better. Honestly, though, with this one, I can see her pretending to learn for awhile. After her abrupt tone switch, I don’t know if this is genuine. And again, her statement that it’s not women of color’s job to teach her how to be not biased/not racist/aware of her privilege, but then asking for advice… sigh.
So…I appreciate Alison Roman’s apology but she has more work to do. She’s part of a movement of white chefs taking credit for world cuisine dishes. I liked the term Pajiba uses – the Colonization of Spices – and Ugly Delicious Season 2 leans heavily into India and even the problematic word Curry.
She has a history of re-framing world culture cuisine in palatable ways for a white audience (i.e. a basic Curry dish re-named The Stew). And when it’s pointed out to her that she should acknowledge the influences and/or just name it for what it is, she’s pretty been highly defensive and demeaning (i.e. eww nobody wants a Curry but Stew sounds delicious).
That said, everyone needs to listen, learn and move onward and upward.
Errr … yeah, Roman’s apology is good. I hope she means it. Chrissy thinks it’s all about not saying offensive things out loud? That’s not the problem. The problem is that those are her genuine thoughts. Well, this is still one of the better endings to celeb fights.
Chrissy needs to limit her true comments to friends and not tell the whole world who will judge her harshly. Roman’ s apology was well written, and a collaboration with someone who is inves$ted in her career. I’m pretty sure both women were telling the truth the first time.
I think it’s also that she said stuff about/to kids. Not just thoughts out loud. But she conveniently didn’t mention kids. It’s not that surprising she is being nice about the apology. As she said in other words, when you become successful (or sell out) part of that is being polite and not expressing everything!
Side note I checked out what Kondo is selling. I wouldn’t call her line a sell out at all. It’s very expensive and definitely not for everyone. I like the brass stuff but it costs too much for me to thoughtlessly buy it, so it really isn’t contradictory to the Kondo ideology
I thought her apology was good too. But I’m a white woman who has shown my ignorant ass in the past and I selfishly want to believe that people like us – who grew up in a white world that gave us white privilege and learned empathy for people of colour too late – can grow. But it’s not really up to me.
As a white woman I find that growth is the only way to live but man I’ve gotten it wrong many times before. So yeah, I hope she means it but who knows.
I’m in the U.K. so I don’t know what Teigen is actually famous for (other than being married to John Legend) but her face is SO plastic!!
A fully-grown woman picking on two children? :/
This. She really looks nothing like her original self, and she looked fine before. I’m really not judging her. Anyone can get cosmetic surgery to look like however they want (Catlady), but, while she was looking for an audience after her modeling career, she tried being that organic, natural girl, but she has too much filer. It’s literally her entire face. It wasn’t long before her team decided on food.
Cheeks the size of golf balls!
I first heard of her as a model. I bet this was before she was with John. She has had a tv gig too and honestly she became (more) popular for being funny on Twitter and criticizing trump. I didn’t witness this but I’m guessing she got her recipes popular on Instagram thus the target products and cookbook(s)
I knew Chrissy wouldn’t last one day without rushing back to social media. She was not obligated to respond to the apology. The woman is obsessed and cannot help herself.
I lost respect for Marie Kondo when she started selling crap in an obvious money grab. I guess the extra cash sparked her joy.
Chrissy can’t keep her mouth shut. Lock down is especially tough on people who need to be heard.
FH Mom – you are so right!!
Haha true! 3 days break from Twitter, it’s probably an achievement for her
It wasn’t even a 24 break from twitter. And she posted about 5 instagram videos on Mother’s Day after she said she was taking a break. She literally can’t stop posting about her perfect life and kids for 1 day. Really makes you think, huh!
Marie can make as much money as she wants. If you don’t want her ‘crap’ don’t buy them.
I mean, Alison wasn’t obligated to publicly post her apology after reaching out to Chrissy privately, either. Don’t think for a second that wasn’t a calculated career move rather than a genuine gesture.
Other Renee … “I guess the extra cash sparked her joy.” This was soooo good. XO
Other Renee that was my impression until I check out what she’s selling, just saying
@ Other Renee I’m asking honestly no sarcasm. What did you think the next step was for a lifestyle author with a show would be? And what in her philosophy is antithetical to selling merchandise?
Please learn what Marie Kondo actually teaches before making assumptions. Or if you don’t want to, which is fine, please stop spreading false information.
People can overcome racism in 2 days?! Wow. I guess the rest of the world isn’t trying hard enough.
Chrissy STILL hasn’t apologized to either Wallis or Stodden and Chrissy’s return tweets are her lamenting the fact she can’t be a jerk out loud and as often as she wants. She acknowledges she and Roman are a lot alike and should be friends. I absolutely agree. Two awful a-holes should unite.
#TeamKondo and those kids.
100% agree with you. Team Marie and cancelling both Chrissy and Allison. I can’t believe how many people misunderstand Marie.
I have visions of you walking behind Allison and Chrissy ringing your bell…cancel..cancel..cancel..cancel..cancel…people tossIng perfectly rolled lettuce and scalloped edged tomatoes at them…speaking of which I’m going to rewatch Game of Thrones it seems rather appropriate.
Agree with you on Marie. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely not what so many people assume it is, and are too lazy to correct their assumptions. And am very impressed at how quickly Roman jumped from mocking the outrage to learning from it. /s/
Chrissy seems like someone who likes to dish it but cant take it, which is disappointing. Also I didnt see an apology in the statement from Chrissy to Wallis or Stodden, if Chrissy can acknowledge the comments from Roman “stung” she should understand her comments can have the same impact. Nobody is perfect, sometimes we dont Express ourselves properly and that’s okay but we need to recognize when our words harm others.
No actual mention quvenzhané. So forget whatever she’s talking about. Why she too big to actually apologize to her? Not the general vague crap. You publicly talked mess about her to publicly apologize too Moon Face!
Chrissy is occasionally funny, but overall her “snarky” brand has been her punching down on those she can. She takes cheap shots that aren’t even clever and people hail them as epic clapbacks. She picks fights with Trump and then when he tweets about her, talks about how terrifying it was.
I wish they both would go away.
I’m not surprised she Teigen didn’t apologize for her past comments, but does she honestly believe people are just going to drop it because of this “apology”??
This whole thing is so incredibly oxygenated. They’re complete airheads. You can’t live your life online and then be surprised and angry when called out for poor word choices or held to task for your beliefs.
As a WOC all I have to say is hmph. She realized her bottom line was threatened by sounding racist, so after “reflecting” the dramatic apology. I’ll just continue ignoring these people, it’s exhausting.
Now would be a good time for Chrissy to pull out that tiny piece of class, that maybe in her and apologize to people that she attacked, while they were minding their business.
I can’t with thiw Chrissy girl, she’s a total b*tch and doesn’t deserve any sympathy. And that face…is it botox that make her face look so swollen?
I feel like she’s going to try and brush past this without ever acknowledging her behaviour, because honestly there’s no excuse and anything she says is just going to bring more attention to how scummy she is.
She was always vile and cruel back then, but some of her behaviour makes her look pathological. Her obsession with Stodden in particular was all kinds of messed up. She kept it up for years, well after the point that everyone else had realised that poor girl was a victim and not a punchline. She was still going a good year after Stodden had fallen out of the spotlight. That’s so weird and creepy.
Alison Roman’s apology is BS—she was told to write this, along with the fact someone finally got through to her that her career was about to go in reverse.
Yup–why are people saying this is a “good apology”? It has “I just hired a PR consultant to write this” all over it.
That’s not a bad apology from Alison (assuming she actually wrote it and it’s genuine), though it should have been her original apology cause that one was bs. We’ll have to see if her words match her actions in the future. And I’m glad she got called out on the appropriation in the food world, for which she has been an offender. “The Stew” is delicious, but not original in the least. I would respect her a lot more if she admitted that.
Chrissy is entitled as ever, addicted to “fame”, and totally playing the victim here. Crying over shallots? Please bitch, wake the F up. There’s a pandemic going on and we need to hear this nonsense?
It took way too many tries for Alison Roman to get it right to make me fully believe that this very thoughtful apology is sincere, and wasn’t just written for her by a save-your-ass publicist. The real proof will be how Roman deals with her history of culinary cultural appropriation going forward. That having been said, whoever wrote it, this was, FINALLY, a real, solid and soul-searching apology. The sort of thing Roman should have said the next day (of course, she shouldn’t have said those things in the interview at all), instead of doubling and then tripling down. Way too late, but finally not too little, so I give Roman grudging credit for that. But, like I said, the test is to see how she handles things moving forward, since this was far from a one-off from Roman; just the most public.
I find Teigen often over-the-top, but just as equally funny and self-deprecating. Far from perfect, probably exhausting in real life and definitely overly needy of attention, but also very human in letting her personality show, warts and alls. I also do find her to have continued to mature. I don’t think people are suddenly their best, truest selves at 18, while blameless before that, or even 22, 25 or 30. If your’e doing it right, you keep growing and learning throughout our lives. Certainly know the things I said and did at 23, aren’t the same things I’d do or say now at 43, even though I was “already an adult” when they happened.
For all her flaws, and her serious mistakes, I appreciate Chrissy for being outspoken and in a way changing the idea a bit for what a famous feminine pretty straight woman has to act like
She was doing that for quite a while
Now Jamila jameel is doing something similar, very focussed and impactful and not selling out
Lili Reinhard also comes to mind
I’m tired of her fillers. She needs to stop. Reverse.
Team no one. Also, Chrissy’s cheeks look painful
Fully ready for a new batch of more interesting celebrity wives. The fact that we have give space to Chrissy Teigen’s inane self-pitying thoughts just because John Legend married her is ridiculous. She is not funny or relatable and she’s cruel to children. What is there to like?
While I do not mean to take away from the importance of this conversation, what the h-e-double-hockey sticks is that dress? I can’t for the life of me figure it out and then in the close up last picture there is some weird netting?
Call it a curry or a stew. If you put curry powder in it, call it a curry if you want to. Live and let live. People are still starving guys and the environment is in desperate peril. Really, curry or stew?
I can’t even. Some of these comments are so over the top, it’s comical.
This is a very well crafted apology – and I can only hope it’s sincere since it hit a lot of the points that really pissed me the fuck off in her interview, especially as a WOC.
The interview IS still pretty shit though. She’s my contemporary in age and I damn well know not to talk negatively about others and how they do their business. Someone else said she brags about not having a team, and how it shows – truly, it showed. Critiquing a flawed system like capitalism is valid, but putting down someone else is not – especially on such a public platform. Especially when you are finding you’ve “never been more popular” (quote from the interview). She knew people were going to see it, to read it, and she thought it was all OK. She defended herself saying she wasn’t slamming anyone. Her off the cuff remarks were what she truly believed. I’ll remember that.
That said, wake up calls suck. I’ve said stupid shit before and I regret it to this day. It did make me a better person to have those regrets, more thoughtful and educated. I don’t want to cancel her, but I will NOT be buying her books or using her recipes or anything to do with her for a long time. I had actually just started hearing her name around and looked at her banana bread recipe a few weeks ago. Still didn’t know anything at all about her, but she’s right, she was gaining a lot of traction during the pandemic it seems. Crazy how things turn out.
Also, I don’t really follow Chrissy so.. don’t really know much about her aside from the general stuff. Model, TV personality, John Legend, etc. Know she’s snarky and funny at times and have enjoyed her tweets at Trump. But it’s definitely shitty that she bullied Courtney Stodden and others. Those tweets are like, incredibly fucking awful. Like.. Jesus Christ… who even does that? Apparently a a lot of people.. probably a good thing I’m not on Twitter…
Still no apology frol Teigen herself for the several hateful posts she wrote over the years especially about children😒