Ellen Degeneres made a joke about Katy Perry’s boobs yesterday on Twitter. Not everyone thought it was funny.
With so many women coming forward with sexual assault allegations against Hollywood bigwigs like Harvey Weinstein, Ben Affleck, and James Toback, unwanted sexual attention is a hot-button issue right now in Hollywood and beyond. People are saying that the photo and joke that Ellen posted is inappropriate and skeezy.
“Happy birthday, Katy Perry!” it read, and then, “It’s time to bring out the big balloons!” The second part of the tweet alludes to Katy Perry’s song, “Birthday.”
The photo shows Ellen ogling Perry’s “balloons” as Katy looks at the camera.
Erick Kunzelman replied, “WTF? Ellen Weinstein? …totally unacceptable.”
The joke wasn’t in good taste, and perhaps this was the wrong week for it, but let’s be real… Ellen’s actions weren’t anywhere near Harvey Weinstein’s.
Jeremy Rist replied, “How is this acceptable with everything going on in Hollywood? If it was a man he would be blasted. Oh, that’s right she is lesbian.”
It seemed that a lot of people were more upset about the double standard in scrutinizing men and women for unwanted sexual advances than they were about Ellen’s actual joke.
Twitter user @Janetcwalsh1 wrote, “Not appropriate, regardless of gender. I’d be offended if this tweet was about me on my birthday.”
He wrote, “The way we dress doesn’t mean yes,” tagging #ellenweinstein, showing that when Katy Perry wore a dress with a low-cut front, she wasn’t inviting people to stare down into her cleavage, even if the person staring was another woman.
While Ellen’s joke wasn’t nearly as bad as actually groping or assaulting people as many men in positions of power have done, it didn’t set a good example or precedent for how we should be regarding people’s bodies. Sharing things like these as a lighthearted joke perpetrates a culture where people’s bodies are objectified. That leads to people taking advantage of other people behind the scenes.
The fact that people called Ellen out for this joke means that people are passionate about the issue of sexual assault and want the culture to change. But were these people who called Ellen out equally outraged about Harvey Weinstein’s transgressions?
What do you think? Was Ellen’s tweet out of line?
