Celebrity Dumb Quotes

Serena Williams on Steubenville:

We watch the news for a while, and the infamous Steubenville rape case flashes on the TV—two high school football players raped a 16-year-old, while other students watched and texted details of the crime. Serena just shakes her head. "Do you think it was fair, what they got? They did something stupid, but I don't know. I'm not blaming the girl, but if you're a 16-year-old and you're drunk like that, your parents should teach you: don't take drinks from other people. She's 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn't remember? It could have been much worse. She's lucky. Obviously I don't know, maybe she wasn't a virgin, but she shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different."

God fucking dammit.

I wonder how skimping on child support payments affects a person's stress levels and the "environment of their body"?

Ooop, I guess that would be me making bitchy judgements about her personal life decisions, huh?

And ugh, Serena. I can't even decide what's more offensive in that mess. Right now I'm torn between her implication that whether or not the girl was a virgin has any bearing on the situation, or her somehow thinking the boys were just so young and made a dumb mistake, but the 16-year old girl obviously should've had better self-control and restraint. It's infuriating when getting drunk isn't viewed as merely "doing something stupid", but gang raping a girl is.

"Cancer risk can be reduced by avoiding tobacco, limiting alcohol use, limiting exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun and tanning beds, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, and seeking regular medical care. "


I'm dooooomed.

I read "being physically active" as "physically ATTRACTIVE" at first.  It made for a much more interesting read.

Carrie Ann wrote:. . . Acidity???

"Get yourself some Alka Seltzer and you'll cure cancer fast."

Ugh, Serena. There are so many layers of offensiveness happening there. Tip: Any time you begin a sentence with the "I'm not ____, but" construction, just stop where you are. Whatever you're finishing that sentence with is Not Good.

particle_person wrote:I did learn something from this: I hadn't realized alcohol had an effect on cancer rates. I mostly thought of alcohol problems as causing liver damage

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Oh yeah.  They've done lots of studies that say as little as one drink a day can increase your risk.  It also stacks all the other bad things.  So if you smoke AND drink your chances of getting cancer grow exponentially.

ETA:  While stress does lower the efficiency of your immune system in the short term, it isn't going to affect getting hereditary cancer.

God, that stressed out headcase Angie needs to take a chill pill. I wish she'd talked things over with Dr. Ethridge before freaking out unnecessarily about cancer.

I can't even start with the Serena quote. I wonder why lots of rape victims stay silent. Hmm, could it be cuz they're afraid they might be judged or blamed for what happened? Might factor in, yeah.

Ugh, Melissa Etheridge. Hereditary cancers don't give any fucks about 'acidity'. Yeah, there are carcinogens and lifestyle issues that can increase someone's chances, but genes can too. I know there's a lot of controversies over breast cancer gene testing and mastectomies (women getting them way young, etc), but Angelina is almost 40 years old. She's had and breastfed kids (a factor of consideration for some women). She's only slightly younger than when her mother got diagnosed. It wasn't a fearful choice, it was a fully informed choice. And it was fucking brave of someone so associated with sexuality and boobs to be so public about it.

I seriously have to wonder about women who make comments like Serena.  Or who support assholes like Chris Brown.  Have they honestly never known another woman or girl who was sexually assaulted or raped?  Do they really think something like this couldn't happen to them or someone they know?  I had my wakeup call five years ago when a friend was raped and beaten to death.  I will never, ever, EVER justify rape and Serena Williams will henceforth be on my shit list until she wakes up and apologizes for her idiotic comments.  If Patton Oswalt can finally catch a clue, so can she.

I love that Melissa isn't thanking her lucky  stars for her good fortune in evading a cruel death, but how punk she is by having done so. WTF?
Serena. WTF?  She sides with her fellow atheletes over her gender? Whatever happened to sports being sportsmenlike?

Serena digs that hole deeper.

“What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened. For someone to be raped, and at only sixteen, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved – that of the rape victim and of the accused. I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written – what I supposedly said – is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.

I have fought all of my career for women’s equality, women’s equal rights, respect in their fields – anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent sixteen year old child.”

I've always liked Serena and was DEEPLY disappointed by her ignorant comments and this is just making me more annoyed. Like, did you just accuse Rolling Stone of lying about what you said? Thats a HUGE shot to take and its such a non apology. Apologize for what you said. Acknowledge that it was gross and victim blaming. Don't give this offshoot of "I'm sorry I offended you."

Again I've always liked Serena but shes always had a huge problem in tennis acknowledging that someone beat her (you'd get a lot of "she hit lucky shots" and "I was having an off day".) And apparently it extends to to every moment of her life, because apparently she didn't victim blame a gang rape victim, bring up the state of her virginity for no reason like that had a bearing on the crime, and bring up how she wasn't sure if the slap on the wrist her rapists got wasn't fair because "it was a stupid mistake." Rolling fucking Stone magazine just put that in because they have no idea what lawsuit they might be up for if they did that and have never done an in depth celebrity profile before.

Also, THE ACCUSED? Girl, THEY WERE CONVICTED. AND GOT A SLAP ON THE WRIST. WHY ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THEM?

Oh my God, I am so angry.

Also, I don't know if you can say you fight for women when the other excerpt of that article had her mocking a female player in the top five for dating someone "with a black heart" and not getting invited to the cool parties (I got the vibe it was Victoria Azaranka, since Sharpova can probably get in everywhere), and then bitching about female players who care about the game too much. I mean not that I think they all have to like each other or be besties, but girl thats some catty shit, and while I get down with some catty shit, you can't position yourself as someone raising up the sisterhood the day after that quote.

The thing that kills me is that they got off easy BECAUSE of their age.  To say that they were too young to get such a "harsh" punishment really makes my blood boil.

There's nothing more depressing than a powerful and successful woman who uses that position to put other women down. It's like despite everything they've managed to achieve for themselves, every barrier and glass ceiling they've broken through, at their core they still buy into all that barefoot and in the kitchen crap for the rest of us. I find this so disappointing.

It would have been a good opportunity for Serena to apologize, without conditions, and say that this is an example of how rape culture affects even those who see themselves as advocates for women and opposed to violence and oppression, and that she will be aware of this in the future, etc. etc.

Carrie Ann wrote: would have been a good opportunity for Serena to apologize, without conditions, and say that this is an example of how rape culture affects even those who see themselves as advocates for women and opposed to violence and oppression, and that she will be aware of this in the future, etc. etc.

Except that she's not aware of it (and clearly no one explained it/got it through to her). Most women's reaction to rape is to figure out what the victim did that other women  can NOT DO, which is ultimately be omniscient enough to  just not be around a rapist. Rape culture in action.

I will say, I do agree with the fact that the young rapists also had their lives ruined. I wish the juvenile justice system would provide intense education and rehabilitation (hell, I wish the adult one would, I just think the younger ones are more likely to be helped). I don't think it's sad that they are being punished for rape, I think it's sad that their punishment is not very severe, and also not likely to teach them that they did anything wrong beyond getting caught.

I think Paula Deen actually takes the prize for jaw-dropping racist idiocy. The National Enquirer claims she said this while under deposition. (Since I think it qualifies as libel otherwise, it might even be true.):

When asked by Lisa’s Atlanta-based attorney if she’d ever used the N-word, Paula responded, “Yes, of course,” and gave examples of times she used the offensive term.
In terms of telling racist jokes, Paula said, “It’s just what they are — they’re jokes…most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks…I can’t determine what offends another person.”
And when asked if she wanted black men to play the role of slaves at a wedding she explained she got the idea from a restaurant her husband and her had dined at saying, “The whole entire waiter staff was middle-aged black men, and they had on beautiful white jackets with a black bow tie.
“I mean, it was really impressive. That restaurant represented a certain era in America…after the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War…It was not only black men, it was black women…I would say they were slaves.”

...

Binky wrote:

Carrie Ann wrote: would have been a good opportunity for Serena to apologize, without conditions, and say that this is an example of how rape culture affects even those who see themselves as advocates for women and opposed to violence and oppression, and that she will be aware of this in the future, etc. etc.

Except that she's not aware of it (and clearly no one explained it/got it through to her). Most women's reaction to rape is to figure out what the victim did that other women  can NOT DO, which is ultimately be omniscient enough to  just not be around a rapist. Rape culture in action.

You're right - what I should have said is that I wish that instead of just jumping on the defensive and claiming that she never said this stuff, she stopped to think about her first reaction and what that means. Instead, she'll probably just continue to have these thoughts but maybe not say them out loud next time.

Re: Paula Deen

Oy. Would like to think it's not true, but truthfully it wouldn't surprise me a whole lot.

Sheesh.  When I posted the Melissa Etheridge quote, it wasn't meant as a challenge to other female celebrities to try and out-do her idiocy.  

This is why we can't have nice people.

Paula Deen: I 'do not condone' use of n-word

Nothing on the weird waiter-slave comment.

I just feel so much better about the proposed slave-themed wedding reception servers now.

I have to say good for her.

I'm seeing on the internets that the Food Network has "severed ties" with Paula Deen for her well-publicized racist comments.

I'm actually shocked the food network did that. Pleased, but shocked.