Monday, June 23, 2008

Dear Perez Hilton,

You owe Denise Richards an apology. I cannot count how many times you posted pictures with the word "slut" or "whore" written on her. I know it's the Perez Hilton blog, but I've had just about enough of the misogyny, mmm' kay? And in the case of Denise Richards, it doesn't even make sense anymore. Quit making her the whipping boy -- er, girl in this situation.

Recently, voicemail messages from Charlie Sheen to Denise Richards were leaked to the press. Besides using the f-word constantly, Sheen referred to his wife as a "cunt" and a "nigger."

Sheen apologized for the racial slur "especially" since the best man at 2 of his 3 weddings (ha!) was African American. (Ahhhh, sweet. He can't be racist, he knows a black guy!)

How about an apology for leaving your ex-wife harassing voicemails and calling the mother of your two children a cunt?

There is just something so ripe with hypocrisy from a blogger who posts about ending domestic violence and day later still declares "Team Charlie" after those voicemails hit the press.

That is why I'm writing this letter. I usually enjoy Perez Hilton's blog. I do enough hardcore political reading that sometimes I want fluff. Tell me who's getting married, who's dating, what movie is flopping etc. I LOVE LOVE LOVE when Perezhilton posts music because it's stuff I've never heard of and it's usually lots of fun.

However, his affinity for picking on female celebs is tired. From suggesting (with photoshopped photos) that Rumer Willis could really use some plastic surgery, to highlighting Mischa Barton's body "flaws", to never ending attacks on Heather Mills, Lindsay Lohan, Lily Allen, Avril Lavigne, Ashlee & Jessica Simpson etc etc ... ENOUGH.

His loyal readers are not immune to this either, from the comments on one of his posts:

... Perez glorifies misogyny by calling most females he posts about "sluts", "skanks", and "whores" with no justification, and for no reason, only to pass it off as being witty and funny when it's really just cruel, and redundant. Mario, you consider yourself to be a proud spokesperson for minorities such as the gay and latino community, yet you pick on another long-oppressed group throughout the world- females- which is purely hypocritical. Shame on you. Being a latino woman myself, I would never look up to you as a latino role model because of your blatant hypocrisy and misogyny.

Amen!! There's nothing "new" or "trendy" about using sexism against women. It's been done to shame women and shut them up for centuries (for recent evidence please see Hillary Clinton's campaign for president). Moreover, it's so pathetic and unoriginal. Kids come up with this garbage every day in middle school. There is a way to dissect people's bad clothing choices without taking it there. The mean girls attitude doesn't suit you, Perez.

Perez's problem has been brought up before by Feministe and in a recent post at Shakesville, Melissa McEwan sites the growing trend of the mainstream media demonizing and using sexism against female celebs.

I'd like to think that Perez Hilton has no effect on mainstream media, but with the number of blog hits he gets, I know better. Major outlets want that type of success and notoriety as well. And they're getting it at the expense of women. Sexism against female celebs hurts us all. Even if we don't like the celeb and think they ARE a big drunk trainwreck. That doesn't mean we can turn a blind eye to the stalking paparazzi hounding for crotch-shots and ignore the small men on the internet calling them "sluts" and worse.

Perez, quit playing these these games. Do what you're good at: Be silly, be snarky and post the latest hollywood news and great music. Leave the misogyny at the door. You'll get more fans and then you'll truly be a unique voice in Hollywood.

11 comments:

The Red Queen said...

The misogyny at perez hilton is why I get my girly fluff from Jezebel. It ain't a perfect site, but they don't do slut shaming or body snarking.

Anonymous said...

it's not a new trend by any means.

when a male celebrity crashes and hits rock bottom we hear a little about it...(Mel Gibson's alcohol problem, Tim Allen's drunk driving), but when it's a female celebrity it's big time news...all we fucking hear about. Brittany's depression and mental health...Faux Fucking News doing constant coverage of Paris Hilton in jail. We got to see the train wreck of Anna Nicole Smith w/ a play by play, but Colin Ferrel (or however you spell it) was just boyishly charming. Russel Crowe became the epitome of masculinity when he would become enraged and start fights...but any female celeb gets a little rowdy and it's front fucking page news.

Thanks for posting this, Tobes.

I <3 your blog!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but I can't read Jezebel ever since they did that thing w/ shaming people for their "fake" illnesses. they were really shitty about it, outright hostile, and unapologetic.

I get enough of that.

But I guess I don't need the fluff.

I have Korean Drama!

Anonymous said...

Erm I hate to disagree with you on some issues. First of all, after those voice messages were leaked, Perez agreed with Denise. Obviously what he said was wrong. But Charlie Sheen ABSOLUTELY does not owe Denise an apology. She's right up there with him when it comes to airing dirty laundry. She has constantly harassed Charlie and his new wife, is exploiting their children on her reality show, and the list could go on and on. Not saying that he is not an angel himself obviously. And all the women that you mentioned that Perez picks on basically deserve it. They make women look bad. Do you ever hear him say things about someone like, oh for instance, Natalie Portman? NO, because she is classy, educated, and she doesn't pass out drunk in front of clubs. (Gee, what a concept!) the other female celebrities you mentioned probably couldn't even read your blog. And you mentioned Hillary Clinton in your entry. Perez was one of her biggest supporters!!! I know that probably could care less about what some random girl like me has to say, but I thought I would just put it out there hehe

Anonymous said...

ouyangdan,

We hear a lot about the downword spiral of female celebrities because people continue to give garbage like Perez Hilton the time of day.

Like Howard Stern, you can consider him a shockrocker. The more you critisize how awful he is, the more free press he recieves.

Personally, I've never found the site worth the time to insult. He's just an idiot. Case closed.

Anonymous said...

anonymous,

This isn't about women or men that aren't spiraling out of control. This is about why female celebrities tend to disproportionately get depicted as hedonists when male celebrities who have the same problems (as ouyangdan was mentioning).

Also, to my knowledge, Denise Richards hasn't used anti-semitic, racist, or sexist slurs to my knowledge, so I think that to say that "She's right up there with him " is kinda insulting.

Bianca Reagan said...

I need (another) black person in my future wedding party. I should call Charlie Sheen for assistance.

Sarah @ All The Book Blog Names Are Taken said...

Tobes, in this case I might have to disagree with you on some of this. There are still plenty of male celebs he talks shit about, and there are many females he adores. All in all, he takes shots at everyone and all of them, male and female, deserve it for being complete idiots.

Denise and Charlie are both morons and I'm going to have to say Perez doesn't owe her an apology on this one. She and Charlie are both disgusting people and need to just stay the hell away from each other and be done with it; their divorce is final and that should be the end of it but neither can let it go and as long as they keep hanging on, Perez will keep making fun of them.

Tobes said...

But Perez isn't making fun of "them" -- he's hating on Denise. CONSTANTLY. And it's tired.

I got really mad at him 7 months ago when he was doing the same thing to Britney Spears. He was ripping on her constantly - he even posted a t-shirt that had a picture of Heath Ledger and the slogan underneath said "Why couldn't it have been Britney?"

That was during the time when it was so obvious Britney Spears needed serious medical help.

Perez needs to learn when to stop. And he has a serious problem with sexism. And he's a self-hating gay man as far as I'm concerned. He outs celebrities all the time and then gets pissed when GLAAD calls him on it. It pisses me off.

I'm just sick of him taking it there. I go there for silly, fun entertainment not for venom and bile like that. And he dishes out the worst to female celebs.

Anonymous said...

Tobes, I just gotta point something out...

"I go there for silly, fun entertainment not for venom and bile like that."

Almost his entire fan base goes there for the venom and bile. I mean, it's almost always ridiculous and humorous, if its worthwhile at all. This is why he's famous... because he's a gay man that outs people, says extremely mean things, and is just generally a walking punchline. He is everything that nobody wants to be. You'll never change this... and writing about it is like telling everybody that the sky is blue. We know. He sucks as a human. If he's sexist to boot, well, that's just icing on the cake of all the things that are wrong with the guy.

Honestly, I've seen more worthwhile subject matter here... just sayin'...

The Red Queen said...

I saw Perez on some trashy talk show the other day talking about celeb paternity suits. According to Perez, Mel B and Elizabeth Hurley are both gold digging skanks for petitioning for child support. You know, like most of us single moms do.