Nearly everyone remembers Blake Lively’s character in Gossip Girl, Serena van der Woodsen. She was often thought of as the it girl of the show, getting the attention of every boy and the jealousy of every girl. However, her character came with its fair share of issues — a victim complex, narcissism and overall offensive behavior; ironically enough, the exact same things Lively continues to add to her resume.
Of course, it is impossible to ignore the raging amounts of success Lively has had during her career. What is also impossible to ignore, however, is the volume of controversy surrounding her.
Starting off strong with a moment from a 2016 interview that recently resurfaced — Lively had recently announced her pregnancy and the interviewer congratulated her by saying “Congrats on your little bump.”
The natural and polite response to this comment would have been a simple thank you, but Lively steers quite far from polite, responding with “Congrats on your little bump.” This is problematic for a number of reasons, the first and most evident is that it is insanely rude and inappropriate to comment on a woman’s body regardless of the circumstance.
The second is not as apparent but makes the situation exponentially worse — the interviewer, Kjersti Flaa, is infertile. Flaa posted a video to her YouTube channel, discussing how the comment impacted her for years after.
If this doesn’t convince you enough of Lively’s problematic tendencies, buckle up.
There have been a multitude of occasions in which Lively has used a transphobic slur. She used it while talking about her hopes of having daughters, pop culture magazines and how she feels when wearing heels. Though these were all in the early to late 2000s and she has not used it in public since, it should still be a glaring red flag.
The most backlash Lively has received in her entire career has taken place over the last few months, following the press tour and premiere of “It Ends with Us.” A movie inspired by Colleen Hoover’s novel, it was already set up to have some controversy around it. However, Lively took the controversy to an entirely new level.
The first issue with Lively’s participation in the promotion of the movie was her using the movie to promote her new haircare brand, Blake Brown. In a period of promotion for a different movie, this could have been considered an extremely smart marketing move. Instead of Lively using her time in the spotlight to discuss the important issues present in the film, she chose a capitalistic and extremely inappropriate alternative.
Unfortunately, this was not the worst of it. Lively also completely disregarded the severity of the topic of “It Ends With Us,” telling fans to “wear your florals” to the theater. Though it is shocking someone could be this tone deaf, it is unsurprising that it was Lively judging by her problematic past.
Regardless of the problematic nature of the novel and film, it was a large opportunity for those in the spotlight to spread the word about an extremely serious and prevalent issue with the whole world watching. While Justin Baldoni, Lively’s co-star and director of the film, took every opportunity to speak about domestic violence and ways to be part of the change, Lively used the press to further exemplify her capitalistic nature.
Upper East Siders, Serena van der Woodsen may not be just a character after all. XOXO, Gossip Girl.
