#problematicstanning

Melanie Martinez is a musician, best known for her debut album Crybaby.

The music and themes of Melanie’s album Crybaby have been criticised for romanticising mental illness and glorifying rape and kidnapping.

The song “Mad Hatter” uses ableist slurs, such as ps*cho, cr*zy and in**ne. She uses the terms out of context to create a sense of relatability and aesthetic, again romanticising the idea of mental illness.

The themes in Crybaby contribute to the sexualisation of children, using childlike imagery and motifs in a fetishized way. She associates items like pacifiers with sexual themes, which could be damaging. 

The songs “Mrs Potatohead” and “Sippy Cup” shame women for having plastic surgery, effusing ideas laden with misogyny. Similarly, in “Dollhouse”, she refers to a woman as a sl**.

Melanie was accused of rape by Timothy Heller, a former friend, on the 4th of December 2017. Timothy detailed being coerced into sexual intercourse by Melanie, and her descriptions depict the relationship as toxic and manipulative on Melanie’s end. Melanie later responded by claiming that “[Timothy] never said no,” following up with another post on the 9th of December. This post alleges that Timothy is lying for “personal gain.” However, Heller’s story is corroborated by this post and this post.

In this article, Heller describes Martinez’s attempts to communicate with her following an initial post in which she vaguely mentioned abuse by a friend. The messages highlight how Martinez was potentially attempting to pressure Heller into silence before she publicly exposed Melanie. 

VERDICT: CANCELLED.

Emma Roberts is an actress best known for her roles in Scream Queens, Nerve, and American Horror Story. 

Roberts was arrested in 2013 on domestic abuse charges. She struck her boyfriend (now fiancee), Evan Peters, in the face, giving him a bloody nose, and a bite mark was found on his chest. In a joint statement, the pair stated the physical altercation was on both parts, and that it was “an unfortunate incident and misunderstanding.” 

She played the character of Chanel Oberlin on Scream Queens, a show which features some highly racist quips at the expense of primarily black women. Oberlin even says at one point “I call her ‘white mammy’ because she’s essentially a house slave.”

Emma is known to have an extremely volatile temper, and has been involved in several public blowups during her on-off relationship with Peters. The toxicity of their relationship is well reported in gossip circles, especially after the abuse arrest.

VERDICT: UNSTANNED. 

This isn’t intended as hate towards Ellie - she is only fourteen after all - but her actions during her relationship with Jack Dylan Grazer are deserving of being called into question.

Ellie used the slur n**** in a live stream, which she later apologised for. However, this is an action that is practically indefensible - the context and history of the word are so heavily laden and publicised, it’s difficult to see any argument of misperception. Ellie clearly realised she said the wrong thing, and her “apology” emphasised this, although she does spend a lot of time discussing how it was just in a song.

Allegedly referred to Wyatt Oleff as “gay”, but then took the comment back and claimed that Oleff is not, in fact, gay. This is problematic on two levels: she identified Oleff’s sexuality on his behalf and effectively erased his potential interest in people of spectrums beyond the female gender, and the use of “gay” as an insult has severely negative connotations.

When accused of calling Oleff gay, she and a friend stated how she couldn’t be homophobic as she has friends in the LGBTQA community. This is again seen in the above “apology” video. I doubt much explanation is needed for the issues in this thought process. 

In a group chat with fans, Ellie discussed how she feels that Grazer’s costar and close (arguably best) friend Finn Wolfhard is attractive. These messages were later screenshot and leaked, with Ellie being exposed to the general public. There are numerous screenshots around, and many are fake, but Ellie has confirmed that she did indeed discuss her attraction to Finn, and apologised in this live stream.

In her apology live stream [watch at around 10:30], she said “I’m literally bipolar!” A friend immediately commented in a joking manner on how the term should not be taken lightly, and the subject was dropped. Hiyar seems to have limited understanding of what it means to be bipolar, using it as a joke. 

Ellie encouraged romantic shipping of “Fack”, a fan desired relationship between Finn and Jack, even after both boys have shown levels of discomfort with the pairing. In Jack’s live stream with his cousin, Patrick, Ellie made constant comments about Jack “cheating” on her with Finn. 

VERDICT: IGNORANT.

J*shaya is a ship comprised of Maya Hart, played by Sabrina Carpenter, and Josh Matthews, played by Uriah Shelton. Featured on the cancelled Disney show Girl Meets World, J*shaya gained popularity in Season 3 of the show in particular as it complemented the then canon ship of Rucas.

However, this ship has some serious issues.

When Maya first shows interest in Josh during the show, she is around thirteen to fourteen years old, whilst he is a senior in high school looking at college. She is still in middle school. Obviously, a school girl crush can be relatively harmless, but the issue is with the ultimate reciprocation of these feelings.

When Josh admits to returning these feelings, he is now in college, whilst Maya is a high school freshman. He is eighteen/nineteen whilst she is fifteen. In NYC law, this is technically legal, although undeniably disturbing as the two are at startling different life stages. 

Both characters ultimately decide to “play the long game”, inferring that upon Maya coming of age, they will become an item. This concept is inappropriate and suggestive towards the audience of the show, idealising the idea of the “jail bait wait”.

Josh and Maya’s conversation in the bay window came across more as Josh telling her how she felt rather than her realising herself. He has more power in their relationship as a result of the three year gap, and will more easily be able to influence and coerce her.

The concept of the long game essentially prevents Maya from having normal relationships with people her age as they will always be “temporary”. This is extremely unhealthy and bad for her personal development. Besides this, Josh will be twenty one when Maya turns eighteen. They may each want different things by then (he likely will), and will have wasted three years on a hopeless relationship. 

Josh also implied he was struggling with his identity in college in a way that implied he was using Maya and her friends as a way to feel younger again. This in itself makes it seem as though he is almost attracted to her  youth.

The main problem with this ship is that the couple were featured on a Disney Channel show, a show watched by predominantly young girls. For such an impressionable audience, the ship represents the normalisation of unhealthy age differences and power dynamics in romantic relationships. There were a range of options for Maya’s “endgame” romance, but the show went with the one that was arguably the most inappropriate. 

FINAL THOUGHTS