People Are Being Weird About Zendaya

And so many other women, in so many different ways.

I pose a question: why can’t people be normal about Zendaya?

This applies to many of context. I won’t be able to address everything. This has been an issue for as long as I can remember, though particularly in a post-euphoria world of social media. If you are discussing Zendaya within any capacity, you should ask yourself the very question: am I being normal right now? Is this conversation normal? Somehow or another, I’m sure the answer will be no.

I’ve gotten ahead of myself. I’m going to assume if you are reading this, you have internet access. You should know who Zendaya is, like, of course. Whether it be her Fashion Icon status, her Two-Time Emmy winning performance on euphoria, her Dancing With The Stars run, her film career, or her Disney Days — I think I can safely refer to her as one of the most instantly recognizable stars of her generation. However, the first rule of journalism is to assume you are being read by someone who knows nothing, so let me just show you a picture of Zendaya to cover my bases. 

(Pictured Above : ZENDAYA. Photo Credits: X)

Even if you don’t actively check for her, I’d at least bet you are aware she is playing the role of MJ in the newest live-action Spider-Man series. Not that I’d consider it to be a career highlight ; it’s just relevant to us today. She has been in a relationship with Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, for a couple of years now! This is all well and good. I quite like them together. I used to be heavily invested in the Tomdaya fandom, and that part of your history never truly disappears. It was an exciting era back when their relationship became public!

(Pictured Above: You HAD to be there. You just had to be there. Photo Creds)

Unfortunately, though, the discussion that tends to happen around them disrupts my spirit a bit. If you are online as much as me, I begin by saying: I am sorry to hear that. Seek help, truly. However, you may be aware of what exactly I’m talking about when I say that people can be quite odd about her in regards to her relationship with Thomas Holland. It’s been odd long before Challengers, but Challengers era has been particularly bizarre with the “pray for Tom Holland” crowd. What is that about?

Challengers (2024) is being marketed as a hot, steamy, sexy movie. That is true. There was an ad on YouTube that would use a “it might get you pregnant” pull-quote, which made me so irrationally upset. Please, social media advertisers, be mindful of why you are invited to this function. That’s aside the point, though. The way in which people talk about Zendaya, specifically in relation to Tom Holland, when all she does is… her job…? It truly baffles me. No, I don’t think anybody is legitimately claiming she’s cheating, unless they truly are just that narrow-minded, but I do believe there’s a level of belief that they feel that Tom Holland should feel jealous, and all I can do is ask… what is going on here? I legitimately don’t know if I have an answer.

There’s a sense of ownership this demographic of men feel over women, but I get baffled at the fact how particularly they target this energy towards Zendaya. Yes, people make jokes about other women as well, but it has become a constant in Zendaya’s career ever since she started dating Tom. It’s not as though there’s much chemistry during these press tours. She gets along perfectly fine with her co-stars, but there’s never any sense that anybody is fucking! These are co-workers, through and through.

To a degree, I can come to certain conclusions just by looking at Zendaya’s career trajectory. She “grew up” in front of the eyes of the first generation with access to social media. She feels more accessible to people in a parasocial sense. Older Gen-Z and younger millennials have a “connection” to her that makes them feel entitled to her. They feel comfortable speaking on her in such an overly personal, invasive way without feeling any… shame? Guilt? Add onto the fact Tom Holland plays one of the most popular superheroes of all time, and is similarly quite young. People like to insert themselves in that brand of celebrity shoes. You could also consider recent press tours such as Anyone but You, where both leads have admitted to leaning into affair allegations for promotion. People making “Tom Holland, watch out!”  jokes may not be completely unprecedented, but… when does it become strange? Quickly! That’s when! Because the underlying issue is all (barely) repackaged misogyny.

If it were limited to just silly little jokes clowning on Tom a bit, it would annoy me, but I’d move on without feeling any type of way. There’s a mean spiritedness, a vitriol in which this incel-heavy demographic speaks on Zendaya which makes everything feel much less light-hearted. From legitimate slut-shaming, disturbingly disparaging remarks about her appearance, to just general dehumanizing. You have to understand, the people who use such hateful rhetoric now used to love Zendaya. She’d be trending off a selfie, they’d describe her as the most beautiful woman to ever exist but then she hit a point where now she just can not win with some people. The thing that makes me take the aforementioned jokes more seriously than I should is how tweets get millions of interactions calling her mid, ugly, racist comments about her appearance. There is a specific sector of Twitter that knows they can get engagement just by mistreating public figures of the likes of Zendaya. Once you become too beloved, the Straight Male demographic won’t need a reason to change their mind. Sometime after she started dating Tom Holland, they had more than enough reason to decide she isn’t worth their hype anymore, and it was time to engagement farm disturbing posts in her name. Of course, this isn’t helped by the fact that Zendaya is biracial. This demographic isn’t too far off from Those Racist Anti-Woke accounts.

Which brings me to another woman who’s been mistreated partly due to an association with Tom Holland. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. Of course, the treatment of Francesca and the treatment of Zendaya differ GREATLY, and so especially does the general support of them both. Zendaya is biracial and light-skinned, whereas Francesca is dark-skinned. I, again, wanted to highlight both of their associations with Tom Holland, because he has a history of having incels project onto him, in a sense. Francesca was cast as Juliet in a West End production of Romeo & Juliet, with Tom playing Romeo, and every step of this production has led to new waves of disturbing racist, colorist harassment targeted at Francesca, and people trying to act as though Tom Holland has the worst job in the world for having to play love interest of her of all people. This harassment got bad enough that it started trending, headlines were made about it, Francesca has closed replies on all of her Instagram posts, and hasn’t posted anything since the casting announcement. Just searching her name on YouTube is very disturbing, I really don’t recommend seeking these types of posts out. Recently, Tom Holland posted on Instagram about preview night, and it didn’t take long for a flood of horrifying replies to be noticed.

(Pictured Above: The fabulous Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, Photo Creds: Revamp Magazine)

All that is to say, much love to Francesca Amewudah-Rivers. I hope she knows that she’s That Girl. She deserves an outpouring of support that outweighs every horrific thing that has ever been said about her in the past two months. She has gotten a wave of support, of course, but it feels as though people are more evasive to address how horribly she’s been mistreated. I don’t get it, because it seems like everybody SEES it happening, but there’s been much less vocalized support for her in comparison to certain peers. I can only hope she has a strong circle protecting her from having to deal with this alone, though, and that the cast and production have been rallying behind her.

Zendaya’s casting being revealed to have been for the MJ role also was met with racist backlash as well, which Zendaya has famously responded to.

Despite being the lead for both aforementioned projects, Tom Holland has remained…. consistently silent during each of these backlashes. That isn’t the point of this issue at all, it just feels of note. When you lead a comic book movie, the Anti-Woke Crowd just… attaches to you, permanently, and it even bit Tom Holland back when he had sexual scenes with men in The Crowded Room. This demographic of men were so quick to turn on Tom Holland when he got too “gay” on screen, but when they had an opportunity to be blatantly racist in his name, decided they were big fans of him again.

I suppose I’ve found my answer? Zendaya checks a lot of boxes of someone people feel all too comfortable disrespecting… However, what drives me just a bit more crazy is how this isn’t just strictly an incel issue. As I said, it seems all too normalized just to be weird to that girl. Just as I was writing this, discourse started because she couldn’t name her four favorite films in a Letterboxd interview. Some People reacted to that… oddly! Pushing narratives onto her. Claiming she doesn’t actually Like Movies… as established, this isn’t the worst thing people have said about Zendaya, and I highly doubt she cares, but it just felt worth mentioning regardless because it just shows you how… no matter what she does, people will read into it in bad faith.

I hope Zendaya never returns to Twitter. I hope Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is having a great day today. You all are weird as fuck.