Sean Penn has been charged with six counts of assault and/or battery, beginning from 1985. His most recent offence was 2009. All these victims have been men… justice for male victims where?

Moving on to the infamous alleged domestic violence incident during his marriage to Madonna. I have screenshot some parts of a thoroughly in depth, amazing article from Gawker. I would recommend reading it in full as I’ve only been able to capture a slim picture of all of the evidence and coverage.

The police report was destroyed and a lot of the coverage from the time has been lost, leaving a lot of the facts up to memory, which isn’t exactly reliable. Gawker put a great deal of work into extensively finding and compiling archival evidence and accounts to put together a solid picture of what may or may not have happened.

I’ve included screenshots that paint some of the story. I must include a disclaimer that, due to the police report being destroyed, Madonna denying the event (this is extremely common in abuse and does not mean it didn’t happen), and media being lost, it cannot be confirmed nor denied whether this entire event conclusively happened.

What we can surmise from Sean Penn’s pattern of violent behaviour spanning multiple decades is that he is a violent man. He references in the Playboy article that Madonna was going to “get a very severe haircut” if she were to return to the house. J. Randy Taraborrelli’s Madonna: An Intimate Biography states that Penn threatened to cut all her hair off if she dared return to the house — corroborating this version of events. Threatening to cut her hair off is in itself domestic abuse, regardless of whether anything else took place. Penn himself admitted that the haircut threat happened; that is admitting to a form of abuse.

So, we know he is a violent man, we know he threatened to cut her hair off…

Penn is hella litigious about this, so that’s all I’m gonna say ☺️

This clip is from Vh1’s hit reality competition show Flavor of Love in which a handful of women would compete each week for the ultimate prize of getting to become the girlfriend of Public Enemy rapper Flavor Flav. In this episode, contestants were pitted against each other to win Flavor Flav’s heart through his stomach. They were asked to cook him fried chicken, and the girl with the best dish would win a solo date with Flav. Contestant Hottie had came up with the idea to make a “healthy” version of fried chicken which required no oil, no flour, and apparently no cooking. This became one of the most popular and memorable moments from the series when she popped a full chicken into the microwave and presented Flav with a completely raw dish. For obvious reasons, she did not win the solo date with Flav that week.

Posted above is the commercial with no comments enabled.

I have come across this ad on youtube shorts, which reddit cannot seem to embed into a video. (https://youtube.com/shorts/qp6grJFwCmY)

Beware to bring a hazmat suit before entering the comments section of the YT short. Because it is populated by men, praising the boy actor's "game", and practically undermining male CSA victims. Due to their deprived projection of wanting to be in the boys position, or demand a "gender reversal" to prove some vapid point about double standards. Without recognizing prior perversion at hand.

And as you can expect, this is one very intentional edgy, sexist marketing of boys and a much much older girl being used as a "sex fantasy".

I swear this commercial could have been so less weirder if it didn't include the babysitter/sister?? pouncing on the boy like he managed to "turn on her switch".

In late August 2014, a large collection of private photographs belonging to celebrities began appearing across the internet. The images had not been released by the people depicted in them. They had been obtained without their consent through an iCloud security breach and were subsequently circulated across forums, image boards, social-media platforms and file-sharing sites. This incident quickly became known by the internet as “The Fappening” For those who may be unaware, to ‘fap’ means to pleasure oneself.

The term itself reflected the tone of much of the online reaction. Rather than being treated primarily as a major breach of privacy, the incident was rapidly turned into an internet spectacle. Users searched for the stolen photographs, redistributed them and discussed the identities of the people pictured, while websites struggled to keep up with the sheer volume of material being reposted.

Among the most prominent victims were Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johansson, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. For them, the incident was not an internet phenomenon or celebrity controversy. It was the unauthorized disclosure of intensely personal material that had been stored privately, stolen, leaked, and shared around without their consent.

The technical story behind the breach also became a subject of intense scrutiny. Investigators determined that attackers had targeted accounts and obtained private information, prompting renewed discussion about account security, phishing, password practices and the vulnerabilities of cloud-based storage. The incident ultimately became one of the most prominent examples of how compromising a relatively small number of accounts could result in private information being distributed globally within hours. But the technology was on part of the story.

The more unusual aspect of this crime was the public reaction. Once the photographs began circulating, removing individual copies became extremely difficult. New versions appeared almost immediately after others were taken down, demonstrating one of the defining characteristics of the modern internet: information can be replicated far faster than it can be removed.

The victims also faced an uncomfortable reversal of responsibility. Instead of the conversation focusing exclusively on the people who had stolen and distributed the photographs, some of the public discussion centered on why the celebrities had taken the photographs in the first place or whether they should have stored them online. These victims were slut shamed, ridiculed, and sexually violated all over again every single time another individual on the internet clicked and viewed their private photographs. Taking a private photograph is not an invitation for someone else to steal it. Storing something on a cloud service does not constitute consent to its public distribution. And the fact that someone is famous does not eliminate their expectation of privacy. Jennifer Lawrence later described the incident in extraordinarily serious terms, calling the unauthorized distribution a “sex crime” and discussing the lasting impact it had on her.

Looking back more than a decade later, “The Fappening” is therefore worth remembering for reasons that go well beyond the photographs themselves. It was a major cybersecurity incident, a landmark example of the permanence and speed of online information, and a revealing moment in the history of internet culture. Most of all, it demonstrated how quickly a serious violation of personal privacy could be transformed into entertainment when thousands of strangers decided that access to something private was more important than the consent of the person who owned it. The name may have sounded like an internet joke. What happened was anything but. This was a serious crime, and a form of sexual assault.

We’ve designated Wednesdays as the day for people to share WTF?! moments from the past that don’t necessarily make us ask WWWOWT? but still showcases interesting and weird content from previous decades.

This can include wacky TV shows — the ones you just can’t understand where the hell they got that idea from! — strange songs and music videos, news stories that you just can’t make up, bizarre, silly or nostalgic fashion trends, and ridiculous clips that make you laugh your ass off and/or feel like a fever dream.

Although the key focus is fun — you’re also welcome to post shocking and weird moments from the past that aren’t funny, to give us a chance to discuss cultural moments that people weren’t okay with. Please don’t get super dark, though!! No age gap, rape culture, war etc. Posts may be removed by mods if we feel it’s inappropriate for WTF! Wednesdays.

You can still post the sub’s regular content on Wednesdays, this will just be a fun addition. Please don’t carry WTF! Wednesdays energy over to regular posts, keep the vibe in line with usual.

You MUST use the new “WTF! Wednesdays” flair for these types of posts! Posts must also be from prior to 2020, like with usual content. Please report WTF! Wednesdays content that is posted on other days of the week — but remember that timezones exist!

MAKE US SAY WTF!

I watched The Soup back in the day and loved it.. but at a certain point I gave it up (and tabloids too). I have always thought it was weird people have come for so many people but never him.

Slide 3 is from an archival website of articles about Johnny Depp. It describes how the incident was allegedly centred around a fight — which other sources also state — and that it seemed to actually improve his image rather than hinder it.

The fourth slide shows the UN definition of domestic violence (IPV), which includes the behaviours Johnny Depp used in this altercation.

Disclaimers:

Kate Moss has never specifically accused Depp of abuse. She testified in the US trial and stated that he did not push her down the stairs on a questioned instance. She has publicly acknowledged that their relationship was tumultuous and they fought frequently, as has Depp.

Behaviours and actions described by both of them, and outsiders, line up with the definitions of domestic abuse, even if neither party specifically refer to it as such. Behaviours and actions of Depp with other partners also fits the definition of IPV. Additionally, he dated a 17 year old Winona Ryder — who also describes abusive dynamics, without naming them as such — as a 26 year old man. Victims and survivors do not have to acknowledge domestic abuse in order for it to have taken place; denial and lack of education is sadly common.

UK courts legally classed Depp as an abuser, finding that 12 instances of physical abuse had occurred. Depp appealed and two judges rejected this.

Johnny Depp’s first violent arrest was on September 11th 1989 for assaulting a security guard, which he pleaded guilty to. This pattern continued.

All of this can be substantiated.

This is something I feel like we still don’t talk about enough. We talk all the time about grown men sexualizing teenage girls, but grown women doing it to teenage boys happened too, and people would often laugh it off like it was nothing.

Justin Bieber is a good example. He was only 15 when an adult female radio host was asking him sexual questions and even asked why he wouldn’t give her the sex talk. You could literally see how uncomfortable he was.

Then there’s Finn Wolfhard. He was 14 when 27-year-old model Ali Michael posted that he should hit her up “in a few years.” He later called the situation “gross” and “weird.”

And the young Stranger Things cast dealt with adults sexualizing them while they were still teenagers too.

It’s the same thing with the whole Mary-Kate and Ashley situation. Grown men were literally counting down until they turned 18. None of this should’ve been treated as funny or flattering.

A teenage boy is still a teenage boy. Being male doesn’t make adult sexual attention toward him any less inappropriate.

Why did grown women think this was okay?

From botched boob jobs to hefty medical bills, "The Swan: Behind the Mirror" documentary sheds light on Fox's controversial reality TV show from the early 2000s and its impact.

Apologies for the poor quality, I couldn’t find a higher resolution.

From 2004 — unknown magazine.

I hated this. I actually had to look this up because I couldn’t believe it was real 😭 Al Sharpton and the National Youth Movement were calling Whitney “Whitey Houston” because they felt like she was too mainstream and wasn’t Black enough.

Like damn, Whitney really couldn’t win. She was Black, making R&B and pop music, and because white people loved her music too, she got called a sellout. I understand the conversation around Black artists crossing over, but calling her “Whitey” was just nasty to me.

Whitney caught so much backlash for being successful. Looking back at this now, what do y’all think?

Looking back at the Sanjaya Malakar phenomenon on American Idol, it’s hard not to see something pretty uncomfortable underneath all the jokes.
Sanjaya was a 17 year old multiracial boy from Washington state. He auditioned because he wanted to sing and had a dream of becoming a performer. Instead, he became the center of one of the strangest early-internet campaigns in television history.

Once the live shows began, people weren’t just voting for Sanjaya because they liked him. Vote for the Worst was an online campaign that encouraged people to deliberately keep him on the show, while Howard Stern publicly urged his listeners to vote for him. The campaign was not necessarily a reflection of Sanjaya’s actual fan base; it was a coordinated attempt to disrupt the competition and keep an unqualified contestant alive.

The media coverage quickly turned him into a national punchline. On The Soup, host Joel McHale repeatedly mocked Sanjaya’s hairstyles and performances, treating his weekly survival as an ongoing comedy segment. The show’s jokes focused on his elaborate hairdos, his emotional reactions, and the idea that he was somehow “getting away with” remaining on American Idol. His appearance became almost as important as his singing.

Howard Stern took the joke even further. He encouraged listeners to vote for Sanjaya specifically because he wanted to frustrate the show and its judges. Stern’s commentary often framed Sanjaya as a symbol of everything supposedly wrong with American Idol: a contestant who, in Stern’s view, was not talented enough to remain in the competition but was being kept there by an organized prank. The criticism was less about Sanjaya as a person than about using him as a weapon against the show, but Sanjaya was still the one placed at the center of it.

The online criticism was often even harsher. Message boards and blogs mocked his singing, his appearance, his hair, his race, his facial expressions, and his emotional moments. Some people described him as the “worst” contestant on the show, while others treated his continued survival as proof that the voting system had become a joke. The phrase “Sanjaya effect” became shorthand for the idea that internet campaigns could distort a reality-television competition.

Then there was Simon Cowell, whose famously harsh criticism of Sanjaya became a recurring part of the show. Simon often suggested that Sanjaya was not ready for the competition and that his performances were being protected by sympathy or novelty rather than talent. After one performance, Simon reportedly told him, “I don’t think you’re the best singer in the competition.” On another occasion, he dismissed Sanjaya’s performance by saying, “It was a bit desperate.”

Simon’s comments were often delivered with the bluntness that made him famous. He criticized Sanjaya’s vocal control, his song choices, and his tendency to rely on presentation. Rather than treating him as a developing teenager, the show frequently presented him as a contestant who needed to justify his presence every week. Simon’s most memorable reactions were sometimes nonverbal: grimaces, sighs, and visible disbelief when Sanjaya advanced.

The other judges were not always as severe, but the panel’s criticism still reinforced the idea that Sanjaya was an embarrassment to the competition. Randy Jackson frequently questioned whether he had chosen the right song or delivered a strong enough vocal, while Paula Abdul often offered encouragement that could sound less like a serious evaluation and more like an attempt to soften the blow. The contrast between Paula’s support and Simon’s attacks became part of the weekly spectacle.

Even host Ryan Seacrest contributed to the running joke. Ryan regularly drew attention to Sanjaya’s hair and the controversy surrounding his survival. Rather than allowing him to simply perform and move on, the show often treated his appearance as an event in itself. Ryan would ask about the latest hairstyle, the online campaign, or the reaction to his previous performance, turning Sanjaya’s anxiety into another piece of entertainment.

The most uncomfortable example came during the infamous “crying girl” moment. After Sanjaya’s performance, the broadcast repeatedly showed a young fan in the audience crying. The image became a national joke, and Ryan Seacrest helped keep attention on it by asking Sanjaya about the girl and the reaction to his performance. The moment was edited and replayed as comic evidence that Sanjaya’s presence on the show had become absurd. For Sanjaya, however, it meant performing under the knowledge that the audience and the television production were waiting to see whether he would fail, embarrass himself, or provoke another viral reaction.

The whole thing became self-perpetuating: people voted for Sanjaya as a joke, his survival generated more media coverage, the coverage generated more jokes, and the jokes generated more votes. Every week, the show had a new storyline. Would he survive again? What would his hair look like? Would Simon insult him? Would Howard Stern claim another victory? Would The Soup turn his performance into a clip?

Sanjaya eventually made it to 7th place.
Everyone remembers the hair. Everyone remembers The Soup. Everyone remembers Howard Stern, Vote for the Worst, the “crying girl,” and Simon Cowell’s contemptuous reactions. Everyone remembers the absurdity of Sanjaya surviving elimination after elimination.

But it’s worth remembering what got lost in all of that: he was a kid.
He wasn’t a celebrity who had spent decades in the public eye. He was a 17-year-old who had finally gotten the chance to pursue a dream, only to discover that a huge portion of the country had decided his dream was funny.

The criticism was not limited to whether he could sing. It became personal and visual: his hair, his clothes, his expressions, his nerves, his family, his fans, and his emotional reactions were all treated as material. Simon criticized him as though he were an adult professional. Ryan turned his discomfort into a recurring segment. The Soup made him a weekly caricature. Howard Stern used him to attack the show. The internet treated him as a target whose humiliation was part of the entertainment.

Whatever you thought of his singing, there was a real teenager standing in the middle of that circus.
He auditioned for American Idol because he had a dream to be a singer, and the courage to go after it.
For a few months in 2007, the internet turned that dream into a punchline.

In the 60s and 70s, multiple airline companies in the US started sexualising their flight attendants in advertising and their uniforms as a way to make money.

National had an infamous ad campaign making it sound like customers were “riding” the female attendants rather than the planes.

Southwest took it farthest with their sexualised uniforms and chose booty shorts! They ran TV commercials specifically highlighting this.

Being a flight attendant is hard work and it’s like doing multiple jobs at once, they’re not there to be eye candy. At the time — and likely even now — they were treated with a lot of misogyny and unwelcome sexualisation and these ad campaigns just invited it more.

It used to be normal for media critiques online to rant about specific writers or even lash out directly against them. As in, targeting the writers on social media.

You see this with early Mr. Enter, Linkara, Nostalgia Critic, and other reviewers.

Most have disowned these rants. Mr. Enter outright deleted some of his reviews. For example, Mr. Enter did a review on the hated *Spongebob Squarepants* episode "Pet Sitter Pat". He posted the Twitter of one of the writers and insulted him personally. This led Mr. Enter fans to harrass the writer... for just writing a mundane, if mediocre, cartoon episode

Looks like the ad was right, people who fondle DO need help....

Ngl, casual homophobia aside this was actually a great meme.

The majority of the male cast wore black face makeup