The American Music Awards took place a couple nights ago, and unfortunately, the big news that came out of that included Gigi Hadid's 10-second impression of to-be First Lady Melania Trump.
Hadid co-hosted the show with Jay Pharaoh, and what was meant to be a brief bit that essentially poked fun at Melania's alleged plagiarization of Michelle Obama's DNC speech turned into a trending headline and enormous social media backlash. In light of the election this year and everything else that's resulted from it, is anyone really surprised by this reaction?
It was a 10 second long impression — her tone was clearly one of mockery, but the main points of offense taken were not exactly the fixation her impression meant to have.
I guess I understand the offense taken, as someone who also has immigrant parents, like Gigi Hadid herself. But at the same time, that’s not what she was mocking, and in a way, that means she understands the struggle and can and does respect it — especially as someone who is half Palestinian.
And others pointed to the fact that Gigi was bringing down another woman, and that was "not cool." I don't know about that. In the broad scope of things, is that really what we should be focusing on?
Hadid's impression, though of course meant to be trivial and likely with no intention of reaching such a grand level, was more about Melania’s inability to come up with her own material, not so much about her ethnicity and immigration status, nor her gender.
Two main things are evident following Gigi Hadid's condemnation via social media and her subsequent apology. One, in case you hadn't already realized, free speech and backtalk are increasingly challenged day by day following this election. No one can speak freely without fear of backlash, now. Two, we have to realize how much power public figures hold, no matter how much we ridicule or trivialize them.
The extent of my knowledge of Gigi Hadid is my purely shallow girl crush on her (I mean, she’s gorgeous). Beyond that, I don’t read too much into her personality or what she does. Yet, this brief moment in the spotlight, one of many for her, honestly, has thrown her into a pit of wolves.
Does everything always have to be political? Some Twitter users posited that Hadid should've targeted Trump rather than his wife, but if she’s going to poke fun at someone, why should it have to be Trump?
I'm not a huge fan of people telling me to chill. But in this case, I think the whole nation needs to take a breath. This post-election hubbub is exactly what so many feared, and what we should be afraid of.
