We Should All Be Concerned About How Blake Lively Is Being Treated

Note: This post is an Op-Ed and shares the author's personal views.

Help, people are being extra weird about Blake Lively on the internet following her appearance at the premiere of the sequel to A Simple Favor.

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You're likely very aware that Blake sued her It Ends With Us director and costar Justin Baldoni last December, alleging sexual harassment on set and a subsequent targeted smear campaign designed to retaliate against and discredit her should she come forward. He has denied the allegations and filed his own lawsuit alleging breach of contract and extortion.

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The media cycle has been flooded with anti-Blake stories in the time preceding and following the movie's release. To a certain extent, I don't blame people for looking at the sheer volume of headlines calling Blake a liar or a nightmare and concluding, "Well, it seems like both sides are kinda shitty in this scenario and I really don't think I can trust Blake." People thinking this is extremely advantageous for Justin's defense going into a trial. It's the Johnny Depp situation all over again.

So, I have read both suits and looked at Justin's website of "evidence." One of my pieces is referenced in Justin's suit. Here's my professional opinion: I think that Blake's claims are credible and that this is a fairly straightforward (albeit disturbing) case of sexual harassment and retaliation. Two other women also allegedly had bad experiences on set. There is no smoking gun proving Blake lied about being sexually harassed. Instead, I've seen a lot of takes that are fundamentally based on a misunderstanding of what sexual harassment is and can look like.

The way that this has played out should be extremely concerning to people. Look, I get people's exhaustion with the amount of chatter around this. But if an A-List woman who was generally well-loved can potentially become so hated as a result of an alleged orchestrated smear campaign, what does that say for the rest of us? What kind of message does this send to the person in your community trying to use — as Justin has been accused of — DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender) tactics?

Which brings us back to the way Blake has been spoken about during the Another Simple Favor premiere. Her costar, Anna Kendrick, was asked about Blake on at least two separate occasions and dodged the question (as she was likely told to). It's been called "awkward" and "chilly," fueling tabloid speculation that the pair's working relationship is fractured.

Except the movie's own director said that reports that Anna was "pissed" and never wanted to work with Blake again were "wrong." But seeing the amount of negativity thrown her way, you'd think that Blake had murdered a children's choir. Compare this to say, how we treat people who have actually been violent towards women.

Let's take another post on X with almost 7k likes. It says, "Blake Lively is fucking shameless." What is the heathen doing in the reposted video? Literally just greeting fans and saying of working with Anna Kendrick, "Oh it's the best, I'm so happy to be here." There's another post that said of Blake, "the delusion and narcissism is egregious" for...taking off her jacket.

Things reached their cringe peak when a single protestor showed up at the event holding a "Justice for Justin Baldoni” sign with a t-shirt that said "Blake Lied." The person behind the stunt is a YouTuber who makes videos about "MeToo Hoaxes."

Let's touch on that latter point for a second. Candace Owens is someone who has found new popularity peddling videos about the lawsuits. She now hopes to exonerate convicted sexual offender Harvey Weinstein.

Perhaps you find Blake annoying. I really don't care. But let's call much of the backlash what it is: Another symptom of culture's shift back to the right.