movies/tv Kelly Marie Tran deletes her Instagram account over harassment

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

For those of you who are curious, Kelly Marie Tran is the actress who played Rose Tico on Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  But lately, toxicity on Instagram, and harassment aimed at her caused her to delete her Instagram account.  And she wasn't the only Star Wars cast and crew to be mocked on social media

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Kelly Marie Tran, The Last Jedi’s breakout star who played Rose Tico, has reportedly left Instagram because of harassment. It’s the latest incident in a long line of toxicity aimed at the Star Wars cast by its fans — a reminder of how loud and unwelcoming the fandom can often be.

It’s possible that Tran deleted Instagram because she simply didn’t want to be on the platform anymore. Tran has repeatedly said that she doesn’t like using social media, including Instagram, adding that she doesn’t like to be in the public eye, scrutinized and judged. Many of these statements were posted on Tran’s Instagram account. Those Instagram posts are now deleted, making them impossible to embed, but tweets with screenshots illustrate some of Tran’s fears over being such a publicly accessibly figure on Instagram. Polygon has reached out to Tran’s representatives for comment on the situation.

Tran doesn’t have a Twitter account, unlike some of her co-stars, making Instagram one of the easiest ways for people to find — or attack — her. Below is an example of people responding to Tran’s character Rose on the official Star Wars Instagram account whenever she appeared.(Note: Check the Source to see these posts)

This isn’t the first time that Tran has suffered harassment at the hands of angry, entitled fans, either. Paul Ray Ramsey, an alt-right personality, tweeted a comparison photo of Tran and Battlestar Galactica actress Grace Park (who played the fighter pilot Boomer) mocking Tran’s weight.

Another group of racist trolls targeted Tran’s Wookiepedia page, changing her name to “Ching Chong Wing Tong” and describing her as “stupid, autistic and retarded.”

The page was later changed by Wookiepedia’s staff, and a statement to Newsweek confirmed the page would remain in lockdown to ensure the page couldn’t be changed back.

“The wiki admins take this very seriously and took the steps to resolve this situation as quickly as possible, including escalation to our team, and subsequent lockdown,” a representative told Newsweek. “This lockdown will remain for the foreseeable future and we will be closely monitoring activity on this wiki.”

This isn’t unique to Tran, albeit she received an especially bad case of harassment. Almost everyone involved with the film was bullied: Daisy Ridley deleted her Instagram accountafter upset fanboys started harassing her; The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson dealt with hordes of angry people on Twitter following the movie’s release; John Boyega responded to racist Star Wars fans who were upset about his inclusion in the new franchise.

Director Rian Johnson told The Standard that, although he knew what he was getting into when he signed up, he was taken aback by the level of anger and scorn “10 percent” of the community felt toward him and the film.

“There were death threats,” Johnson said. “It’s balanced by a few things — 90 percent of the stuff I got online was not only lovely and encouraging but phenomenally thoughtful. Fans would send me essays on the movie. The other 10 percent is just loud and gets amplified. At first I was freaked out but then I realized the things people were angry about are the things I’m most proud about.”

Johnson is still on Twitter and Instagram, but it only takes a cursory glance through his mentions to see he’s still receiving harassment almost daily. Tran and Ridley, however, are almost completely offline, choosing to not deal with the abusive messages sent their way.

This story is a really about a couple of different things: It’s a story about the obtuse level of harassment celebrities often deal with just because they’re public figures; it’s a story about Instagram’s inability to properly design a platform with anti-harassment measures in mind; it’s a story about the blatant sexism and racism an actress has to deal with just for participating in a movie.

It’s also a story about how absolutely toxic a very loud, reactionary part of Star Wars fandom has descended into. Tran was a positive, happy ball of energy when she made her debut at Star Wars Celebration in 2017. Her enthusiasm for Star Wars, her absolute obsession with the franchise and her admiration for being cast in a series she dreamed of was infectious. She reminded us all that Star Wars can make us feel like kids again; that we’ve built lifelong bonds and friendships with people over a film franchise that spans generations.

But Star Wars is no longer a purely fun experience for those involved, because of an incredibly outspoken, organized army of trolls. Both Tran and Ridley were excited newcomers to the franchise and, although they clearly still love being a part of it, that light seems to have dimmed. The only way they seemingly felt able to deal with being a public figure in a movie that fans so grotesquely attacked was to leave part of their public lives behind.

Star Wars fandom has transformed, for many people, into a battle between people who believe they have ownership over a franchise they literally have nothing to do with and people just trying to do their jobs. Fandom used to be inspiring, but a large chunk of it is now gross and off-putting.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/5/17429164/kelly-marie-tran-leaves-instagram

 

I'm just at a loss of words right now.   As someone who enjoyed The Last Jedi, I am appalled that an actor is being mocked for her role as Rose Tico(And if anyone asks, yes I actually liked Rose in that movie).  This is the kind of stuff that makes me embarrassed to be a Star Wars Fan.  Not ANYTHING in the Prequel trilogy.  Not Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker.  Definitely not Jar-Jar Binks.  Not the Last Jedi.  Not the Holiday Special.  And NOT even the worst games of Star Wars(Nor the famous Loot Boxes of Battlefront 2).  This, this whole "Harass an actor," makes me ashamed to be a fan of that Galaxy, Far, Far Away.  It's wrong, and it makes fandoms look like a miserable little pile of secrets(Or a cesspit of hatred and lies).

To my fellow bronies, never harass a Cast or Crew member of My Little Pony.  Even if you disagree with what they do, it's NEVER okay to sink that low.  EVER!

[Kai-rouken 146]

Rose Tico was a garbage character played by a mediocre actress, in a trainwreck of a movie.

That being said, I see no reason why people feel the need to take their hatred of a shitty corporate product out on an actress who played a supplementary role at best. If they really have that much of a problem with the piece of "art" created, they should criticize it in a civil manner, not attack people playing fictional characters.

However, if these people are indeed trolls, then I take all of that back as trolls just wanna have fun, and their "mocking/ harassment" can easily be misconstrued as something far more serious than it is. Trolls do not attack people out of malice, they do so to entertain themselves and other onlookers. If you infringe upon the rights of trolls you are essentially disposing of free speech in its final bastion (aka the internet). 

 

Spoiler

Also, Hayden Christensen played a splendid Anakin, whatchu talking about, fool?

 

[Venomboa 7]

Oh well, I'm not surprised.

[Misty Shadow 7,940]

I guess I'll be the one to get the elephant out of the room by saying that the article is garbage (Polygon is notorious for spreading misinformation and lies about any potential "enemies" of the establishment) and an obvious tool being used to misrepresent fans who didn't like The Last Jedi as "racist trolls" to encourage the undermining of their opinions. I don't support trolling or harassment in any way, shape, or form, however, it must be pointed out that this is the kind of thing that anyone who uses the internet needs to be prepared for. Every day, there are people who take down their social media accounts for this reason, it's just life. If deleting your social media account is the preferred option over simply blocking, reporting, or ignoring people who are giving you a hard time, fine, you do you. However, people writing news articles like this in an attempt to publicly escalate the situation as much as possible and push their agenda will not only turn people who are not trolls and just want to peacefully express their dissenting opinion on a movie off, but it will also ironically encourage the hate mob to strike back with a vengeance after getting the attention they want.

[Kai-rouken 146]

6 minutes ago, CloudMistDragon said:

However, people writing news articles like this in an attempt to publicly escalate the situation as much as possible and push their agenda will not only turn people who are not trolls and just want to peacefully express their dissenting opinion on a movie off, but it will also ironically encourage the hate mob to strike back with a vengeance after getting the attention they want.

[Guest]

All I can say is: there may be more to this than what is being told by the media. A lot of people were disappointed by the film and the recent trend in the media is basically pushing anything "progressive" and claimed it's "Great" even though the fans hate it. Look at cases like Amy Shcumer who basically is hated by the majority of people but praised by the media like everyone loves her because "feminism" and "fat acceptance".

Remember when stars report "harassment" there is always the chance that they could be just pulling an Anita Sarkeesian. AKA claim they are being unfairly harassed when they actually either: are earning the negative feedback they get or are not actually being harassed that bad. Anita Sarkeesian claims she gets death threats daily but has yet to provide any evidence to verify any of this.

I am not saying she is guilty of that, but I am saying considering the hatred for social justice that The Last Jedi got... I wouldn't just instantly believe that Ms. Tran is inherently innocent without more research. I'll look into it myself. This could just be the media trying to play the social justice warrior hero again, standing up for "poor defenseless women" and picking out a tiny amount of harassment and claiming it's painting a picture of behavior when it might actually be a tiny minority as we've seen in the past.

[cmarston1 5,959]

Unfortunately this seems to be par for the course for the Star Wars fandom given how they have relentless bullied Jake Lloyd who was only what 9 or 10 when Star Wars episode 1 was released and made his life a living hell, showing how they were already willing to relentlessly harass actors even before social media became as big as it is today.

Edited June 6, 2018 by cmarston1

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

1 hour ago, cmarston1 said:

Unfortunately this seems to be par for the course for the Star Wars fandom given how they have relentless bullied Jake Lloyd who was only what 9 or 10 when Star Wars episode 1 was released and made his life a living hell, showing how they were already willing to relentlessly harass actors even before social media became as big as it is today.

Yeah.  I remember hearing about that AND the attack on Hayden Christensen.  I also heard Mark Hamill was upset over how Jake was treated, and hated the idea that the Phantom Menace ruined people's childhoods.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Oh no! Mean words were written on a public profile! I literally cannot even!

 

Actors get paid. Actors get tomatoes thrown at them. Life goes on.

[Castle Bleck 19,376]

As much as I agree with them about TLJ itself, treating the real-life crew that way is almost a Moral Event Horizon (especially regarding what others here mentioned about Jake Lloyd's treatment).

Edited June 7, 2018 by A.V.

[Steve Piranha 29,429]

It has to be taken with a grain of salt, as we all know the media LOVES the role of the SJW, portraying minorities as victims, like in the case of the black guys loitering Starbucks, some Muslim kicked from an airport using the race card (with witnesses account claiming they where disturbing other people), or an illegal immigrant deported to Mexico with a sob story of being the only income for his wife and kids (they woulndn't be  devious enough to cut out his instance of a hit n' run DUI. They have the high moral ground, right ?). Anyway, it's ridiculous to claim Kelly Marie didn't suffered trolling to outright cyber bullying, considering her divisive character and how common it is nowadays. However, there's a chance the story is exaggerated like with the other mentioned cases. BUT, it's as likely  to be the opposite as well, considering the SW fanbase is even more passionate than ours, and the well documented case with Jake Lloyd.

PD: I'm commenting mostly  based on second accounts,  as I'm neither a SW fan, nor interested in watching the Last Jedi 

[Megas 27,742]

Sadly Star Wars fans have a long, long history of doing this shit(see Jake Lloyd for another example), so it's not hard to believe. Seriously if you hate a character that's fine(I'm not a fan of Rose either) but for fucks sake don't go out attacking the actress herself, or insulting her for her physical appearance(seriously a quick Youtube search you'll see people calling her a fat/ugly asian bitch), that's not criticism, you're just being an asshole