Go to the profile of Hana Leshner
Hana Leshner
Telling stories with truth and passion.
Then you have the infamous Allstate commercial that featured Jones playing the role of a black woman who as one outlet put it — “is thirsting for a white man.” I’ve seen the commercial as I am sure you have — and my reaction to it — bares no similarities to what Black women griped about so hard that it led to their nonchalance when Jones was being pummeled with images of chimps and apes and set on fire with every scummy description you can fathom.
Why the Societal Harassment Of Leslie Jones Exposes the Ugly Black Woman Syndrome
Ezinne Ukoha
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I guess I get why people would be upset about this commercial, but I feel like this joke is the same joke Melissa McCarthy often uses in her films. A woman who doesn’t conform to the traditional western ideals of “beauty” is confident in her sexuality and is the sexual pursuer rather than the pursued. Unfortunately, the commercial doesn’t deliver her a successful sexual conquest (like Melissa usually gets in her films) to deliver that final poke in society’s eye that maybe makes the joke “okay.” Like, “See! Your preconceptions were BS. She does have value as a sexual being.” These types of jokes are always walking a thin line because the butt of the joke is either the comedian making it, or society’s beauty standards, but how it comes across to different people differs depending on their life experience and general taste.

Here’s the thing about blaming her for her “artistic choices” on this one. You’re an actor and agree to shoot a commercial. The concept is explained to you, you’re on board. It’s funny, it’s edgy, and you’re getting paid well (finally). You go to set, you shoot a bunch of different takes, you deliver the line a bunch of different ways. You go home. Months later, you see the final edit, oh, they cut out that one scene that made it different, oh they chose that delivery… Hmm. Well, it’s not exactly what I was going for. But you didn’t have control over it. Some agency creative director sitting on her laptop in an edit bay all day paused scrolling through emails for five seconds and said, “no wait, can you make it edgier though?” And the editor (and 20-person committee involved in noting and cutting a commercial) finally landed on that version that the world saw.

All that aside, no matter Leslie’s creative choices in the past, that doesn’t mean its okay to leave her out in the cold on Twitter when she was attacked.

I’m with you! I #StandWithLeslie. Leslie is awesome and she wasn’t really on my radar before this since I’ve never really been a watcher of SNL. After she came back from the Twitter attacks, I followed her on Twitter and I will now follow her career with interest. I’m thinking maybe there are others like me and hopefully that’s the shred of silver lining in this for her — a backlash of positivity to drown out the haters!