Kristen Stewart on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Photo: Screenshot
In February, out actress Kristen Stewart sent right-wingers into a tailspin when she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing nothing but a leather vest and a jockstrap.
Stewart told the publication she wanted the shoot to be the “gayest f**king thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” which prompted conservatives across the Internet to claim the actress as a “victim” of Hollywood progressives and queer ideology.
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Stewart addressed the hateful response in a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. While she made several astute observations about what sparked so much anger, she ultimately boiled it all down to two words for anyone who had a problem with the photo: “F**k you.”
The conversation began with Colbert acknowledging that CBS asked him not to show the photo. “I don’t understand why,” Colbert said, before displaying it for the audience, who erupted in applause as Stewart gave two thumbs up.
Asked why she thought people were up in arms, Stewart said, “It’s a little ironic because I feel like I’ve seen a lot of male pubic hair on the cover of things. I’ve seen a lot of hands in pants, and unbuttoned.”
“I think there’s a certain overt acknowledgment of a female sexuality that has its own volition in a way that is annoying for people who are sexist and homophobic.” Again, the audience cheered.
Colbert and Stewart then discussed how the photo is not explicit and how there have been far more revealing magazine covers.
“Female sexuality isn’t supposed to actually want anything but to be had,” Stewart explained. “And that [photo] feels like it’s protruding in a way that might be annoying, but f**k you.”
When the cover first came out, many prominent anti-LGBTQ+ people claimed Hollywood’s openness to gender fluidity destroyed Stewart’s life.
Far-right anti-LGBTQ+ activist Christopher Rufo posted that being queer “is an ideology, not a sexuality” and “appears to make people miserable.”
Anti-trans activist Oli London claimedRolling Stone “dressed the actress up as a man,” a post to which hate influencer Chaya Raichik responded with one word: “Disgusting.”
Malaysian right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong also declared, “Hollywood ruined her.”
Others said Stewart’s looks had gone downhill and that she must be a trans man because she is dressing more butch.
LGBTQ+ folks and other progressives mocked these responses. In addition to posting a seemingly infinite number of comments lusting after Stewart’s look, many on social media took it upon themselves to inform cisgender straight men that Stewart’s look was not designed to appeal to them. Users on X also called out the hypocrisy of trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), who claim they are fighting for women’s autonomy yet are freaking out about how Stewart chose to dress.
Even Rolling Stone itself joined in on the mocking, publishing an article about the right-wing fury and positing that “conservatives’ newfound fear of Stewart as a harbinger of apocalyptic gender fluidity makes about as much sense as Trump’s unnerving interest in her dating life more than a decade ago — or, for that matter, the right-wing conspiracy theories positing Taylor Swift as the key player in an NFL playoff season scripted to help reelect President [Joe] Biden.”
