Blake Lively – “L.A. face with an Oakland booty”

Blake Lively has found herself in a bit of a sticky situation after posting a picture of herself on Instagram at Cannes Film Festival in a gorgeous Versace dress with the caption “L.A. face with an Oakland booty”. It’s easy to see the annoyance people feel but at the same time, it’s a pretty silly comment to get riled up by–it really shouldn’t infuriate people as it did.

It could be the L.A. (a predominantly white area) face being compared to the Oakland (a predominantly black area) booty that got people mad. Is this a white privilege thing? Is it some sort of cultural appropriation, using the black, female body?

Users took to Twitter expressing their anger at the matter:

Another day, another rich white woman using WOC’s bodies as a punchline and commodity. As if Blake Lively wasn’t the worst already.

— Kat Bee (@katbeee) May 18, 2016

Damn Blake, back at it again with stupid comments https://t.co/OxLCJ8zJPs

— Her.ie (@Herdotie) May 18, 2016

Has Blake Lively even been to Oakland??

— ITS DAT BOI (@HellaBootsy) May 18, 2016

Maybe it would’ve made people happier if she said “Oakland face with an L.A. booty”? Who knows… To many others, like myself, it really wasn’t offensive (even as a woman of colour).

This Blake Lively controversy really feels like we are stretching and dissecting it waaaaayyyyyyy too much. Or am I missing something?

— Kenny Hamilton (@KennyHamilton) May 19, 2016

I refuse to worry about Blake Lively posting a sir mix a lot lyric with a picture of her backside. The revolution does not start here.

— roxane gay (@rgay) May 18, 2016

We seem to have a case of oversensitivity here and it’s also likely to be a generational thing – how many young people know the lyrics to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’? Not many and that’s where Lively got the line “L.A. face with an Oakland booty” from.

It’s definitely not a crime to quote a song, but maybe people didn’t realise it was from a song in the first place. She’s really done nothing wrong so instead of bashing her, we should complimenting her on how wonderful she looks while pregnant, because let’s face it, she looks fab!

Let’s also not forget when Katy Perry tweeted the same lyric in 2012 as did Khloe Kardashian on Instagram in 2015. Why was there no backlash then?

LA face with an Oakland booty.

— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 16, 2012