If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, then you’ve more than likely come across countless posts regarding Cynthia Erivo and her recently released film “Wicked: For Good.” In it, she stars alongside Ariana Grande and unfortunately, the two’s off-screen friendship has become fodder for the internet to joke about. When it comes to jokes about Erivo, however, there’s more of a darker undertone that we need to talk about.
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Unlike Grande, Erivo has been subjected to countless memes and posts about the behavior she’s been exhibiting towards Grande. In particular, fans have called into question why she appears to be so “protective” and “mammy-like” over her costar. And as we previously pointed out, it’s giving some fans the ick and making them go so far as to say that Erivo is looking for an opportunity to be “in servitude to White people” like a slave to a slave master.
But the latest crop of jokes–which are stemmed from her shielding Grande from an over-eager fan at a “Wicked: For Good” premiere overseas has only prompted more and more people to make fun of her. Specifically, it’s caused a whole crop of people to over-exaggerate her behavior and even liken it to her being manly. In one video on TikTok, the premiere incident is reenacted with Erivo being portrayed by a Black man. In the comments section, others pile on and recreate the moment through memes with some drawing Erivo as Terry Crews, with large biceps and more.
As sad as this is to see, this isn’t the first time a Black woman has had “masculine” insults hurled her way. Remember all those men who made fun of Serena Williams’ body and claimed she was “too masculine?” And let’s not forget all those right-wing folks who were pushing the false narrative about our former First Lady Michelle Obama being a man? At the core of all these insults lies one thing: misogynoir and anti-Blackness.
A fancy word for ingrained prejudice and contempt for Black women, misogynoir can be harmful on both the small and grande scale. And whenever it rears its ugly head, it’s important to call it out just like we are now. Equating a Black woman’s features, behaviors or whatever to that of a man as an insult is not only misogynoir, but it’s an ugly pattern that’s plagued this country and our community for far too long when those same Black women don’t perform their Black womanhood the way society thinks they should.
Even SZA has gotten tired of it as evidenced by a comment she left on an Instagram post of another person calling out the horrible Erivo memes. When the poster noted that all the memes and jokes had “underlying tones of racism”, the “S.O.S.” singer agreed and wrote:
“Ir not bugging and no one is too woke ! It’s CLASSIC Misogynoir! NOTHING ELSE !!! can’t believe it’s openly a thing in 2025. everyone’s gonna have cognitive dissonance 2 years later like ‘remember when everyone attacked Cynthia for being black bald and nurturing?… that was crazy’ ..it could jus stop now lol” SZA said, per Complex.
Hopefully though, it won’t take two years for people to realize the error of their ways since we’re raising the alarm now. We get it, you may not like how Erivo and Grande express their relationship–but those “masculine” memes are a bridge too far and need to stop ASAP.
Straight From 
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