I’m getting myself mixed up in this debate. I spend the last hour looking at clips and reading posts about the whole Lando and his friends making comments about how listening to women gives you a reward. Care about my two cents? Here we go.
This post by @sebastonstroll caught my attention when it landed on my dash and I had to dive deeper. I don’t watch the streams anymore, I simply don’t have the time to watch these boys play games. So I went and looked for the clip and found out that Kush also posted it here. A comment Kush made stood out to me and I need to share it:
“And before you all start, it's not "boys being boys". I'm not over exaggerating or being sensitive. It doesn't matter if it was just meant to be a joke. They are grown men, they should know that's not ok to say.”
Okay yes, it’s not Lando that said it, but he instigated the response and like Kush says: he didn’t call anyone out and didn’t say ‘it’s not okay to make these jokes.’ I know this is not the first comment made on stream, I know people are not caring about it as much as they should. I said it before: hold all of your faves accountable. That post I made back in January was about Covid and drivers catching it left and right (read it here), it also counts for this behavior as well. In that post I made this comment about Charles:
“I don’t care if you think he is an angel and the prettiest human alive, he has done something incredibly stupid and needs to be held accountable.”
This absolutely also counts for this situation. So many fans these days are holding handsome drivers up to a higher standard and I’m getting kind of sick of it. We are human, we all make mistakes but the only way we learn is by being held accountable.
Another post I read today that I needed to highlight is this one by @monzamari. In it Mari wrote:
“I know we all love him and his goofy self but god, he should never speak about women in this way ever. He has sisters and a huge amount of female fans!!! I genuinely feel like I can speak for everyone when I say hearing him say what he said about women is absolutely disgusting and fucking hurts. And he’s never going to learn how wrong he is on what he said if he’s not called out.”
This is not about cancelling Lando. This is not about hating Lando and the fun he has while streaming. This is not about making Lando stop streaming or making jokes at all. This is about the fact that when friends get together (and we all know it) we can instigate responses and don’t realise how out of hand the conversation has gotten. It’s the job of the people surrounding us (in this case fans who watched the stream, fans of Lando and his friends) to say “hey this is not okay, these jokes are unacceptable.” It’s all about pointing his nose in the right direction and saying “Lando, we don’t hate you but you gotta be better.”
Another post I read by @sunflowearly (this one) is also very important. Lando is 21, he is an adult and he should know better. Obviously I’m disappointed, we all are. Now that it’s out of my system I can let it go, but that does not mean that I won’t speak up again about any driver lining up that grid. The last paragraph of the post I just tagged is the main wish I have as well:
“I still have hope that he will open his eyes and grow up cause as I've already said it seems more like he is having a regression for what concerns maturity.”
I love Lando, I love all of the drivers I support. This does not mean that they can get away with anything and everything.
Lando stans, all the blogs mentioned in this post are fans of Lando and love him the same amount that you do. Don’t go defensive, realise this is a mistake and please stop sending death threats to them for just speaking out.
People on F1blr with strong opinions or who were hurt by comments make: speak up. Even a reblog, a tag - don’t let these emotions become an anchor in your life. People often realise the effects of jokes later down the line.
Don’t HATE Lando, just hold him accountable. Don’t HATE any driver/celebrity, just hold them accountable. Tell them stuff isn’t okay, don’t cancel them. Cancelling does nothing good for the world, helping them become better humans in whatever shape or form does.
