Jennifer Lopez has found herself embroiled in another cringey scandal and what else is new, right?
ICYMI: she recently released a musical film titled This Is Me … Now: A Love Story which she herself funded, wrote, produced, choreographed etc etc.
The reviews weren’t great, with most critics taking aim at its nonsensical storyline and self-indulgent nature but like, what else did you expect from a project entirely created by J.Lo about J.Lo?
Like, wtf is this sis? (Credit: Prime Video)
Anyway, I digress: interspersed in the movie-length music video were scenes where J.Lo had some real and vulnerable moments. The problem is, not everyone’s buying it.
There’s one particular scene that’s gone viral on TikTok and has everyone paying it out.
In the scene, J.Lo looks at herself in the mirror with messy hair and says: “It reminds me of when I was 16, in the Bronx, running up and down the block.”
If you’re on TikTok, you likely will have seen this clip in your FYP a thousand times over the last week as people have been stitching it and cracking up.
Here’s some examples:
In one TikTok, which has now been taken down but still exists all over TikTok, an alleged former classmate calls Jennifer Lopez out for “using us to look human.”
“I truly have left this woman alone for years, I have just been annoyed in silence since high school,” she begins the vid.
“I’m a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx who went to the same high school as you, and you’re lying.
“I saw your high school photo, you did not have hair like that.”
She added that J.Lo and the other kids in their neighbourhood were never “running up and down the block”.
In another video, Paulie Mars — a TikToker from the Bronx — explains why people in her neighbourhood have a problem with J.Lo, which relates to this video.
She claims some of the locals view J.Lo as “a sell out” because “the only time she mentions or comes to the Bronx, it’s to sell something.”
And apparently when her middle school asked her for a donation to build a basketball court “because the kids were playing basketball in the street, she said no.”
A similar thing allegedly happened with J.Lo’s high school, where they apparently they asked for donations and she declined.
“She only talks about the Bronx when she wants to make money off it and that’s fine but the only problem is that she doesn’t give back to the community she benefits from,” Mars continued.
“It all comes across very gimmicky.”
I do think this speaks to a bigger issue than just J.Lo. I think this all stems from the fact that we as the public are tired of celebrities cosplaying as poor, less fortunate and hard done by when in fact they are living it up while we are all struggling with cozzie livs.
It also doesn’t help that Jennifer Lopez has a long history of being accused of not treating people well — including service workers and stylists — then trying to make it seem like she’s a woman of the people.
Honestly, it’s not that deep and people aren’t that mad — most of the responses I’ve seen have been people stitching the video and just laughing.
Because the lack of self-awareness that Jennifer Lopez, and most other celebrities, possess is nothing if not hysterical.
