Poor Justin Timberlake …are not three words that I would have imagined typing 25, 15 or even five years ago.
Mr. Timberlake, the “Mickey Mouse Club” veteran turned boy band pin-up; one half – with Britney Spears – of an iconic millennial power couple; the Grammy Award-winning solo artist and go-to guest host of “Saturday Night Live”; and now, as the whole world has learned, the dude was arrested in the Hamptons early Tuesday morning and charged with drunk driving.
Sprinkle salt on the wound, Page six reported that the officer who arrested him did not know who the culprit was. After Mr. Timberlake allegedly muttered that the arrest was “going to ruin the tour,” the agent asked, “What tour?” According to People magazine, “The Internet can’t stop laughing.” Among the cascade of jokes: that his arrest might be the only event that could turn sexy back. Streams of Britney Spears’ song “Criminal” have increased. Wild memes keep replicating.
Celebrity misery always provokes a fire hose of schadenfreude, but this seems to be next level. Where, I wondered as I scrolled and lol, are fans rallying to his defense? Why does everyone like this so much?
The answer is that this doesn’t happen to any old celebrity. This is happening to the man who, for a very long time, seemed to many the embodiment of undeserved good fortune – in a word, privilege. He’s a talented performer, a gifted singer, a charming actor, of course. But perhaps his greatest talent is getting away with it cleanly.
Over the years, Mr. Timberlake has not been immune to controversy, just its consequences. Time and time again, he escaped unscathed, looking and, reportedly, feeling just fine, while those around him were left to pick up the pieces.
When Mr. Timberlake and Ms. Spears separated in 2002, his story – discussed in interviewsplay in music videos and implied in the mash-ups of “What Goes Around… Comes Around,” “Rehab,” and “Crazy” — was that she had cheated and broken his heart. The world was happy to take his word for it. “You did something that caused him so much pain,” Diane Sawyer told Ms Spears in a speech. interview in 2003. “So much suffering. What did you do?”
Then, in 2004, Mr. Timberlake joined Janet Jackson during her Super Bowl halftime show. You know what happened next: at one point the choreography required her to remove a panel of her bustier, but because of what would later be, and still remarkably, euphemized as a wardrobe malfunction , almost his entire chest was exposed. For some reason, Ms. Jackson was publicly flayed. A week later, Mr. Timberlake won a Grammy for best male pop vocal performance, during a show including Ms. Jackson had been disinvited.
Along the way, some observers began call Mr. Timberlake for what they saw as appropriation of black culture (R&B, gospel and hip-hop), but not defend black people. That didn’t stop single after single from topping the charts.
Over time, the Black Lives Matter movement has helped inspire more people to think about the role race plays in determining who succeeds and who fails, whose careers stagnate and whose career soars, who walks away from scrutiny. road. And the #MeToo movement has made people more skeptical of bad male behavior and more willing to believe women. When Ms. Spears’ memoir was published last year, she told her side of the story: It was Mr. Timberlake who cheated on her, then dumped her via text message. She also revealed that she had become pregnant and that he had insisted on an abortion, during which he play guitar as she writhed in pain on the bathroom floor.
This time, many readers seemed ready to believe her. They also seemed excited to have the opportunity to make fun of himself – even Michelle Williams, who narrated the audiobook, had way too much fun. imitating him as he would have said: “Oh, yeah! Fo’shiz, fo’shiz! Ginuwine! What’s up buddy?”
In 2021, after the release of a documentary Regarding Ms. Spears, Mr. Timberlake took to social media to make amends.
“I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson individually because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed,” he said. “I also feel compelled to respond, in part because everyone involved deserves better and, most importantly, because this is a larger conversation that I wholeheartedly want to participate in and grow from.”
That Justin Timberlake – the one who has emerged in recent years – seemed less like a pop prince charming than a serial exploiter of women and black music and culture, a man who benefited from undeserved privilege and of undeserved success, which was served this long-awaited slice of humble pie. That’s why a lot of people were so looking forward to seeing his arrest this week as a sort of reward for delayed karma.
I was, I admit, one of these people. Part of me wants to believe that if the ultimate Teflon-covered rich white guy is no longer so capable of charming his way out of trouble, a larger cultural shift might be afoot.
But this is the same part of me that wanted to believe that Donald Trump would be held responsible for the “Access Hollywood” tape. Except that wasn’t the case.
This is the same party that thought Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations would end Brett Kavanaugh’s chance to serve on the Supreme Court. Except they didn’t.
The same part that hoped the allegations Matt Lauer said he felt “embarrassed and ashamed” about meant he never said the word comeback. Except he did. Many times.
Canceled white men rarely stay canceled. It seems the best we can hope for is a chance to briefly hold them accountable for their actions. Meanwhile, the cultural currents that caused people to reconsider Mr. Timberlake’s actions are receding — if they ever really changed.
Companies that embraced DEI initiatives with great fanfare a few years ago are downsizing, consolidating, or eliminating their diversity departments altogether. Republican lawmakers are eagerly banning DEI in higher education. In edition, many black editors hired with great fanfare in recent years have lost their jobs, while black authors continue to represent less than 10 percent of the novels published each year by major conglomerates. Meanwhile, Roe v. Wade has been in the rearview mirror for two years and Donald Trump, whose Supreme Court picks ensured its demise, is leading in the polls.
Remember the social media apology Mr. Timberlake made a few years ago? Last January, during a concert in New York, he announced that he apologized to “absolutely” – and here an expletive intervened – “no one.»
The memes are hilarious, the tweets are even funnier, but the more likely case is that Justin Timberlake will be just fine. And even if he doesn’t, other men like him will be lining up to take his place. The systems that allowed him to flourish are even less vulnerable than the men who have long reaped their benefits.
