The fanbase that turned against Jesy Nelson

It appeared that she was living the dream under bright lights up on stage, but we had no idea what Jesy Nelson was going through behind closed doors.

 

Little Mix performing at Gloucester Kingsholm Stadium 2017

With a successful career in Little Mix, winning three Brit Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, Five Global Awards and several more, Jesy left her band mates late last year. She took to Instagram on December 14^th, 2020, to explain that she was leaving due to mental health reasons “I find the constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard.” She wrote. She has since opened up about her departure and how her mental health has improved.

 

In her first interview since leaving the band with Cosmopolitan, she spoke about how she constantly felt like everyone compared her to the other girls in the band “Now I’m on my own, I can genuinely wear what I want to wear. Before, I was wearing what I thought I should wear, because I was too frightened to wear certain things, in case I looked bigger than the others.”

 

Jesy Nelson has always been an active advocate for body positivity and being kind to others. When her documentary ‘Odd One Out’ was released in 2019, we were shown the struggles that she faced whilst being in the band, which shockingly resulted in her attempting to take her own life.

 

Jesy Nelson’s new single ‘Boyz’ with Nicki Minaj dropped on October 1st. The song instantly shot to number one in the UK charts. Everyone was loving the song until people started accusing her of ‘blackfishing’ in the music video. This is when non-black people ‘fish’ for features which make them appear as though they’re from a different culture. This was because of her curly hair and deep tan, imitating the original 2001 music video “Bad Boys for life” that her song is sampled from.

 

Nicki Minaj and Jesy then did a live stream where Nicki defended the black fishing allegations “As long as you’re not hurting anybody or speaking negatively about anyone’s race or culture, you should be able to enjoy your body, your make-up, how you want to.” She spoke.

 

The live stream turned more sinister as Nicki began calling out Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne over alleged direct messages which she’d sent to Jesy about the situation. People became upset as Jesy sat by and laughed whilst not defending Leigh-Anne, after years of working together. Not long after, Jesy was pictured supposedly kissing Leigh-Anne’s ex-boyfriend Lucien Laviscount. Some fans went from being on her side, to completely being against her.

 

In December, she performed at Capitals Jingle Bell Ball, and the internet was full of memes criticising her performance. Would the scale of hate have been so large if the recent drama revolving around Jesy hadn’t have happened?

 

‘Cancel culture’  is something which has arisen over the last few years and many people have been trying to ‘cancel’ Jesy for her actions. Seeing the huge love which Jesy received after her ‘Odd One Out’ documentary, to seeing everyone being so against her, is such a big switch in demeaner from her audience. This switch has happened several times before with other celebrities’ fanbase. For example, everyone went from loving Shane Dawson to hating him when his past videos resurfaced. They included dark topics that some people were offended by.

 

When does it become too much? Maybe the line between educating celebrities and sending them hate on social media is so thin, that it’s hard to tell the difference between an educational tweet and a mean one. For Jesy, perhaps growing up as a young female in the spotlight was difficult. To see how the public has treated Jesy over the years, you have to view the whole picture.

 

Jesy was a barmaid in Romford, East London before auditioning for the X factor. At this time, she was confident, she never had any issues with her weight or how she looked. Whilst on the show, she was put into Little Mix, and they won! This should’ve been the best night of Jesy’s life, but it wasn’t.

 

In her ‘Odd One Out’ documentary, she explains throughout about how she received lots of hate on social media, and it really affected her whilst being on the X factor. “My brain started to believe what everyone was saying about me,” she cried. You can see the sadness in her eyes and the pain which she still feels today as she talks into the camera.

 

Jesy - 'Odd One Out' documentary

The night she won; her mind was fixated on the nasty comments which she was continuing to receive on social media. In her documentary, we see her attempt to watch videos of her time on X Factor, something she really struggles with as she says, “it’s a time of my life I will never get back.”

The Daily Mail reported that Alexandre Burke, who won the show in 2008, also struggled with online hate whilst on the show. 'Everyone is entitled to their opinion but when you read really horrible comments online it can really get you down’ Alexandre explained.

 

In a Guardian article published after Jesy’s departure from the band, she mentions how throughout her time in the band, she would search for what people were saying about her on social media. “I was trying to mentally prepare myself for what was to come and get used to what people were saying about me.”

 

Little Mix, known for their tight ‘sisterhood’ relationship, went on to be one of the biggest girl groups in the world, selling over 60 million records. Jesy obviously created many incredible memories from touring and meeting fans, and we were all shocked when we found out that Jesy was going through so much.

 

As an audience, we watch celebrities do things which make us feel so many different emotions. We’ve been happy listening to Jesy and Little Mix’s music, been upset as we’ve cried to Jesy’s ‘Odd One Out’ documentary and been angry about the recent drama. When feeling so many different emotions, it’s difficult as an audience to decide where we stand with certain celebrities. It appears however that the angrier emotions seem to stick with us, which might be why Jesy’s fanbase have suddenly seemed to turn against her.

Head over and listen to Jesy’s new single ‘Boyz’ https://open.spotify.com/track/59nbIJxGb1qkrzbtTomZkL?si=atpnBMY2SZ2MUN85XB9jag