Chelsea Blackwell went on Love Is Blind to find her soulmate and instead ended up with a lot of the internet screaming at her about her looks. All because Blackwell said in the pods that people say she looks like Megan Fox. Yup, that’s it.
In the context of the episode, Blackwell and Jimmy Presnell were talking in the pods about celebrity look-a-likes. Blackwell made it very clear that she didn’t see it but said that people have compared her to Megan Fox. Well, she said “MGK’s girlfriend or wife” and Presnell shockingly responded with “Megan Fox?!” and then the internet came in.
Now, as someone who vaguely looks like a lot of celebrities, I understand Blackwell’s response. I have gotten Elizabeth Olsen, Florence Pugh, and Natalie Dormer throughout the years. Mainly because we are all girls with rounder faces and pointy chins. Now, if I was talking to someone who couldn’t see me behind a wall, I would make it extremely clear that I do not look like them in my mind. Which is kind of what Blackwell did in this situation.
Saying that she doesn’t see it, she still gave Presnell a clear image because Fox has such a striking look. The issue currently is that it has gotten so bad for Blackwell online. Even Presnell, who initially said in a confessional after meeting and proposing to Blackwell that she had “lied” to him about her appearance, has had to come to her defense. In a conversation with Us Weekly, he talked about the situation.
“To be fair, that woman didn’t say, ‘I look like Megan Fox.’ She said, ‘People tell me,’” he explained to Us. “But I heard that and I was so excited. So yeah, maybe my bad. She’s getting a lot of heat and she doesn’t deserve it. She’s an amazing person and I will shield her from all that s—t if I need to. I can speak numbers to how she is as a person, and if they want to hate on somebody, they should hate on me. She don’t deserve it.”
This situation has gotten so bad that Blackwell felt the need to apologize to Megan Fox. “I did reach out to her [Fox], and I was like, ‘I’m so sorry I did this to you,’ ” Blackwell told Entertainment Tonight. “I’m just waiting for Megan to respond.”
So why is this a thing?
I think why this all blew up is a mix of different things. One being that Presnell did react in such a way that made the internet agree with him. Second being that if a woman says that she was told something and even goes as far as to say that she “doesn’t see it,” that’s not enough for people. Blackwell made it so incredibly clear that she didn’t see it but that doesn’t matter, she still got the heat for saying it.
I get that people love Megan Fox. It’s a universal thing. If I could look like any celebrity, it would probably be her. But to take this so far and make a woman feel the need to apologize for saying what other people said is…actually baffling.
Blackwell does have similarities to Fox. It’s not a perfect comparison but she never claimed it was—she said the opposite, in fact. Blackwell literally did nothing wrong. She answered a question and the internet blew it out of proportion.
(featured image: Netflix)
