One of the best things about Zendaya — you know, aside from her acting skills — is the fact that she never hesitates to speak her mind. She's constantly standing up for herself and those she cares about. The 19-year-old did so once again on Sunday. According to Us Weekly, Zendaya shut down a Twitter troll, who made an inappropriate comment about raping celebrities. Tying into the release of the newest The Purge movie (where the premise is that all crime is allowed for 12 hours), a Twitter user posted the following since-deleted tweet: "If the purge was real who y'all raping?" Zendaya was one of the celebs whose photo was included, along with Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna. She wrote,
"This is absolutely disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself. Is this really what my generation thinks is ok?"
The Shake It Up star isn't wrong. Joking about raping any women, celebrity or not, is offensive and unacceptable. Considering the statistic that one in four women in the U.S. is sexually assaulted, these kinds of jokes are not the least bit funny. As for the convo with Zendaya and the Twitter user, it didn't end there. The back-and-forth continued when the user reportedly called the singer's response "lit." Zendaya wrote, "The only thing that’s lit is your immorality and inhumanity young man. I pray you find some sense." Now that is the Twitter equivalent of a mic drop.
Instead of ignoring the messages, she called out his inappropriateness and wished him well. Saying she's praying for him is more effective than hurling insults his way. It shows she's not stooping to his level. Of course, if Zendaya decided to respond to every troll on the Internet, she'd have no time for anything else. But she knows when it's worth lending her voice to a cause and calling people out. Rape jokes definitely are a worthwhile reason to speak up.
Overall, so much respect for Zendaya. She continually sets an example of knowing your worth and not accepting other people's nonsense.
