Once again Joan Rivers’ comedy is mistaken for sincerity. Joan Rivers has made her living poking fun at the unfortunate clothing choices of others, and still, there are people that do not get her humor. The comedic queen began on the red carpet amongst the celebrities, and with the help of the E! Network, Joan Rivers has made her way to the sound stage. This allows comments to roll freely off of her tongue without directly offending anybody to their face. Unfortunately, the televised, weekly segments have allowed Joan to offend yet another. This time, however the offended is not a celebrity or anyone on the fashion scene but a member of a women’s rights-esque organization.
Joan Rivers’ show is entitled, Fashion Police, and is quite the required show for those fashionistas in the know. The show airs on the E! Channel (check your local listings) every Friday night at 10:30pm; which is a perfect time slot for Joan Rivers’ humor. The offended in question is Rachael Lloyd. Rachael Lloyd is the founder and executive director of Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS). The foundation is a survivor led organization with the hopes to “ending commercial sexual exploitation.”
Rachael’s issue: the brief segment on Fashion Police called Starlet or Streetwalker. In this mere five minutes of the fashion comedy talk show, Rivers’ and panel – Kelly Osbourne, E! News anchor, Giuliana Rancic, and stylist, George Kotsiopoulos – view photographs of a female with her face blocked off in some rather questionable, trashy clothes. Then, they are to decide whether she will be revealed as a celebrity starlet that we all know, and usually love, or a random girl from the street. It has never been made mutually exclusive that these “streetwalkers” are literally ladies of the street, but apparently that is how Ms. Lloyd took it, and this is what she has to say, “I watched with growing discomfort as I realized that these women – poor women, desperate women, drug-addicted women, women under the control of a pimp, women who are victims of violence and exploitation – were being used to highlight wealthy celebrities’ poor fashion choices. Mocking Celebrity X for wearing an ill-advised $15,000 couture gown to the Oscars is quite different than mocking a woman who is literally living on the streets. I doubt if E! would have fashion segments called ‘Homeless or Hollywood?’, ‘Drug Addict or Debutante?’, ‘Poor or Posh?.’ Yet because these women are not ‘just’ potentially homeless, drug addicted, and definitely poor, but are ‘streetwalkers,’ prostitutes, whores, hookers, they’re considered fair game.”
Rachael Lloyd has stated her opinion, and now wants others. Well, at least their support in having this segment come to an end. She has begun an online petition to end the fragment of Fashion Police which Lloyd finds “incredibly offensive and damaging.” The petition has already reached nearly 1,500 (electronic) signatures and is still going. If you would like to support Rachael in her fight to stop exploiting girls, the site is Change.org.
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