“Go shoot some more heroin Demi,” “She’s a hypocrite let’s pull out the heroin memes and see if she doesn’t get emotional,” are just some of the hate responses Demi Lovato received from fans after her struggle with addiction.
Lovato has struggled with substance abuse and an eating disorder since 2012, and relapsed in 2018 after the release of her single, “Sober.” She received a lot of backlash for this song, and for relapsing. Comments on her Instagram read, “Rehab doctors better take her phone away,” “Heroin addicts smh” and “Crack is one hell of a drug Demi.”
Post Malone received entirely different reactions than Lovato. A video of Malone has floated around social media. In it, he is shown struggling to pick up his microphone, slurring words and unable to get up at a concert. Many fans expressed concern for him, one tweeting, “Yeah the videos could just be part of the performance but too many celebs have lost their lives to addiction, he could be struggling and needs help, do not ignore the signs before its too late.”
The way that people responded to Malone vs. Lovato is unacceptable. As soon as Malone was seen in public struggling, people reached out and were automatically concerned, but the reaction was the opposite for Lovato. After making a joke about 21 Savage on Twitter that a lot of people were laughing at already, replies were automatically made mentioning Lovato and her struggle with substance abuse.
“They should be treated the same way. It’s not okay that in our society women are treated like this,” Senior Katie Gropel expressed. “The way that people are attacking Demi and then turning around and being concerned for Post is offensive,” she stated.
In our society, women and men are seen very differently. Women are seen as weaker than men. Even when dealing with something like addiction, there are different responses based on their gender. Society tells people that because Lovato is a woman, she needs to be treated badly, and the opposite for Malone.
Even though Malone may be a more popular artist than Lovato, that doesn’t give people the right to treat them completely different. Celebrities are actual human beings, just like everyone else. They have feelings just as others do. It’s time to stop treating people differently no matter what their gender is.
