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In January 2023, Ranker released a list of the most disliked celebrities, and asked users to rank them based on how annoying and unlikeable they are. The list featured those who are regulars on the list of most hated celebrities, such as the Kardashians, Ellen DeGeneres, and Amy Schumer, and newcomers such as Amber Heard, who made the list after losing her highly publicized defamation trial, and Meghan Markle, who has been a victim of cyberbullying from select mainstream and social media users since she and her husband walked away from the British Royal Family. The list is not exclusive to women – no one was surprised to find big names in the entertainment industry such as Kanye West, Jake Paul, James Charles, Justin Bieber, and tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk on the list. Several new entrants made their debut on the list after hundreds of voters clicked the thumbs-up, ratifying their position as some of the most hated celebrities. One of these names is JoJo Siwa, who received 308 votes, making her the 29th most-hated celebrity of 2023. But why does she rank so highly on the list? Here’s why some people hate JoJo Siwa.
Childlike Behavior
JoJo Siwa is just 19 years old, but has had a long career and built a large fortune estimated at over $20 million. Her star started turning as soon as she was born to a professional dance instructor. When JoJo was 9, she and her mother were featured in “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition,” a “Dance Moms” spin-off. The mother-daughter duo was eliminated, but came back for the fourth season of the show. The appearance opened up more doors for Siwa, who joined the “Abby Lee Dance Company”, and stayed on for a few years before leaving after receiving a lucrative offer from Nickelodeon. During JoJo’s tenure on “Dance Moms,” she and her mother didn’t get along with the other contestants, who were put off by the Siwas’ loud personalities.
Nickelodeon was just the beginning of JoJo’s career growth. She was featured in some movies, did some voice-overs for animated characters, and made her musical debut, but the hatred and criticism that she had received during her time on “Dance Moms” followed her through every new venture she tried. One of the traits she’s most criticized for is her childlike behavior, an odd accusation against someone who was a minor until just a few years ago. Besides, most of JoJo’s audience is children and teenagers, making her behavior appropriate for her target audience. However, this realization hasn’t stopped people all over social media from throwing a barrage of hate her way. JoJo’s love for colorful bows and equally bright and whimsical clothing doesn’t help the perception of childishness that she still portrays.
Most celebrities would yield to social pressure and conform by dressing more maturely to fend off the haters, but JoJo doubles down every time she receives hate for being childish. She took to TikTok to announce that she wouldn’t change her style, and has since continued to wear her neon bows and use a toilet that is emblazoned with her picture. She turned her childish personality into a lifestyle brand, complete with strategic child-centered products, such as cereal with her face on the box.
While JoJo has remained adamant that she will not change to please anyone or reduce the hate she receives, lately, it seems as if JoJo is abandoning her childlike look for a more mature appearance. She has cut her hair and abandoned her usual colorful ensemble for more mature dresses and heels. We’ll be watching to see whether her mature look is permanent, or just part of her efforts to look authoritative in her new role as a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance.”
Unqualified Judge
“So You Think You Can Dance” returned in 2022, with a new season after a long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The show made a few changes, including introducing a new set of judges, including Matthew Morrison, Stephen Boss and JoJo Siwa. Matthew was fired from the show as soon as the contestants got through the auditions, for sending inappropriate messages to a contestant – Stephen passed away by suicide later in the year. JoJo, on the other hand, has faced hate and bullying from social media users across all platforms, for being unqualified for her role in the show.
JoJo faced a backlash as soon as her name was announced alongside Morrison and Boss. Later, when Matthew’s allegdly inappropriate behavior was uncovered and the show put out a statement that a judge would be leaving, several social media users reportedly hoped that the judge who was booted from the show was JoJo, arguing that she wasn’t qualified to be a judge of a dancing competition. The irony that JoJo has been participating in dance competitions since she was nine and has built a large following based primarily on dance-related content wasn’t lost on some people, who supported JoJo’s role as a judge. JoJo responded with her typical clap backs, highlighting her experience participating in four dance shows, hiring over a thousand dancers for her projects, being featured on several music videos as a dancer, and 18 years of learning from her mother, who is a dance instructor. She ended the post by boldly calling anyone who questioned her knowledge of dance, silly.
18 Years of Dance Knowledge
4 Major dance TV shows
I’ve hired over 1000 dancers
16 Dance music videos
If you don’t like me that’s okay… but if you think I don’t know about dance ya just sound silly
— JoJo Siwa (@itsjojosiwa) May 31, 2022
Unpleasant and Obnoxious
Naturally, JoJo doubling down and calling the people who doubted her qualifications as a judge‘silly’ angered them, and had them watching the competition hoping to catch anything they could use to criticize her; they had their opening when JoJo brought her usual exuberance to the judge’s bench. When asked for feedback on the contestants’ performance, viewers noted that she would respond loudly despite having a mic on. Since then, she’s faced criticism for being unnecessarily loud, with some fans of “So You Think You Can Dance” claiming that her obnoxious voice turned them off so much, that they would no longer watch the competition for as long as she remained on the bench.
The criticism leveled against JoJo for being unpleasant has worsened since her time in the competition, but that wasn’t the first time she received hate for being annoying. For instance, sometime back, JoJo received backlash after she posted some comments implying that she was pregnant, only to admit that she was joking, and didn’t intend to have children just yet. Such distasteful and juvenile pranks have landed JoJo on the wrong side of the internet, and contributed to peoples’ perception of her as obnoxious. It doesn’t help that she doesn’t apologize after pulling such stunts, which angers her fans further and turns some of them against her.
Sexual Identity
By now, a pattern of outrage over JoJo’s overall style, loud and outspoken nature, and unrepentant response to criticism is evident. Every time she faces criticism, JoJo has fought back and remained firm in her words, actions, and choices except one time, when she lost sleep for three days over the hate she received. In 2021, JoJo came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and introduced her then-girlfriend, Kylie, to the world. After coming out, JoJo expected to receive wholesome support from her fans for revealing her true self to them. While she received some support, other reactions and comments were extremely hateful. She had older followers telling her their children would never watch or follow her again, while others called for a boycott of her merchandise. Fortunately, JoJo bounced back from all the hate and homophobia and went back to unapologetically being herself. She became a positive example of self-acceptance and uniqueness until a few months later when she alienated a large portion of the LGBTQ+ community and fans who had stood by her, after she came out for holding an unpopular view on the word “lesbian.”
Last year, as JoJo was riding the wave of hate as a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance,” she had an interview in which she spoke about being a gay icon of her generation. When asked how she identified, JoJo responded that she hates the word “lesbian,” adding that the word had connotations of masculinity attached to it. Her response heaped more hate on her for contributing to the social stigma against lesbians. As usual, she bounced back and defended herself, saying that she identifies as pansexual, but refuses to put pressure on herself to fall under a single label.
Ultimately, JoJo Siwa is the poster child for having a unique personality and refusing to yield to pressure to conform to social labels. She wears bold colors, shares her opinion loudly, and claps back when attacked for being herself. Her bold personality has brought her so much hate from people who consider her bouncy personality childish and age-inappropriate for her. To them, JoJo is unpleasant and undeserving of some of the opportunities that have made her popular and wealthy. What do you think? Is this hate for JoJo Siwa warranted?
