Celebrity crushes have always been a major part of growing up. From Rita Hayworth and Paul Newman in the ’40s and ’50s, to Halle Berry and Keanu Reeves in the ’90s, and the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Harry Styles, and Robert Pattinson in the early 2010s, we have all hung posters of our favorite celebrity up on our walls, rewatched our favorite movie of theirs over and over, or binge-watched YouTube videos of their best moments.
As one of Netflix’s biggest hits since the streamer’s inception, Wednesday has naturally steered this generation’s attention towards young star Jenna Ortega, making the 20 year-old one of the most talked about celebrities of the past year. Posters have most likely been hung, the show has certainly been rewatched countless times, and the actress’s every public appearance is shared incessantly among online forums.
Much like what happened with Millie Bobby Brown after her rise to fame in Stranger Things, or Billie Eilish after her breakout in the music scene, the age factor has contributed to bringing out some positively strange sides in Ortega’s fan base. While online users thirsting after a particularly celebrity isn’t unusual, or even inherently wrong, certain comments can cross lines, especially when we’re talking about women as young as Ortega.
As usual fertile ground for inappropriate content to circulate, Reddit, particularly the subreddit r/JennaOrtegaLust, was quickly flooded with unsettling sexual commentary, most of which is removed daily by its moderators, but not quickly enough. Elsewhere on the internet, however, fans have proved you can compliment a celebrity’s looks without being a total creep about it, crossing boundaries that should never be crossed.
Over on Imgur, it’s Christina Ricci that Wednesday fans worship. The weekly “It’s Wednesday, my dudes” event always goes hand-in-hand with a new picture of the the Addams Family actress looking gorgeous. Surprisingly, and restoring our faith in humanity somewhat, the comments under each photo don’t completely reduce Ricci to her sexuality.
Of course the people acting like weirdos over a simple photo of Jenna Ortega will probably not even remember the “It’s Wednesday, my dudes” frog meme turned viral vine that took over the internet in 2015. Ricci quickly became associated with it thanks to her role as Wednesday Addams in the 1991 film, making her the queen of a harmless meme. A destiny which would certainly benefit Jenna Ortega a lot more than what the internet has decided to do with her public image instead.
It would probably be pointless to remind the users who populate r/JennaOrtegaLust that celebrities, albeit distanced from our normal lives and usually approached via a screen, are still human beings, who deserve respect. We’re sure they have been told that a million times before, to no avail, so maybe taking a page out of Imgur users’ books could be what does the trick.