Vanderpump Rules’ Jax Taylor is many things: a cheater, a liar, a manipulator, the Number One Guy In The Group. He is also one of the most notoriously sensitive people on social media, second only to Jonathan Cheban. And he’s fully aware that he can be extreme when it comes to blocking, telling Us Weekly, “I’d rather block them, because they think they’re being cute, so I’m just going to block them. They want to say something and see what they can get away with, so I block them.” Jax is so quick to block people who call him out, in fact, that his behavior has inspired an Instagram account and “Blocked By Jax on Twitter” T-shirts and other apparel. When it comes to blocking, Jax does not discriminate. He has blocked his own cast mates including Kristen and Tom Sandoval, fellow Bravolebrities like Below Deck‘s Captain Lee, and many a random internet hater.
So I decided to speak to a few of those aforementioned internet haters and chat with them about the circumstances—and the offending tweets—that caused them to get blocked by Jax on Twitter.
Evelyn M, a member of the Bravo by Betches Facebook group, says she was blocked in March of this year after tweeting a reaction to a Vanderpump Rules marathon. In a bold move, she tagged Jax, which earned her a swift block.
Lmao all this #VanderpumpRules marathon proves is that @mrjaxtaylor has not changed
— Ev (@eviemacs) March 24, 2020
Amira A, another Bravo by Betches group member, said, “Jax blocked me on Twitter because I said Stassi dodged a bullet that Brittany has to deal with.” She didn’t even tag him directly, she said: “I tagged #vanderpumprules.” Upon finding the tweet, she said, “he proceeded to cuss me out and block me, along with whoever else was in the thread.” She recalled, “it wasn’t a good episode for him, and people were letting him have it I believe,” clarifying that it was the episode when Brittany famously told Jax to rawt in hail after finding out he had sex with Faith.
Twitter user and @bravobybetches follower @Lynn_S_A was blocked just last week, after tweeting some opinions on the Vanderpump Rules OGs. She tweeted in reply to Kristen Doute revealing that she went to Sandoval’s pool party because Jax had uninvited her to his, and was one of at least 170 replies to the tweet. She did not tag Jax, nor did she even write out his full name. That he was able to sift through so many replies to find the tweet is nothing short of impressive.
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🦀💎🦀💎 #VPR #pumprules #vanderpumprules #engaged #crabs #congrats #jaxtaylor #brittanycartwright
While making a joke about passing an STD onto his then-fiancé may not have been exactly nice, it’s far from the worst thing someone could say about Jax, and even far from the worst true thing one could say. However, this word play made @facesbybravo the lucky winner of a blocking.
@lucyontheground, another pop culture meme maker, was blocked by Jax on Instagram as recently as Tuesday night. She told me via DM, “I am so confused… it must have happened last night because I haven’t watched for weeks.” She elaborated, “I called him a man child last night and said he and Brittany just like to complain and be unhappy,” but added, “I don’t even tag him… he had to come looking.” A subsequent meme on her account poking fun at being blocked has racked up comments from other users who have also been met with the same fate.
Perhaps most perplexingly, @twobravosisters got blocked by Jax for sharing his now-wife, Brittany Cartwright’s before and after pictures with Kybella, an injectable treatment that decreases fat cells beneath the chin. Two Bravo Sisters put it on their Instagram stories back in 2018, which was when they got blocked. The perplexing part is that Brittany having had Kybella wasn’t some secret Two Bravo Sisters exposed—the very plastic surgery group Brittany used posted her before and afters on Instagram, and then @twobravosisters shared that post on their stories. They told us they were “confused” by Taylor’s reaction.
From big to small accounts, from individuals to faceless meme-makers, no one is immune to Jax’s wrath. And while sometimes Jax just blocks and moves on, other times he starts all-out wars, and then blocks. This is what happened to Kaye, the creator of the original “Blocked by Jax” apparel, which she sells on her Etsy shop, Gold Half Moon.
In 2019 he announced that he intended to produce “blocked by Jax” merch via Kristen Doute’s clothing company, before promptly getting dragged for ripping off a small business—Gold Half Moon had been making “blocked by Jax” apparel for a while.
“I did have IRL beef when I made the blocked by Jax sweatshirts and he claimed I stole the idea from him and I was selling ‘cheap fakes’ that disintegrated in the wash,” she told me.
Despite Jax coming for her products, though, Magen, the co-owner of James Mae, quickly reached out to apologize for Jax’s remarks, explain that it was never her intention to go after Kaye’s business, and promise not to make the shirts. Despite James Mae and Gold Half Moon kissing and making up, Jax didn’t seem to have gotten the memo, and at least in November 2019, still had her blocked.
Nobody has to tolerate negativity or trolling, and everyone can do whatever they want with their personal social media accounts. But it’s one thing to block trolls who invade your comments, and another thing to personally go looking for any mentions of your name. It’s nothing short of hilarious to imagine a 40-year-old man spending his days trawling the internet for people who talk sh*t about him, who aren’t even in his mentions, just so he can block them. Jax can’t take the heat, but he also can’t stay out of the kitchen. Even better, he will go out of his way to look for any heat, so he can burn down the kitchen in a towering inferno of self-righteousness.
Oh, and I forgot one more person who’s blocked by Jax: me, surely, after this article goes live.
Image: Bravo / Contributor
Ah, Jameela Jamil. Talented actress, champion of body positivity, and prolific tweeter. Jameela does important work helping to tear down the norms of problematic diet culture and harmful social media wellness practices, but she also has a habit of putting her foot in her mouth on social media. Over the last 24 hours, she’s been in a heated Twitter back-and-forth with Victoria’s Secret model Sara Sampaio, and it’s all one big mess. Tempers are high, things are getting condescending, and I’m not sure anyone is completely in the right, tbh. Let’s try to make sense of this, shall we?
A few days ago, Jameela Jamil reposted a video of a runway show in which several women are walking barefoot, dancing together, and generally just having a good time. No one in the video is super skinny, and Jameela took note. She said the show looked fun, then added “not a long-starved terrified teenager in sight.”
Oh my god 😍😍😍 this looks like the most fun, and not a long-starved terrified teenager in sight. Beautiful. https://t.co/hck5n6e9Xu
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) October 13, 2019
And in the least shocking turn of events, this offended some people, namely models, namely Sara Sampaio. Sara is a Portuguese model who has worked with Victoria’s Secret since 2013. She criticized Jameela’s description of models as “extremely offensive,” and called her a hypocrite for going against her usual message of body positivity.
How about celebrating someone without bringing other people down? Calling runway models “long-starved terrified teenager” is extremely offensive. From someone that is always preaching for body positivity this just screams hypocrisy. https://t.co/JOBtY0yrui
— Sara Sampaio (@SaraSampaio) October 16, 2019
As we saw last week with the George W. Bush drama, Jameela Jamil isn’t one to back down from criticism on Twitter, and this was no exception. She clarified that she wasn’t referring to all models, and clarified that a “*vast* majority” of young models have issues with drugs and/or eating disorders. She also said that Sampaio should “try to calm down.” *Cringe emoji*
On the one hand, while I understand Sampaio’s argument that Jameela Jamil could have just celebrated the video without bringing anything negative into the narrative, that’s not really Jameela’s style. Her whole thing is calling out issues in beauty standards, and the fashion industry has long played into and profited from these toxic ideals. On the other hand, telling Sara Sampaio to “try to calm down” is extremely condescending, and it doesn’t make Jameela Jamil’s argument any stronger.
I also don’t preach “body positivity.” I talk about moving away from all talk of body, in order to combat our current pervasive issue of eating disorder culture, which is in NO small way perpetuated by the extreme thinness demanded of girls by the high fashion powers that be.
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) October 16, 2019
After those first couple tweets, it was basically a free-for-all between Sara and Jameela, with each tweeting and responding with blocks of text every couple minutes. It’s really not important to read every single tweet, or analyze every word, because it’s not that complicated. Sara Sampaio obviously feels strongly about not making disparaging generalizations about models, and Jameela Jamil doesn’t give a sh*t about making the fashion industry look bad.
Sampaio talked about how eating disorders and drug use are a problem in society as a whole, not only in the modeling business, and that these problems don’t actually affect a “vast majority” of models (k, I’m gonna need a citation on that), like Jameela suggested.
You didn’t say all models, sure, but you still chose to attack girls just so you can celebrate others. Eating disorders, drugs and cocaine use aren’t a exclusive problem of models, it’s a huge problem is society as a whole. And when you talk like you know for sure majority of https://t.co/4hAIf379WP
— Sara Sampaio (@SaraSampaio) October 16, 2019
Sara also clarified that the only intention of her original tweet was to call out Jameela Jamil’s negativity: “I never said there wasn’t a problem with the industry, so don’t go around and put words in my mouth.” Honestly, this drama is more intense than 80% of Real Housewives feuds, which is saying something. Jameela Jamil then told Sara not to “police how I choose to celebrate something or call out something problematic,” before adding that her words “aren’t cute, or easy, or inoffensive.”
Okay, so while I agree with Jameela that we don’t have to be polite when trying to affect change in the world, that’s not the same thing as demanding a free pass to offend whoever you want along the way. Sara’s not trying to say that Jameela should stop doing this kind of work, just that this specific tweet could have stayed on a positive note instead of slamming a whole group of people for basically no reason.
Don’t police how I choose to celebrate something or call out something problematic. I was celebrating that it’s a refreshing change, compared to the toxic fashion show norm. I’m an activist. My words aren’t cute, or easy, or inoffensive. Change doesn’t come from being polite. https://t.co/NqvfwTeixP
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) October 16, 2019
So all of that (and more that I didn’t embed because it was just too much) happened on Tuesday night, ending at around 1opm. But that’s not the end!! Jameel Jamil fired up her Twitter machine once again this morning, going all the way back to Sara’s original response to her tweet. Girl, at this point, the horse is dead. Stop beating it.
Also @SaraSampaio , you MIDUNDERSTOOD the tweet in the first place… it was Not taking aim at *kids* for being starved and afraid. It’s definitely not *their* fault. Who on EARTH would blame children? it was taking aim at this (unbelievably fucked) industry. Which is RIGHT to do https://t.co/K3DkuRmIG7
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) October 16, 2019
After all of what happened on Tuesday night, Jameela claimed that Sara didn’t even understand the intent of her tweet in the first place. After all of that!!!! Jameela, I’m not gonna tell you how to live your life, but if someone misunderstands your point, perhaps try letting them know in the first response, rather than 10 rounds of petty tweets later. She said that her tweet wasn’t taking aim at the starved teenagers, but actually the fashion industry as a whole.
By this point, it doesn’t really matter, but Sara did criticize Jameela for “attacking girls,” so she can correct her if she wants. But Sara also understandably called out Jameela this morning for her “constant condescending tone” when responding to her, and told her to have a nice life. Wowwww, this is so petty, and I love it.
This is the last I’ll say on this. Your constant condescending tone is just unnecessary, and makes it impossible to actual have a conversation. Hope you have a nice life. Wish you all the best.
— Sara Sampaio (@SaraSampaio) October 16, 2019
Despite Sara’s best efforts to shut the feud down, Jameela wasn’t done, and she followed this up with her most personal attack yet. She fully went for the jugular, saying that Sara works “for a transphobic, fat phobic company,” and that she should check herself “before you start policing me for calling out an industry wide epidemic of harm to young girls.”
You also proudly work for a transphobic, fat phobic company @SaraSampaio . Victoria’s Secret is a brand that sets out to exclude most women, so I would check yourself on that before you start policing me for calling out an industry wide epidemic of harm to young girls. https://t.co/e8HKFPQ71X
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) October 16, 2019
Honestly, this one left me speechless. Up until this point, the argument had stayed pretty squarely focused on the issue at hand. They can debate Jameela’s message on the tweet as much as they want, but Jameela really took it to a new level by attacking the job that has, by far, been the defining part of Sara’s career. And, I mean, she is not wrong…
If you’re speaking out against what your company did then GREAT. I look forward to seeing your activism on that with your big profile. You seem passionate about speaking out. So best of luck to you on helping young girls and trans people in this business. ❤️ https://t.co/UdQNCJrtb6
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) October 16, 2019
Despite saying she was done with the feud, Sara couldn’t ignore Jameela’s attack on her career, and came back for one last tweet, in which she acknowledged Victoria’s Secret’s mistakes, and said that they’ve “been working on changing that.” She made one more dig at Jameela, saying that she’s made big mistakes in the “pass” too, but then said that she’s not going to turn to “personal attacks to try to win some stupid twitter feud.”
Oh my god, you guys, I am so tired. Honestly, it’s comical that these two women got so involved over something that started with a dumb tweet about a fashion show that was meant to be positive, but that’s just the world we live in. I now know way more about Sara Sampaio than I ever intended to, and honestly, she’s pretty great at being petty on Twitter, so I kinda like her. Between Jameela’s relentless dedication to her causes and Sara’s unwillingness to back down, this was unknowingly a matchup for the ages.
Images: Shutterstock; jameelajamil (6), sarasampaio (3) / Twitter
Looking back on 2018, I don’t think any celebrities have caused more headlines than Ariana Grande and Kanye West. Kanye has spent large chunks of this year on social media, sharing his thoughts on everything from Trump to religion. Ariana has obviously had a crazy year, from her relationship drama to releasing a number-one album and the biggest hit song of her career. These two are as big as it gets, and now they suddenly have beef with each other on Twitter? Honestly, 2018 really needs to end already.
As we all know by now, Kanye West and Drake’s feud has been reignited in the past week, and that’s all I’m going to say about that, because I don’t really feel like recapping it. Kanye is back on Twitter in full force, and he’s basically been tweeting nonstop this week, about Drake, and Travis Scott, and everyone else who’s in his burn book. Meanwhile, Ariana Grande released her new song, “imagine,” on Thursday night, and she took the feud as an opportunity to promote the new single.
guys, i know there are grown men arguing online rn but miley and i dropping our beautiful, new songs tonight so if y'all could please jus behave for just like a few hours so the girls can shine that'd be so sick thank u
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 14, 2018
When I saw this tweet, my initial reaction was something to the effect of “YAS QUEEN SLAY ARI.” I can’t help it, I love Ariana. The new song is beautiful, and I want the best for her. But the more you think about this tweet, the more it seems really unnecessary. Ariana has never been more popular, so jumping on this feud for self-promotion feels a little cheap.
This morning, Kanye fired back at Ari:
All of this foolishness weighed on my mental health so @ArianaGrande you know I got love for you but until you’re ready to really make sure everyone’s ok don’t use me or this moment to promote a song
— ye (@kanyewest) December 15, 2018
As much as it pains me to say that I agree with something Kanye West is saying in 2018, he’s right. Yeah, his tweets are wild and he can be very problematic, but it’s clear that he’s going through some sh*t right now. Kanye has been very public with his mental health issues for a while now, so it’s probably best to just hang back and let him spiral for a minute. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing his politics, but that’s not what this is about.
As I’m writing this, Ariana just tweeted back at Kanye with an apology:
with all due respect, i don't need to use anyone to promote anything. period. i was making a comment ab what men were doing at the time vs. women. it was a joke which i understand now was probably insensitive. i apologize if i was in any way triggering and hope u feel well today.
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) December 15, 2018
I feel pretty confident that this will be sufficient to put the feud of Ariana Grande and Kanye West to rest, but who really knows. I love Ariana saying that she doesn’t need to promote anything, because she’s basically right. She’s out here breaking streaming records left and right, so this song is going to be a hit no matter what. We’ve all made jokes that crossed the line before; it happens.
Now that this beef has (hopefully) been squashed, let me bless you with my personal favorite Kanye tweet from this morning:
Perhaps we stop looking at my tweets as rants and start looking at them as therapy testimonials and some even ministry
— ye (@kanyewest) December 15, 2018
Ministry!!! Forget the Pope, we’re all at church with Kanye now. Priests around the world are shook AF. Sincerely, I hope Kanye West gets whatever treatment he needs, because mental health issues suck, no matter your politics. In the mean time, maybe he should cool it with the stream of consciousness tweets, just a thought.
Images: Shutterstock; @ArianaGrande / Twitter (2); @kanyewest / Twitter (2)
Last summer, Taylor Swift reached peak snake status. Kim Kardashian posted that infamous video recording on Snapchat, and Taylor broke up with Calvin Harris like a week after he was in a car accident. But one of the best parts was when Calvin completely went off about Taylor on Twitter.
It was just after “word got out” that Taylor had actually written the lyrics for “This Is What You Came For,” and Calvin was having none of it. He tweeted that Taylor should focus on her new relationship (Tom Hiddleston, RIP) instead of “tearing your ex bf down for something to do,” and that she was trying to “bury him like Katy but I’m not the guy.”
Cue applause, bouquets of flowers, Champagne, because it looked like Calvin was 100% fucking done with Taylor’s bullshit and was ready to go on the warpath. Buuuuuut it was all too good to be true. In new quotes that have surfaced from an interview with British GQ last year, Calvin says that he acted on the wrong instinct, and that he just snapped after feeling like his talent was belittled.
He says that he doesn’t blame Taylor but the media circus got to him and blah blah blah are you done yet? Like, sorry if Taylor’s 12-year-old fans aren’t buying your new album, but this is just lame. If Taylor went around apologizing after saying something bad about an ex, she literally wouldn’t have any music left. Her Spotify catalog would basically be “Welcome to New York,” and then some shit from the Hunger Games soundtrack.
Calvin, we liked you. Sometimes your taste in women is questionable, but you’ve given us no less than three Rihanna bangers, and for that we are grateful. Now grow a pair and don’t say anything nice about Taylor Swift ever again.
Jonathan Cheban, professional friend of Kim Kardashian, is not one to be messed with. We know this because we once made the mistake of writing and publishing an article called “A List Of Questions We Have For Jonathan Cheban After Stalking His Instagram.” Jonathan did not like that, and we promptly got blocked. If we have a famous hater, does that make us famous? IDK. But we’re not the only ones who’ve felt the wrath of The Cheban on social media—just ask some random guy named Trevor who made the mistake of mentioning Jonathan on Twitter. It’s important to note that he didn’t even tag The Chebs (my new nickname for Jonathan that he’ll probably hate and then end up blocking me over); he just mentioned his name in a tweet. Jonathan must either have Google alerts set on his phone to let him know everytime someone mentions his name, or else he has a Twitter mentions intern, because he is incredibly thorough. Jonathan Cheban like the Bloody Mary of social media: If you say his name, he will appear.
So anyway, this guy Trevor wrote a joke on Twitter, as one does:
LOL, classic Trevor.
I did a quick .2 second Google search and deduced that Above Average, where the article quoted in the tweet comes from, is a comedy website. But I mean, I didn’t even need to do that, seeing as anyone with a functioning frontal lobe could reasonably conclude that a rat is not earnestly employed by Kanye West to chew holes in his Yeezy clothing line. (But if one is, I want his job.)
Most times when you tweet at a celebrity you don’t expect a response, but Jonathan Cheban is no average celebrity. In some screen shots we were emailed by one of Trevor’s friends, Jonathan clapped back in a DM. I would like to note here that we did not verify the authenticity of said DM, because we’re not fucking CSI. Also I would have messaged Jonathan on Twitter and ask him to verify the tweet, but like I said, he blocked us. Anyway, buckle the fuck up, because this was Jon’s response to this (fairly innocuous and admittedly funny) joke:
Like, whoa. Way harsh, Jon. I appreciate that he’s taken a page out of Chad “I’ll buy your family and make them my family” Johnson’s Twitter feud playbook, but damn. I would insert my commentary, but honestly, this message speaks for itself.
And in case you were wondering (I know I was), Jonathan Cheban does actually own multiple companies, including a clothing line, Kritik; a restaurant, Sushi MiKasa; a screen protector/mirror product called Glam Screen; an entertainment and lifestyle website called The Dishh; and a fast food restaurant called Burger Bandit that I am told has some of the best burgers in Lynbrook, Long Island. All of that information came straight from Wikipedia and not a direct threat I just received from the Cheban camp, BTW.
So I guess the lesson here is if you come for Jonathan Cheban, you best not miss. Now if you’ll all join me in a brief moment of silence for our Twitter mentions. RIP.
