What do plus-size model Iskra Lawrence and killer clowns have in common? On the surface, not a lot. And yet, the clowns, or at least a clown (probably not one of the harlequins busy terrorizing southern states) has been coming for Lawrence on her Instagram.
According to Bro Bible, the model’s father takes great care to manage her social media in such a way that Lawrence won’t see mean posts, but the one from the clown — and possibly more — was shown to her during an upcoming episode of Inside Out West Midlands, which airs on the BBC. In the above clip (and it’s actually pretty terrifying), you can see Lawrence reacting to a message from a man in white makeup threatening to come and kill her in a creepy voice straight out of the Saw films.
It’s not clear what beef the clown has with Lawrence. Is it because she’s plus-size? A model? A public figure this guy doesn’t believe deserves attention? What possible motivation could this person possibly have to want to threaten Lawrence?
While we often make fun of celebs like Lena Dunham for trying to block out criticism, this video shows off exactly how frightening it can be when your inbox is overrun with trolls. It’s easy to say “oh, you’re an adult, you should handle it,” when looking at it from the outside, but it must be exhausting to actually live in a world where everything you post is met with a great deal of criticism and outright hatred. It makes sense that Lawrence’s father is protecting her, and it’s brave of her to watch the types of videos shown above to bring more awareness to the type of abuse that exists when you’re in the public eye, especially if you’re a woman.
And let’s not forget that whole clown thing. Brandon Wenerd at Bro Bible points out that it’s getting a little tiresome to see clowns all over the news. We can’t help but agree. First of all, because clowns are terrifying and second of all because threatening someone from behind a mask isn’t just cowardly, it’s straight-up pathetic. Dude, you put on three pounds of makeup and used sound effects just to harass a woman on the internet? That’s not just problematic. It’s really, really sad.
