In case you missed it, Justin Bieber got around the April Fools’ Day tradition and pranked us all with various Instagram posts seeming to announce that his wife, Hailey Bieber (was: Baldwin), is pregnant.
He ended up admitting the whole thing was a joke but it was believable enough for a lot of people to fall for it.
Unfortunately, no harmless deed goes unpunished, and people accused Bieber of being insensitive by joking about Hailey being pregnant.
Across social media people lamented that Justin’s prank was inconsiderate of the women who miscarry or are infertile or have still births or are actually pregnant. He’s been called “trash” and “cancelled” by the legions of people who are validating and encouraging each other’s outrage.
https://twitter.com/_megancleary/status/1112829354415882243
https://twitter.com/hurts2bmarais/status/1112916504482381825
While all of those complications relating to pregnancy are very serious issues, Justin Bieber joking about his wife being pregnant is not the vile offence that people are claiming it to be. It’s an absolute stretch to say that Justin Bieber’s actions were inconsiderate, offensive, or insensitive.
This is outrage culture – being outraged for outrage’s sake – and it waters down the actual instances where outrage is needed.
Justin Bieber acknowledged the backlash and posted an apology on his Instagram.
“A lot of people I know, their first go to prank on April fools is telling their parents they are pregnant to get a big reaction. But I will apologize anyway and take responsibility and say sorry to people who were offended. I truly don’t want anyone to be hurt by a prank.” he wrote.
Honestly, Justin Bieber shouldn’t have to apologise for joking about Hailey being pregnant, unless the person who is asking for an apology is Hailey herself.
We’re in the third wave of backlash to Justin Bieber’s April Fools’ Day prank now, which is the backlash to the backlash. Basically, people are criticising the faux-offence claims of being bogus, and just people trolling the young star.
y’all really made him apologise for a stupid prank 90% of people do just bc he’s justin bieber and apparently everything he does is wrong or offensive in some kind of way…. y’all are fucking hypocrites pic.twitter.com/C8rk9z2JF4
— pınar misses bts ? (@purposeloyaI) April 2, 2019
Everyone literally always do some pregnancy pranks on April's Fools but why you just come at Justin Bieber and act like he's the only one into this freaking world who make pranks about it!!! pic.twitter.com/wantofhXTa
— fitri (@pxrdonbiebs) April 1, 2019
Slamming Justin Bieber with unjustified outrage isn’t just annoying, it’s irresponsible. Bieber has been very open recently about his current struggles with his mental health, and the fact that he’s pausing music to seek help and get through it.
Child stars like Justin Bieber have had to deal with unfair scrutiny for their entire adult lives, and accusing Bieber of doing a shitty thing when he clearly hasn’t is just adding more fuel to the fire. So unless he actually deserves it, let’s not sh*t all over Justin Bieber just because we can.