The Love Lives of the Rich and Famous

Slut or not? I don't think that's our business.
Photo Credit: WWE.com

There was somewhat of a Tumblr brouhaha over the weekend between my Fair to Flair colleague Razor of House Kick-Out!! and Tumblr/Twitter devotee Tom Warren. You can get the full deal of what they were squabbling over by reading the thread linked, but the gist of it is basically an argument over whether slut-shaming of Melina is really appropriate. On one hand, there's the traditional hotness going around that Melina cheated on John Morrison with Batista and Mike Knox, with the implication that she was some kind of conniving or controlling bitch because Morrison kept taking her back. On the other, there's another rumor going around that they were in an open relationship, and that it's equally as likely that Morrison was plowing other chicks with the same lack of recourse that Melina was getting her freak on with other guys outside their exclusivity.

I'm refraining from taking a side on this matter because mainly, we're speculating on rumors here, and not even rumors about what might be going on in the business, but what was going on in their love lives. I don't know, but I feel like unless people come out and start openly talking about what's going on in their personal lives, it's something that should be off-limits to speculation. To the best of my knowledge, everything that's come out about Melina has been through reports in dirtsheets and rumors that have been passed down the grapevine on the Internet, specifically through social media nowadays. This isn't a condemnation of social media at all, but more or less a statement of fact that Twitter and the like have made it easier for this kind of thing to disseminate, with the implication that it was going to get out there anyway. But I digress.

So now, we're sitting here making judgments on Melina, Morrison or really anyone they've been associated with based on rumors that may or may not be true. I don't know if they were exclusive when she "cheated" on him or if they were in an open relationship. So, how does that make me any better than Randy Orton when he went on the radio and basically implied that Kelly Kelly was a swampwhore who slept with anything with a pulse and a prick if I started making judgment, favorable or otherwise? It would make me worse since I have no firsthand knowledge of the situation.

Now, I'm not condemning either Razor or Tom here, because it's human nature to gossip. We all get caught up in rumors and talking about the airing of dirty laundry from time to time, and the fact that it was done interpersonally on Tumblr makes it all forgivable seeing as none of it was really passed off as news. I also realize that any sort of attempt at trying to get society on the whole to stop worrying about what people do on their own time is a futile effort, especially since sites like TMZ and publications like OK! Magazine are so firmly entrenched in our public narrative.

However, I'd like it if people at least made the attempt to keep the discourse away from the news in a way that would affect how they judge it, especially concerning the double standard that men who bang are somehow admirable while women who bang are the scum of the Earth. Speculating that Melina got fired because she's a "slut"? That's not journalism, that's borderline sexism from where I sit. If it's true she was fired for her proclivities in the bedroom? That makes WWE an incredibly sexist organization (although we probably could already figure that out anyway) and worthy of being called out by every group under the sun. That also goes for the rumors that Morrison's push being stalled more depended on him not standing up to Batista or Knox after the alleged cheating and not because he's a botch machine who can't cut a decent promo in the way that WWE seemingly is forcing him to do.

We recognize it's bad when Randy Orton speaks out of turn about a co-worker's love life. What does it say about us who comment on this without any of the knowledge an Orton might have? Whether Melina and Morrison have a good or bad relationship really is none of our business unless they decide to make it our business, and while I can understand and can't stop the offhand discussion of where this narrative takes us, I can totally condemn when it gets passed off as news, especially when we don't have the news to back it up.