In 2021, almost a year after the controversial events surrounding Gina Carano’s Twitter bio, the actress opened up to Ben Shapiro to candidly discuss the events which had suddenly and violently shaped her public image. Although resorting to no excuse, the Deadpool actress was intent on addressing the incident in its entirety, talking about the controversial “beep/bop/boop” update, the following cancellation by Disney, and her original intent behind the three nonsensical words that changed her life.
Also read: How The Absence of Gina Carano Will Affect The Mandalorian & Other Spin-Offs
Gina Carano’s “beep/bop/boop” Incident Explained
In September 2020, Gina Carano found herself targeted by the cancel culture amid an overspilling online backlash from social media platforms over a controversial Twitter bio. After refusing to update her pronouns in her profile, as she was repeatedly asked by the Twitter mob to do, she uploaded the words “beep/bop/boop” in an effort to state (as Carano later claimed) that she refused to bend to every whim of the online crowd. She later removed them, claiming —
“Yes, Pedro & I spoke & he helped me understand why people were putting them in their bios. I didn’t know before but I do now. I won’t be putting them in my bio but good for all you who choose to. I stand against bullying, especially the most vulnerable & [support] freedom to choose.”
The words were taken as an offense to the transgender and non-binary community who frequently use they/them pronouns to avoid misgendering, and the MMA fighter-turned-actress was quickly labeled as transphobic following an onslaught of hatred and criticism. By February 2021, the ubiquitous hashtag #FireGinaCarano gained massive support and momentum. The clamoring was loud enough for Disney to take swift action and write her off from The Mandalorian, where she played Cara Dune.
Gina Carano Opens Up About the Twitter Controversy
In a Sunday Special episode of The Ben Shapiro Show, Gina Carano mentioned the harassment she faced from a relentless Twitter mob who coerced her to identify her pronouns even though she never publicly indicated recognizing herself as anything other than a cis female. On the other hand, the current popular culture trend of the cis crowd using pronoun identifiers on social media is an innate stand taken in solidarity and support of the LGBTQ+ community.
“I ended up putting beep/bop/boop in my Twitter bio and it was a hundred percent to go to the Twitter mob that was telling you what to do and it had zero to do with trying to go after the transgendered community… Just me personally, I’m not trying to target anybody or go after anybody…
So, I just put these noises in my bio and then there was this crazy meltdown, it was just a big, massive meltdown, and all of the fear and all of the stuff goes straight through your skin, and you start like, ‘whoa, what is happening? I told you I didn’t mean this towards this community, you’re misunderstanding it.’ It was just a shock wave going through my body, like oh this is what this feels like, this is uncomfortable.”
Also read: “These are not the same”: Star Wars Fans Divided Over Gina Carano and Moses Ingram
Her intentions behind the bio were “to do with exposing the bullying mentality of the mob that has taken over the voices of many genuine causes.” According to Carano, her refusal to show that support was confused with a show of hostility, misrepresentation, and ignorance toward the trans community.
Gina Carano Addresses Her Cancelation By Disney
In the aftermath of the controversies and calls for cancelation, Disney advocated for Gina Carano to sit down with the trans representatives. However, the conversation that took place between the actress and Disney, on the one hand, and Carano’s dialogue with the two trans representatives on the other were polar opposites.
“[Disney] were like ‘okay, do your research but you need to get on the phone tomorrow with our lgbtq transgender section’… So I watched their documentary and I got on the phone with them. And they were like, ‘we’re so sorry, you stepped on a land mine and we can tell you’re not against us’ and they actually reported back to Disney and Lucasfilm. They thought it would be a bad idea if they canceled me or if they let this affect anything… I got on a Zoom and I just explained you know, I don’t have any hate in my heart for anyone, I just stepped on a landmine.”
Also read: How Mandalorian Firing Gina Carano Killed Potential Lucy Lawless Star Wars Project
The latter absolved her of any wrongdoing via malintent as examined in their follow-up communication and in the aftermath of their reporting back to Disney and Lucasfilm, the latter felt it was necessary to follow through with the cancelation.
The Mandalorian can currently be streamed on Disney+
Source: The Ben Shapiro Show
