YouTubers online racking up hundreds of thousands of views and media blogs have highlighted an apparent campaign against actress Rosario Dawson to be next on the “Cancel Culture” chopping block, resurfacing accusations of “transphobia” tied to Dawson, who has consistently denied the allegations.
Dawson appeared on Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” in the second season and is set to be featured in a Disney+ spinoff for the Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano. The show’s release date remains unknown, though it has recently generated headlines over the rumored live-action casting of “Aladdin” star Mena Massoud.
In October 2019, a transgender man claimed in lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles court that Dawson and her family “subjected him to transphobic harassment and violent abuse,” NBC News reported.
About a year later, Dawson spoke to Vanity Fair about the “backlash” she’s faced concerning the suit of the alleged “transphobic assault.”
“Well, firstly, I just want to say I understand…why people were concerned, and are concerned. I would be, too, if I heard some of those claims,” Dawson told the magazine in an interview published in November 2020. “But I mean, as we’re seeing right now in these past months, and just recently actually, the truth is coming out. Every single claim of discrimination has been dismissed by the person who made them, and as you’ve said, the fact that this is coming from someone I’ve known since I was a teenager, the better part of my life, and who my family was trying to help as we have many times in the past, it really just makes me sad. But I still have a great empathy for him.”
“The reason that all of the discrimination claims were dropped is because they didn’t happen,” the “Rent” actress said, noting that some 18 of the 20 charges had already been voluntarily withdrawn. “I was raised in a very inclusive and loving way, and that’s how I’ve lived my entire life. I’ve always used my voice to fight for, lift up and empower the LGBTQA community, and use my platform to channel trans voices, in fiction and nonfiction work that I’ve produced and directed. So I feel the record is really clear.”
Dawson is a left-wing activist who is publicly dating Democratic Sen. Corey Booker (NJ). She’s an advocate for abortion giant Planned Parenthood and the cofounder of the activist group Vote Latino.
Disney+ and Lucas films thus far have stood by Dawson during the backlash, including withstanding a #FireRosarioDawson Twitter hashtag. Some users of the hashtag claim the actress is transphobic, citing the lawsuit; others slammed both Dawson and now-fired “Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano with the tag.
Carano was notably fired earlier this month from the show over conservative social media posts. Reports indicate Carano was first targeted for firing after she posted “beep bop boop” in lieu of gender pronouns in her Twitter bio. The actress emphasized online that she wasn’t targeting transgender people, but rather the bullies who force others to adhere to their ideology, especially those pressing Carano to add her pronouns to her bio.
The Geeks + Gamers YouTube account, which has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, argued this week that Dawson could be the next target of “Cancel Culture” now that Social Justice Warriors had successfully launched a campaign for firing Carano.
The account highlighted a Monday post from media outlet Inverse discussing the “Ahsoka Problem,” detailing Dawson’s potential “transphobia.” Inverse spoke to Star Wars “Stans” (diehard fans of the franchise) about the issue. The Mix reported:
While the bulk of the Inverse article focuses on the events of this past winter that resulted in #FireGinaCarano trending on Twitter, when they finally do get around to talking about Rosario, they point to only a single event as reason behind the calls for her cancellation.
Three years ago, a member of the trans community lobbed some hefty allegations against Dawson and her family. The accuser, a trans male, filed a lawsuit Dawson’s family and claimed that they had both assaulted and purposefully misgendered him.
“It bugs me and several other people and I think that it would be good if they at least recast the actress because she already makes so many people uncomfortable,” said V, an anonymous stan interviewed by Johnston.
Another stan, Kennedy, noted that the aforementioned court case was a stain upon Dawson’s name among stans, telling Jonston, “I think that the majority of stan Twitter, myself included, are skeptical of her because we don’t know if the charges on her are true or not.”
Stan twitter’s arguement against Dawson’s was best summed up by @ladywillowgrey, who declared that “Ahsoka Tano doesn’t deserve to be played by a transphobic, she deserves better”, before demanding that Disney “Fire Rosario Dawson like you did Gina Carano” .
Disney+ announced in December, a month after Dawson addressed the backlash, that the actress would star as Ahsoka Tano in her own spinoff.