Scarlett Johansson was nearly canceled after this viral misunderstanding

Does Scarlett Johansson secretly hate gay people? Not that we know of — but a recent viral post had the whole internet doing double takes.

A post on X, formerly Twitter, raised eyebrows for its controversial anti-gay messaging. “Let kids be kids,” read the caption, accompanied by an image of a father holding up a shield to protect his children from a rainbow wave — which also, inexplicably, has a picture of a devil floating inside it.

Who would post such reductive right-wing rhetoric? None other than Scarlett Johnson. Don’t get it twisted: that’s Johnson, not Johansson. But at a glance, it’s easy to understand why so many scrollers assumed that the Black Widow actress was coming out as conservative.

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But beyond the confusion, plenty of queer folks took the chance to make jokes at Johansson’s expense, including her star turns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the movie Marriage Story, and in the manga adaption Ghost in the Shell, which drew criticism for casting Johansson, a white woman, in an Asian role. (If she’s a true ally, she’ll allow the roasting!)

And going back to the original post, it’s a laughable display of conservative messaging. Johnson, the woman who actually made the post, is a right-wing influencer and, per her X bio, a “political scientist” and “mama bear.” 

The image she chose (or generated using AI) to prove her point isn’t as clear as she’d likely intended it to be: as several folks pointed out, the rainbow could just as easily be coming out of the shield as being stopped by it. It’s true, Scarlett — with the power of the rainbow and gay representation, we can keep the devil at bay!

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