Can We Not Drag Male Celebrities Just Because They Speak Their Minds?

Today is a great day to talk about Adam Richard Wiles. Remember him? You may know him by his professional name, Calvin Harris. It's a name that has been criticized following a comment he made in 2009, saying he liked the moniker because it sounded racially ambiguous. Age? 31. Profession? DJ and music producer. Claim to fame? Being the highest-paid DJ in 2015. Oh, and dating Taylor Swift for some 18 months. While many of us are currently occupied by the nuclear explosion that is Kim Kardashian West outing Taylor Swift on Snapchat, there's still some unfinished business with Wiles. Last week, Cosmopolitan ran a story titled, "Calvin Harris Is a F*ckboy Who Doesn't Deserve Your Hero Worship." Whoa.

It was aggressive, to say the least, and instantly met with criticism.

The story was quietly removed from Cosmopolitan.com, but here's a screenshot of the opening paragraphs.

Wiles himself read the story and was, as one would expect, extremely upset by it. He responded on Twitter in a post that's since been deleted.

To refresh your memory, this is what Wiles tweeted that apparently earned him that brutal take-down.

Just because Wiles shared an opinion about Swift, did he deserve to be described as "a young boy crooked of teeth and void of attraction"? What was he supposed to do in response to being played by Swift's publicity team? Where exactly is the verified proof of him being an asshole, a jerk, a "fuckboy"? I see no real receipts. After he shared the link, and a few weird spoon pictures...

...he finally got a response from the author.

If we're gonna call Wiles a "douchebag" like The Daily Beast boldly did in a headline from August 2015, then we have to provide solid evidence like The Daily Beast did, too. There can be no vagueness when going after someone's character so zealously, especially when there are more than enough real examples of Wiles' sketchy behavior. It sets a poor precedent for future stories about questionable behavior by men in the entertainment industry. But Cosmo misplaced the blame in this case; Swift reneged on her agreement with Wiles that she would go uncredited on the song, and he called her out on it. When women stand up to systemic patriarchy, they are praised for empowering other women, for being feminists, and for clapping back at male oppression. It's just slightly hypocritical for us, as female journalists, to then drag male celebs for standing up for themselves in a similar fashion.

Swift tried to play Harris. He acknowledged it and then defended himself. Is that offensive? Is that disturbing? Is that "fuckboy" behavior? Not really.