Actress Melissa McCarthy, known for her roles in comedic films, caved to the outrage mob last week after she was attacked online for donating money to an organization dedicated to ending human sex trafficking.
What’s the background?
As part of a promotion for the new movie “Superintelligence,” McCarthy teamed up with HBO Max for “20 Days of Kindness,” a campaign donating $20,000 to 20 different charities over the course of 20 days.
Included on the list of organizations was Exodus Cry, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating sex trafficking.
“Exodus Cry exists not only to help those who are sold for sex but also to break the cycle of commercial sexual exploitation. We believe in writing a better story: a new narrative in which every person is offered real choices, empowerment, and true freedom,” the organization says on its website.
What happened?
But last week, the Daily Beast published a story complaining that Exodus Cry was a donation recipient of the kindness campaign.
According to the Daily Beast, Exodus Cry’s alleged sin is its mission to empower women out of the objectification and dehumanization of being forced to use their bodies as “sex workers.” Progressivism often attempts to romanticize “sex work” as something that should be celebrated.
From the Daily Beast:
The Daily Beast’s Tarpley Hitt exclusively reported on Thursday that Exodus Cry frames itself as an anti-sex-trafficking group but in reality works to abolish sex work entirely. Its founder, Benjamin Nolot, has called abortion a “holocaust” and homosexuality “an unspeakable offense to God,” Hitt noted. The group has spent years lobbying to criminalize the purchase of sex and recently launched a campaign to shutter Pornhub.
Then, in an Instagram video, McCarthy said the donation to Exodus Cry had been retracted, and apologized that an organization dedicated to lifting women out of sex trafficking and human exploitation ever made it into their kindness campaign.
“It has come to our attention that our 20 Days of Kindness, which is a kindness hub that we started to shine a light on 20 great charities, had one in there that…there’s no other way to say it, we blew it,” McCarthy said. “We made a mistake and we backed a charity that upon proper vetting stands for everything that we do not.”
The actress explained that complaints from social media about Exodus Cry triggered the decision to retract the donation. McCarthy said that fans asked whether the campaign actually wanted to support an organization like Exodus Cry.
“Because the answer is, no we do not,” she said. “We have pulled it. We are so incredibly grateful for you ringing the bell and helping us be better. We’re sorry for our mistake. Oh boy, are we are sorry for it. Can’t believe that we missed it.”
Meanwhile, HBO Max said in a statement, according to Entertainment Tonight, “We were made aware of the issues surrounding Exodus Cry and have removed them from the list of partners associated with the 20 Days of kindness campaign.”
What was the reaction?
Appeasing the social media outrage mob, as it often does, resulted in unintended consequences. In this case, fans told McCarthy that they would begin supporting Exodus Cry, bashing the actress for retracting a donation to an organization dedicated to ending sex trafficking.
“I haven’t heard of that charity before this post. I’m all about stopping sex trafficking!! I’ll be sure to donate & support them!” one fan responded.
“Sooo let me get this straight. Apparently protecting the exploitation of young children, women, and men is against everything you stand for? They literally fight against human trafficking. So disappointed that you withdrew your donation. Thanks for bringing this organization to my attention so that I can donate to them,” another fan said.
“Yeah, GOD FORBID you support a charity that fights to end sex trafficking and exploitation of girls and women through corrupt platforms likes Pornhub. To pull your support is disgusting and shameful,” another fan responded.
“An apology because you almost donated money to help victims of sex trafficking. What in the f***?” another fan said.
The irony
One of the charities that McCarthy’s kindness campaign donated to was Planned Parenthood, which was responsible for 345, 672 abortions between 2018-2019.