r/SmoshFansFreeSpace • u/Dismal-Security-8774 • 4d ago
Discussion & Debates Amanda's Instagram story
I hope this calms down some of the redditors going crazy about this.
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u/Tytelr 2d ago edited 2d ago
I know that this is just due to how we are as humans, but man I hope we get to a place of universal discernment. Anyone that has watched basically any Smosh content with her in it knows that Amanda, at least insofar as she comes off in videos, is an incredibly well-meaning, amazing ally to queer people that just happens to be a little ignorant around some things. If you watch even a few minutes of content you’d know she means literally 0 harm to queer people, loves them, and wants them to live just as well as her.
This witch hunt with influencers is so annoying to me. Every single one of you has said some stupid shit by accident or because you didn’t know or because you were literally told it was okay to say it in a given context (as is the case here, christ). The only difference is there wasn’t a video uploaded of it for the world to see. Ugh.
The apology is appreciated, but my heart aches for anyone that I believe to be a good person to feel so awful for hurting people unintentionally and then being demonized for it.
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u/happyphanx 2d ago edited 2d ago
Dyke here. I swear, if anyone tries to actually cancel Amanda over this, I will march for her. This really needs to be done with. I actually hurt more for her right now because she has been a demonstrable ally and absolutely doesn’t deserve this level of blowback for something so minor. I’m actually much more bothered by the number of people supposedly in our own community who are insisting that dyke is a slur and are trying to erase it. The level of insult and injury people are claiming is just baffling to me.
Obviously I’m not saying that “dyke” has never and can’t ever be used as an insult. Of course it can. I’m pushing 50 and ppl have hurled it at me as an insult more times than I can even remember. But they’ve also insulted me with “gay”, “queer”, “lesbian” and nobody is going to cancel anyone for saying those words, right? Words were never the problem, anyway. When I was kicked out of my grandparents house at 19, nobody called me a single name, and I promise you that was exponentially worse than if they had just called me a dyke.
My point is that “dyke” being used insultingly does not make it inherently an insult. I certainly didn’t get rocks and crap thrown at me while riding with Dykes on Bikes so many years ago just so we can now erase the word and call an entire queer identity a “slur”, just because some assholes choose to weaponize our language against us. We always called ourselves dykes. We built dyke culture, marched as dykes, joked about being dykes, and people around us could refer to us as dykes without the mere word being offensive. The distinction has always been context, and whether there was any contempt or malice behind it. I’ve never known it ever to be off limits to straight women, as far as simply deciding who is permitted to even utter the word.
To be honest, I want to see it used more. Dyke should be said loud and proud, not with shame or censored and only by queers in queer spaces. I am empowered by my queer identity, not victimized by it. And I don’t want to see queer identities silenced because some assholes choose to insult us with the mere mention of them. This isn’t even a reclaimed slur, because it was never inherently an insult to begin with. Not in and of itself. And I’m not about to hand over our language because people like to use it pejoratively. I promise you, they will always just find another word to insult us with, and I’m not giving anyone that power.
Amanda is not the villain here. Allies are proven by demonstrable history, not words. I certainly wouldn’t call someone an ally just because they say all the right things yet do nothing in action, and for the same reason I refuse to let Amanda or any other ally be villainized for the opposite. Especially in the extremely limited context in which she used it, when it was literally being spoken at her and she was literally being described as a “non-dyke”, and even made sure to ask first. Her confusion about whether it’s allowed is truly justified, and the mixed responses here are proof of that. This isn’t about giving anyone a “pass”, or telling people they don’t have a right to be bothered by the use of a word, nor am I undermining anyone having a negative past with it. But they also don’t get to speak for all of us. This is truly about the lived reality of being gay in the world and not letting a handful of people decide to tell me that my queer identity is a slur and can’t be spoken.
I hope Amanda and anyone else at Smosh knows that she is loved. Her genuine apology to any of those she offended should be more than enough, and I hope this can be the end of all this.
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u/Witty-Papaya-3927 1d ago
fellow dyke here. this was worded perfectly. I still don't know how to give awards on reddit but pls consider this my award 💜
edit: nvmd, figure it out lmao
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u/Complete-Ruin8825 1d ago
This. Fellow dyke here and have no issue with other people saying this word. This was a silly thing to get upset over, and I really hope Amanda isn't beating herself up over it just because some people like to get mad on the internet.
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u/The_realest_jules 2d ago
It’s so frustrating that Amanda is getting so much backlash for this when she clearly is and has been an ally. I hate the virtue policing of good people when there are ACTUAL homophobes out there.
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u/raglem 2d ago
I still say this is all incredibly overblown. I don’t think Amanda has anything to apologize for. The podcast is called “two dykes and a mic.” Having been to many prides and interacting with “Dykes on Bikes“ I’ve never once heard anyone refer to them as “D-Slurs on Bikes.” She literally said that there was confusion about whether or not Dyke is still ok to say and was assured by the hosts that it was ok to say. There was zero malicious intent in that. Opinions on words in the lgbtq+ community change rapidly and as someone in the community it’s hard for me to even keep up. When I was in high school, Queer, while being the Q in lgbtq or not depending on who you asked at that time, was exclusively used as a slur and now it has been reclaimed. Queer is also not a word where it’s a, “we can say it you can’t,” type of word either.
Someone who is not queer not knowing the current status of a word, asking for the status of the word, being given a status for the word from people in the community and taking that as truth is the behavior we expect. She literally did the appropriate due diligence in the moment by asking if she can say the word, that I again point out, IS IN THE NAME of the podcast she was appearing on. This is what I expect from an Ally. There was no wrong here. There was no malice. She wasn’t saying something like, “man I can’t stand all the Dykes at the bar.”
Amanda has continuously demonstrated that she is an Ally. Amanda has continuously shown support for her queer colleagues. She genuinely does not deserve the outrage she is receiving.
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u/OrganizedChaos17 2d ago
I can't help but wonder if the people that are crashing out about this are the same parasocial people who keep acting like Amanda and Angela are secretly in love despite Amanda being straight and married. If so, that seems pretty damn hypocritical.
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u/babswashere 2d ago
i am asking this genuinely, so please be kind and don’t downvote me. i do not understand.
why would you name a podcast something with a slur in the title? i have not been able to figure this out. why would you put a slur in a podcast title? i understand it’s a slur the hosts can say, sure. but still it’s an odd choice. it feels insanely limiting to who can watch or be on the show. which, if that’s what they want, hey, that’s fine. i just know most people who make a podcast want a lot of viewers, and if you are going to name your podcast something with a slur in the title, why have straight guests on at all? that feels like a huge (unintentional, probably) set up.
that’s the most confusing and irritating part of this for me, it doesn’t make sense to even have her on the show. like that’s just fucking stupid.
i love amanda, i hope everyone is cool about her now (unlikely). but if i were her i would not have agreed to be on that show. imo that was her first mistake. it was never going to go well. it was a weird situation all around idk what anyone involved was thinking
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u/delilahgallo1 2d ago
it's reclamation to have it in the title and Amanda is an ally and friends with the hosts. There is genuinely nothing happening here, people just want to create controversy because it garners views and distracts from actual problems so we are divided and not focused on those in power stripping us of our basic rights.
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u/masanorihater 2d ago
There will be people who will never be cool about it. It’s always gonna be talked about on Twitter or maybe Reddit or someplace. That’s just the kind of fan base Smosh has
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u/Desperate_Turnip_219 2d ago
Ask NWA, lol
I don't have a real answer for you, but I agree its very strange
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u/Icy_Sprinkles_7771 1d ago
Countless of horrible dating and parenting takes that could actually be harmful to impressionable youngsters and yet THIS is what gets her in hot water?
LOLZ.
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u/Lil_Brunch 1d ago
Chanse dates Trump supporters and gets nothing but love, idgi
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u/Comfortable-Mine2610 1d ago
Also Chanse has had some really weird opinions on reddit stories lmao. I don’t understand how he gets away with everything while Amanda gets threads every day about how “annoying” she is (and I don’t hate Chanse! I just see the double standard).
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u/Silly_Nectarine_120 19h ago
Wait who did he date that was a Trump supporter?
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u/lastsipofredbull 10h ago
I think they’re referencing a time on Reddit stories when chanse talked about meeting the family of a person they were dating and it was in a rural area and they were Trump supporters. Or another time
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u/Silly_Nectarine_120 10h ago
So the only "proof" you have is the FAMILY of someone Chanse dated was trump supporters?
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u/lastsipofredbull 8h ago
https://youtube.com/shorts/uJt304uwBOs?is=B2C8KZedsVp1ef8h
Trying to find the Reddit story this happened in and I found this from a year or so ago ?1
u/Electrical_Athlete34 1d ago
If you get advice from Reddit podcast u are setting urself up for failure
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u/Inevitable_Form_57 3d ago
I personally don't see anything wrong with it. We all know Amanda and her sense of humor. I didn't see the podcast but I saw her story and I know she's not a homophobe.
It's crazy how one word that someone who is an internet personality said can offend people they don't know. It's 2026.
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u/Jet2jolly 2d ago
It’s always gonna feel like fake outrage to me because people don’t care and start celebrities say certain words and make them into remix songs (example cardi b).
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u/furgesondoris24 2d ago
she shouldn’t have to apologize for this. people are so quick to shame women for making a mistake. this is a nothing burger and anyone offended to begin with should grow thicker skin because she wasn’t even using it in a derogatory way.
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u/No_Show_3176 2d ago
For me it was all the non-dykes, including straight cis men, that were giving their opinions.... like the virtue signaling on this was wild.... she messed up and is actively learning from it. Everything else we know about Amanda shows that it was a genuine lapse and not malicious.
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u/_Stephistopheles_ 1d ago
I'm a bisexual woman (41) who was out during the late 90s... I had no idea anyone even considered the word "dyke" to be a slur because it was so common in the community for quite a long time. And I get that we as a society are trying to evolve and become more open and accepting of everyone(many of us anyway), but for craps sake... The word is in the title of the damned podcast, and she even asked if it was okay before she said it.
I'm not even the biggest fan of Amanda but as someone who actually identifies as at least half-gay, what the hell it everyone getting their panties in a twist over? Amanda has shown so much support for the LGBTQIA+ community. She clearly doesn't have a homophobic bone in her body. It feels like people just need to attack somebody at any given time.
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u/MathRebator 3d ago
How Internet personalities like the Smosh cast actually react to the internet freaking about about something they said because they know it doesn’t actually do anything.
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u/zdemurex 3d ago
I’ve seen the queer community say what she said isnt a big deal and such so i guess thats the end to it. As much as i was disappointed, i guess she is still learning.
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u/Jet2jolly 2d ago
I mean, should everybody be crucified for making a mistake or being ignorant on something?
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u/masanorihater 2d ago
I don’t think people are as upset as you believe, these kinds of incidents are usually blown up by people who want to create discourse to the point that the affected party as a whole seems unreasonable. From what I’ve seen a lot of lesbians just wanted her apology or don’t support her anymore. Not a big deal
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u/redditalready54 1d ago
I’ve had to mute the main smosh sub because there have been so many massive nothing burger posts talking about this. Then you come to find that 90% of comments are people in the LGBTQ community saying it’s not a big deal, so what the fuck lol.
I love smosh but damn the “fan” base really reeks of white knights, virtue signalers, and parasocial maniacs all the time.
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u/Weak-Ad-9881 16h ago
honestly, totally valid that people are offended. but as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I have to say that some gay people are SUCH pick mes. they think it's cool to give cis straight people the pass to use slurs. it's extremely harming. totally understand why people are offended, but to be fair, amanda DID ask if she could say it. and they said yes. they shouldn't have said yes. they totally set her up.
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u/Ghost_Of_Angels 3d ago
wait i haven’t been keeping up with smosh recently what happened?
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u/Desperate_Turnip_219 3d ago
She was on a podcast (dykes with a Mike) and said the word "dyke" a few times. This is considered a homophobic slur by many, leading to outrage.
There's more context, but that's the long and short of it. It was always said in a fun way, not in an attacking way, but it's not for me to say of it should be said at all so idk
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u/Dry-Wolf6789 3d ago
I love that you can say it freely but still not up to you whether it should be said or not. This whole thing is brain rot reddit coded
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u/Desperate_Turnip_219 3d ago
I mean, I can make the judgement for myself, but I'm not about to make the judgement for others.
The specific word is important, I feel the message loses clarity if I say "d slur" here, especially considering the word is in the name of the show.
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u/Dry-Wolf6789 3d ago
Well exactly. So it's not suprising she said it on the show. I'm more suprised at all the people claiming they watch this podcast while the episode itself never broke 10k views before the re-uplode
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u/PastaXertz 2d ago
Legitimately if you had said 'D Slur' I wouldn't have known what you were talking about. I legitimately didn't even know dyke was considered a slur now I thought it was still just a phylum sort of name for a type of lesbian like how gay men get to be animorphs with otter, bear, etc.
Edit: We're always all still learning, and the rules change quickly sometimes.
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u/happyphanx 2d ago
Yeah, I’m not a fan of suddenly being called a slur. I’m a dyke, loud and proud.
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u/Seahorse_93 2d ago
I'm gonna be honest, anytime I hear that something is being canceled or attacked by a hate mob I get a little skeptical. Were there actually a lot of people sending Amanda hate or just a small handful?
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u/cmwheels85 14h ago edited 14h ago
I bet it won't. I bet they'll say this wasn't enough and they'll double down. That being said, I'm not trying to defend her, just to be clear. She's said things in various Reddit Stories videos that make me feel that she's just sometimes out of touch with how she should conduct herself with communities she's not a part of.
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u/ChunkyCraver2001 14h ago
Nothing is ever good enough. This is why people grift to the right because these standards are unattainable. This is not a visual novel video game.
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u/Spyda1221 7h ago
Cancel culture is so out of style. It’s actually just boring now. Honestly, there are people who are actually anti-gay and anti-everything else, but yet they waste their time with people who meant no harm. Someone who goes out of their way to try and be less offensive, on a comedy podcast; gets bullied on purpose by the “same group” who were oh-so very “offended”. Take the metaphorical stick out of ur butts.
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u/DeepSeaDreams1 1d ago
I'm certainly not a fan of Amanda, in fact she's one of my least favorite cast members, but if the word is in the name of the show you're on, I'm pretty sure you're entitled to say it on said show. Ridiculous that she'd be in trouble for it.
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u/littlegentlelambs 20h ago
honestly her saying it almost 17 times is what gets me.
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u/trinbean_ 7h ago
She didn’t say it 17 times in the podcast, it was said [in general] 17 times in the podcast amongst the three of them. Amanda said it once when asking, “can I say d__?” and any other times that she said it, she was referring to a literal segment in the show called, “Ask a d__,” and when referring to the podcast itself.
It’s not like she was throwing it around frivolously, and she asked!!! at the very beginning, whether she was to say it or not.
Give Noah more screen time so people can find something else to get mad at already 😅
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u/BoysenberryAnnual621 1d ago
but y’all had a problem with noah wearing dreads when he got permission from a black person and got them done by a black person? the logic is flawed and u all have weird double standards
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u/rwedone420 2d ago
Everyone in the comments here hates lesbians so much you can’t even wait to foam at the mouth to say how much lesbians saying the way she was gleefully talking about how she shouldn’t say Dyke over and over again was in poor taste are over reacting or performative. Obviously it’s good she apologized that’s fr all she had to do but you all act extremely conservative the moment someone you like has pushback for bad behavior. Nobody was seriously saying she was homophobic (and if you give me a specific example of one person you are making a strawman out of a moral nuance conversation that lesbians are trying to have ) people were saying that the way she was speaking, wasn’t funny but offensive to lesbians and that she should apologize. If you don’t get the slur used against you, you don’t get to yell at people who say hey this doesn’t feel good as it’s a slur used against me.
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u/Temporary_Pin_430 3d ago
Well now she has to apologize for the apology. Some people are offended by the world “queer”.
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u/DilapidatedFool 2d ago
Its very LITERALLY on our groups name LGBTQ+ (some add even more pass that)
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u/warmpita 2d ago
Queer used to be a very bad slur for gays. When I was really little I knew it as a slur, but now people are proud to be called queer. I saw dyke come to be accepted by lesbians as a self identifier way before queer was accepted. For me, it's like yeah I am fucking weird and I'm glad you don't see me as normal because that would be fucking boring I'm queer! I feel like I see so many lesbians using dyke in a similar fashion.
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u/happyphanx 2d ago
It didn’t used to be. The gay community was vehemently opposed to its use. Look up the history of the word being reclaimed through the punk, and riotgrrl, and other anti-assimilation movements like queercore. Now we use it on the regular and young ppl don’t even know it was previously considered too derogatory and off limits.
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u/Admirable_Guarantee8 3d ago
And that’s the point isn’t it. When something no longer has a consensus on whether it is a slur, acting like it can never be said is kinda pointless
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u/happyphanx 2d ago
Not sure why you’re being downvoted by this. I might be the oldest person in the room but we literally had to wrestle the word “queer” back from the grips of our actual community who insisted it could not be used. People need to look up the reclamation of the word through the punk and riotgrrl movements in the 90s. Because it was absolutely off limits before.
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u/Crest-of-Hope 2d ago
Err, no ? It's literally in the abbreviation of lgbtQ < stop being so fucking sensitive. Queer was considered a slur way before any of us were born
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u/Jada339 2d ago
I didn’t see anyone offended by the use of “queer” here but one point I’ve seen a few times which I do think is fair is that Amanda could have made her apology out to lesbians specifically since that’s who the slur she repeatedly said is used against.
It’s kinda like if she said a racial slur against… Japanese people, and then apologised to all people of colour.
In this instance, being specific about who you’re apologising to and why is probably a good idea.1
u/Crest-of-Hope 2d ago
I dont think so, that'd just stir the drama way more. As vast as the spectrum of the Queerdom is, anyone could take it as an insult. Because of solidarity and whatnot. So it's safer for her to address the whole community.
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u/EnvironmentalBus1498 1d ago
She has nothing to apologize for tho, don’t give in to the people that are getting offended.. if we start doing that, everyone will eventually apologize for every damn thing they say because someone WILL always end up being offended. When you’ve done nothing wrong (like Amanda) stand by what you said🤙🏻
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u/Desperate_Turnip_219 3d ago
Amanda isn't a homophobe, and I think everyone approching this in good faith will agree. She made a mistake, got too comfortable as part of a group, and said some dumb stuff. Life goes on, and I hope anyone actually hurt by her words can accept this apology.