TikTok creator Bela Delgado has come under fire once again for making misogynistic comments about a high-profile woman.
Bela (@tenc1999) has amassed nearly 450K followers for posting commentary videos and music-related content. The creator was initially considered progressive in their takes when it came to topics like sexism and racism, however, users have seen a different side to Bela over the past few months, leaving some wondering if their content has been performative this entire time.
Bela’s intentions came into question again this week when they posted a TikTok video telling white women to “stop acting like the word ‘bitch’ is the n-word”. Their video was seemingly in response to being called out for releasing a song titled, ‘Annoying Ass Bitch’.
Bela was heavily scrutinised for this take by women across the app, with many pointing out that people often hide their misogyny behind “white women” to make it more palatable.
In a stitch of Bela’s video, creator Kiera Breaugh noted that both words are slurs as they are both used to “threaten members of certain communities” by oppressors.
“I don’t think people understand that the reason it’s a slur is because members of certain communities have been beaten to death while hearing that word. Can you embrace the gravity of that?” she said.
Among the various stitches and duets of Bela’s take, celebrity Julia Fox got involved when she commented on the video directly, writing, “Babe you should get out of the house more”.
Bela responded to Julia’s comment with a lengthy rant riddled with misogyny.
“You were proudly banging Kanye West, a once very vocal Donald Trump supporter while he was simultaneously running an extremely aggressive harassment campaign against his ex-wife [Kim Kardashian],” Bela said. “He was likely hate-tweeting [Kim] while in bed with you. You sold out every single last one of your ‘feminist’ morals when you decided to play dress up with Kim Kardashian’s sloppy seconds.”
They continued, “Yet you want to come into my comment section not even a year later to play the misogyny-slaying messiah because I playfully used the word ‘bitch’ in a song? So you mean to tell me you were willing to lay down and get your pork chop penetrated by a 45-year-old man who once actually called a woman [Taylor Swift] a ‘bitch’ as an insult, took credit for her fame, framed her as a liar, and proceeded to order a custom naked sculpture of her? Yet when I say the word in a joking manner, that’s where you draw a line in the sand of detestability? You’re a fucking joke and you stand for nothing.”
“You are not just a clown, Julia Fox, you are an entire carnival. And your only remotely notable ride is the one you took on Yeezy’s drop tower to increasingly irrelevant stardom,” they finished.
Though Bela’s response to Julia has since been deleted, it sparked a barrage of backlash against the creator.
Writer Rayne Fisher-Quann stitched Bela’s video, saying it’s “insane” that in a video about responding to “mass allegations of misogyny”, Bela still couldn’t resist comparing a woman to a piece of meat.
Rayne explained that these videos often go viral because they’re “echoing back classical misogyny with just enough window dressing that people feel validated in their pre-conceived biases without feeling bad.”
On Julia dating Kanye West, Rayne said there are a lot of women who date “shitty men” and come out of those relationships with a “renewed passion and understanding of feminism”.
“Julia Fox talked down to you because you said something stupid about women and you responded with a 1-minute video of you screeching at the camera about how she’s a whore,” she added.
Rayne’s video was seemingly removed from her account, but can still be found in its entirety on Twitter.
Popular creator @jaxajueny also stitched Bela’s video, saying that men who label themselves as a feminist are often more dangerous than men who openly hate women.
“Something that is especially heinous is to leave those dark corners [of the internet], and to come into these safe places and disguise yourself as an ally,” she said. “Just seeing how often [Bela] ends up in situations like these for things that come out of their mouth, it’s kind of telling.”
Just last month, Bela came under fire for criticising feminist creator Drew Afualo over “body-shaming” misogynistic men. Bela’s video resulted in a back-and-forth between the two, which ended when Bela eventually apologised to Drew for their “ignorant views”.
Following this week’s backlash, Bela has since put their account on private and issued a statement (visible only to their followers) about the Julia Fox video.
“I just want to start off by sincerely apologising for the video that I posted a couple days ago about Julia Fox. It was— I know a lot of you thought it was funny, you were laughing in the comments— it was uncalled for. It was an overreaction from me,” they said.
Bela explained that they made the video in the “heat of the moment” after their account had been “mass reported” and targeted for days over their song ‘Annoying Ass Bitch’. However, despite the “apology”, Bela said they will not stop using the word ‘bitch’.
Bela then went on to say they are leaving TikTok.
“I can’t do this anymore, and I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while. This app is poisoning my brain. I don’t know who I am anymore,” they said. “I have just been stuck in this endless clout-chasing circle for the past two-something years.”
Bela finished by saying they might eventually come back to the app, but for now, they need to focus on their real life and discovering who they are as a person.