Final Destination star and actor Devon Sawa recently took to social media to blast the UFC and Paramount Plus over racist and homophobic remarks made by ex-UFC Champion Sean Strickland.
What did Devon Sawa say about Sean Strickland?
In a recent post, Sawa tagged Paramount Plus and demanded the company “stop” platforming Strickland after the ex-UFC champion went on a tirade last week. While at a press conference for his upcoming fight against Anthony Hernandez, Strickland ranted against both the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime show, Ronda Rousey, and more.
“Ronda Rousey can fight. That bitch can fight . . . I think she lost a few fights to her ex, but bitch can fight,” said Strickland. “I like Gina [Carano]. She’s like super conservative. She was hot, you know. I was like a kid when she fought. I may have jerked off to her once or twice back in the day.”
Strickland went on to mention that while there’s nothing wrong with women’s sports, you can take “the weakest, softest motherf—-r” and beat up a female UFC star. “There’s nothing wrong with women. I mean, they do great things. They cook, they clean, they make good food. Like, women are great,” Strickland added. “We’ve got to remember what women excel at: having kids, being mothers, making food, cleaning house. The problem is we’ve empowered them too much to ruin society.”
Strickland also went on a homophobic tirade against the NFL, calling musician Bad Bunny a slur while lamenting over the NFL ruining its own sport.
“Look at the NFL, dude. I don’t even want to say the f—–s name because it’s just like, what — somebody give me his name,” Strickland said. “Come say his name, I don’t want to say it. You know what I’m talking about, the halftime show guy. The Puerto Rican, right? Puerto Rican?”
“Yeah, that f—ing f—–,” Strickland said when Bad Bunny’s name was mentioned. “It’s so crazy that this is America now. Like, back in the day dude, the NFL was the f—ing standard of being a f—ing man, and now every f—ing year, the NFL, I think they all get together around a table and say, ‘You know what, guys? How do we f—ing ruin this sport? How do we gay it up? How do we f—ing ruin it? Well, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we bring a gay foreigner who doesn’t speak f—ing English and have him perform it?’”
The first season of The Last of Us, the undeniable smash-hit HBO series based on the video game of the same name, has ended. And though the discourse about the controversial ending rages on, people are already looking ahead to season two, which will introduce one of the most infamous characters in the series: Abby Anderson and her incredibly toned arms.
I’d like a little more She-Bulk in my She-Hulk, please.Image: Marvel / Disney
But it’s not just the game industry, as proven time and time again by the dearth of women superheroes built like Victoria’s Secret models. Does Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman look like she can do anything other than strut and make mealy-mouthed comments on the Israeli-Palestine conflict? Is Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow capable of pulling off gymnastic stunts when she’s wearing a SKIMS waist trainer under a leather catsuit?
In an Entertainment Weekly interview, She-Hulk executive producer Kat Coiro responded to rumors that “Marvel requested She-Hulk’s muscles be made smaller,” saying that She-Hulk didn’t need to be all that big, actually.
We honestly talked about strength more than aesthetics. We studied musculature and we studied women athletes who were incredibly strong. We really leaned towards Olympians rather than bodybuilders. That’s where a lot of our body references came from, very strong Olympic athletes. So she doesn’t have a bodybuilder’s physique, but she absolutely has a very strong physique that can justify the actions that she does in the show. I think people expected a bodybuilder and for her to have these big, massive muscles but she looks more like Olympians.
Unfortunately, until recently, one of the few examples of a muscular woman in modern media was MMA-fighter-turned-actor Gina Carano as Cara Dune on The Mandalorian. Her arms were absolutely gigantic, exploding out from her chest armor with purpose. She dwarfed every other person sharing a scene with her. Sadly, Carano came out as a transphobe and a covid pandemic anti-masker, so she got the boot, and I worried I’d never see someone built like her on TV or in movies again.
Mandalorian muscle mommies
This is the way: Cast more muscular femmes in TV shows and movies.Image: Katy O’Brian on Instagram / Kotaku
Thankfully, Katy O’Brian came to the rescue. Though she’s only briefly in The Mandalorian season 2, she returns as a major character in the third season, and yes, we do get to see her arms. In fact, her muscles are so prominent that fans of the series already made an apt comparison, tweeting that O’Brian, an actor and martial artist, should play Abby in The Last of Us season 2.
It’s certainly not a far stretch. Though Abby is voiced by Laura Bailey and has the face of former Naughty Dog dev Jocelyn Mettler, her body double is CrossFit athlete and former collegiate swimmer Colleen Fotsch, who looks like she could pick me (a pretty muscular woman) up with one arm and wield me like a baseball bat. Fotsch, who did not respond to Kotaku’s request for comment, has a litany of YouTube videos showing off workout routines—and considering she’s currently a data analyst by trade, she’s proof that women can be muscle mommies while also living fulfilled NARP (non-athletic regular people) lives.
Casting an actor who is athletically inclined and already ripped up like a bad report card as Abby in The Last of Us season two makes a ton of sense—though I find myself longing to see a wild bulk-up of an actor not already built like a brick shithouse. But also, I just want to see more muscular women in movies and television, guys. I don’t really care how they get there, I just want them there, muscles rippling like coiled snakes under their skin.
