As Dancing with the Stars’ newest professional dancer, Rylee Arnold should be very proud of her first season on the show. Even though she’s just 18, she coached her partner Harry Jowsey two-thirds of the way through the competition, getting enough votes along the way to keep them dancing. But their dancing days came to an end on Taylor Swift night, as the pair was finally eliminated.
Over the past couple of weeks, Rylee received some really hateful comments on social media. Former DWTS pro Lindsay Arnold’s younger sister was trolled for her choreography. At one point, Rylee was accused of copying a section of Lindsay’s choreography from Season 28. Some online posters even called for her termination from the show.
In addition, Harry just wasn’t showing the improvement he should have after so many weeks. Guest judge Billy Porter said he danced with all the grace of a “tree trunk.” Some blamed Harry’s lack of improvement on Rylee’s lack of teaching and choreography skills. But many of the comments posted on her social media were just unnecessarily mean and hurtful, especially considering this is her first season.
Critical comments on social media
As the season progressed, more people started to criticize Rylee and Harry. Beginning with a few negative comments on Reddit, the conversation quickly accelerated into a feeding frenzy of bashing on TikTok and Instagram.
After Whitney Houston night on November 14, Rylee shared an Instagram post encouraging viewers to vote for her and Harry. The comments section quickly turned toxic.
“Can they eliminate pros for good?” asked one person.
“You don’t deserve to be there and you know it,” a third person chimed in.
“Why is Rylee a pro? She’s not that good compared to the other pros,” someone else wrote.
At least all the comments weren’t hateful. One person kindly wrote, “Use these haters as fuel & motivation!!! It breaks my heart how people really have nothing better to do than to tear down others.”
Rylee Arnold trolled: Harry asks haters to back off
Finally, Harry shared a TikTok video that he and Rylee were having a rough time. “I just want to say, today has been extremely difficult,” he said. “Poor Rylee is really upset, I’m really upset.”
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, please don’t say it,” he continued. “This is Rylee’s first season. I’ve never danced before. We’re learning, we’re figuring it out, that’s the point of this show. It’s to have someone who’s never danced before, put ’em on the world stage, and tell them to try and figure it out.”
Sadly, people think they can say whatever they want to on social media since they’re anonymous. They forget (or don’t care) that the people they’re attacking have feelings.
Rylee is only 18 years old, and this is probably her first full-time job. But she is not an amateur. She has been dancing “since she could walk” and was a junior pro on Dancing with the Stars: Juniors in 2018 when she was only 13. Admittedly, Harry is a terrible dancer. But Rylee did her best to teach him. Lighten up, people. Give the girl a chance.
Dancing with the Stars continues Tuesdays on ABC.
TELL US – WHY DO YOU THINK RYLEE ARNOLD HAS BEEN TROLLED? DO YOU THINK RYLEE DID HER BEST TO TEACH HARRY? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HER RETURN NEXT SEASON AS A PRO DANCER?
