“Is Your P*ssy Green?” Cynthia Erivo Is Not Laughing at This Decade-Old Wicked Meme

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Some philosophical questions plague humankind across generations: What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? Why do bad things happen to good people? And of course, is your pussy green?

While philosophy isn’t exactly offensive — unless you’re reading Immanuel Kant — asking whether someone’s pussy is green was a bridge too far for Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, who plays the notoriously emerald-skinned Elphaba in the upcoming musical adaptation Wicked. Earlier this week, Erivo took to her Instagram Stories to share her upset not only about the meme asking about the color of Elphaba’s genitalia but also an AI animation of the poster. Her biggest grievance, however, centered around a fan-edited poster that covers the top half of Erivo’s face to more closely resemble the poster for the Broadway show. (The fan edit also altered Grande’s character, Glinda, by changing the position of her hand.)

“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful Ai of us fighting, equal to people posing the question "is your ***** green,” Erivo wrote. “It degrades me It degrades us The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION I am a real life human being, who chose [to] look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer ...because, without words we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”

Because Erivo was upset about the edited poster but made only passing reference to the meme “Is Your Pussy Green?,” it's possible that she does not realize it's been around for a while, circulating online since at least 2014, according to KnowYourMeme. The meme originated from two separate social media posts — one on Facebook and one on Imgur that showed graffiti scrawled over a poster for the musical. The graffiti addition makes it appear that Glinda, who is whispering into Elphaba’s ear, is asking “Is Your Pussy Green?” Though the meme has been alive in the Wicked fandom since then, it gained renewed traction with the release of the film poster.

The upcoming release of Wicked, which will be the first of a two-part movie release, has led to an array of other memes. Last week, singer Charli XCX shared a photo on her social media of herself as Elphaba with Ariana Grande as Glinda to promote her remix album, which featured Grande on the song “Sympathy Is a Knife." In the comments, Cynthia Erivo is found saying “Wow…..”

While there is no confirmation as to the shade or hue of Elphaba’s vagina, it is worth noting that there has long been discourse in the fandom as to whether Elphaba is intersex, which is implied in the original novel by Gregory Maguire, but not in the musical.

Wicked will arrive in theaters on November 22. Until then, if you wanna guess the color of anything, maybe best to stick to Charli XCX’s underwear?

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