Classy: New York Post Accuses L'Wren Scott of 'Yoko-ing' The Stones

Today in classless headlines from The New York Post: “Stones members felt L’Wren ‘was their Yoko.'”

Depressingly, it’s not too surprising that The Post, the same paper that’s repeatedly reduced acclaimed fashion designer L’Wren Scott to “Mick Jagger’s model girlfriend” over the past few days, would stoop so low as to accuse Scott — mere days after her suicide — of her long-term partner’s 52-year-old band, but it’s pretty fucking gross all the same.

“The rest of the band didn’t like L’Wren because she was so controlling,” an anonymous source told The Post. “When they saw her, they said, ‘Here comes Yoko.'”

The paper goes on to describe the controlling nature of Scott and Jagger’s relationship (supported by more iffy quotes from unnamed, unreliable sources) and fails to mention how Scott — by all accounts — sought autonomy from Jagger and the Stones, even refusing to ask him for money as her business sank deeper and deeper into debt.

Making a problematic accusation even more troublesome is the nature of The Post‘s insult. Referring to her as a “Yoko” — as in Yoko Ono, who has been the long-rumored cause of Beatles’ breakup — is offensive to Scott, to the Rolling Stones and, of course, to Yoko Ono herself who (based on a statement by Paul McCartney) actually had nothing to do with the Beatles split. Calling someone a “Yoko” is sexist and simple-minded. Never mind the fact that the Stones are still going strong, so the accusation — even if it had been presented in a tasteful way — doesn’t apply.

As Julianne Escobedo Shepherd at The Cut puts it:

Beyond misogyny, the notion of Yoko-ing persists out of laziness, lack of creativity, and, most of all, ignorance about the history of rock music. Though Yoko-ing is meant as a dis, in another context any woman would be proud to be compared to the fiercely imaginative Ono, an avant-garde artist, feminist activist, fashion designer, and musician who dropped her 15th album last year at the tender age of 80.

Like a zebra changing its stripes, it’s doubtful that the Post will ever change its exploitive, tabloid-y ways.