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# What the Fug: Gabrielle Union in Rodarte at the Birth of a Nation premiere
- URL: https://go-fug-yourself.ghost.io/what-the-fug-gabrielle-union-at-the-birth-of-a-nation-premiere-09-2016/
- Published: 2016-09-23T14:00:15.000Z
- Updated: 2016-11-17T01:42:56.000Z
- Author: Heather
- Tags: fugs, WTF, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-07 07:49

Gabrielle Union is in a tough spot. She nabbed a role in a universally lauded Oscar frontrunner, Birth of a Nation, only to watch the movie's fortunes potentially crumble after Nate Parker's past was made more public. She [wrote an eloquent Op-Ed in the *Los Angeles Times* about how, as a rape survivor, she does not take those allegations lightly](https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-union-nate-parker-birth-nation-rape-allegation-20160902-snap-story.html?ref=go-fug-yourself.ghost.io). And now she has to hit the promo circuit in service of both the movie and the man behind it, and it some how falls to her to give interview bites that might validate him. (For the record, Gabrielle [says he is "a good man" and "evolving"](https://www.people.com/article/gabrielle-union-nate-parker-good-man-despite-rape-accusations?ref=go-fug-yourself.ghost.io) and I appreciate that she is in a tough situation and trying to be positive, but she cites my least favorite argument: that being a family man, and having daughters, means Parker has become a super and enlightened person. It evokes [the brilliant, cutting takedown of that argument from The Toast, "As A Father of Daughters,"](https://the-toast.net/2016/04/18/father-daughters-think-treat-women-like-daughters/?ref=go-fug-yourself.ghost.io) of which here is a sample: *How merrily I used to drive down country lanes in my old Ford, periodically dodging off-road to mow down female pedestrians (you must remember I had no daughters then). Was what I did wrong? How was I to know? I had no daughters to think of*. Mallory Ortberg is a wonder.)

ANYWAY: Gabrielle Union is in an unenviable position not of her own making, and now the movie is premiering and she is effectively the accidental Bride of Controversy...

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bf/b9/bfb99790-924d-4e41-a7e6-5e3c6e04fe57/content/images/static-gofugyourself-com/uploads/2016/09/gettyimages-609633758.jpg "Gabrielle Union")

... and so I guess she dressed the part.

\[Photo: Getty\]