Rep. Ayanna Pressley Applauds Will Smith for Slapping Chris Rock

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., applauded Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars in a tweet that she has now deleted. 

Will accosted Rock for a joke Rock made about the actor's wife Jada. Rock joked about Jada's bald head. Jada has previously been open about having alopecia— an auto immune condition that causes hair loss. 

Taking to Twitter shortly after the controversial incident, Pressley, who also lives with alopecia, stood up for Smith and spoke out about the condition.

"#Alopecia nation stand up! Thank you #WillSmith Shout out to all the husbands who defend their wives living with alopecia in the face of daily ignorance & insults," the lawmaker tweeted, according to The Hill. 

"Women with baldness are for the real men only ... boys need not apply," she added alongside a photo of herself and her husband, Conan Harris, the outlet noted.

Jada has previously spoken out about having alopecia. She first opened up about the condition in 2018 on her "Red Table Talk" series.

"A lot of people have been asking why I've been wearing turbans. Well, I haven't talked about it. It's not easy to talk about, but I am going to talk about it," she shared, according to People. She explained that it was "terrifying" to deal with when it first started.

"I was in the shower one day and had just handfuls of hair in my hands and I was just like, 'Oh my God, am I going bald?'" she added. "It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking in fear. That's why I cut my hair, and why I continue to cut it."

Pressley meanwhile, revealed her condition in 2020.

"In the fall, when I was getting my hair retwisted, is the first time that I was made aware that I had some patches," she said during an interview with The Root. "From there, it accelerated very quickly."

Pressley said in the video that she was in the process of “making peace” with the condition, though she added she had not yet reached that point.

"I'm very early in my alopecia journey. But I'm making progress every day. And that's why I'm doing this today," she said. "It's about self agency. It's about power. It's about acceptance.

"It's so interesting to me that right now on this journey, what I feel the most unlike myself is when I am wearing a wig. So I think that means I'm on my way."

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