Jennifer Lopez is having a terrible summer. I think. From what I’ve read, her fairy-tale marriage has fallen apart. Her “This Is Me . . . Live” tour is no longer happening. She is house-hunting on her own and “keeping her head above water,” and all of this is understandably not “what she originally had planned.”

But browse other websites, and the jack-of-all-trades entertainer is having the time of her life. She’s bicycling around the Hamptons and embracing ice cream cones, sunsets, and lavender fields. She took a “petit voyage” to Paris for the couture shows and hosted a Bridgerton-come-to-life birthday extravaganza to celebrate her 55th birthday.

If you’ve seen the latest news about Lopez filing for divorce or really anything about her over the past several months, it would seem that her sky is indeed falling. (Maybe.) At the very least, a million and one questions are being hurled her way. Is her second-chance romance with Ben Affleck over beyond repair? Does the cancellation of her tour represent just a blip or a career flop? Can the so-called heartsick superstar ever bounce back from a season of social media pile-ons and negative press? Amidst all these boomeranging articles and gossip bites, there’s a deeper question worth mulling over: Why is everyone rooting against J.Lo?

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With Ben Affleck at the premiere of Gigli in 2003.

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Performing onstage with Marc Anthony at Madison Square Garden in 1998.

The industry fixture is certainly no stranger to making headlines, from her fashion and fitness regimen to her music and films and, of course, her love life. As Lopez exploded onto the entertainment scene, everything she touched seemed to turn to gossip-mill gold. There was the green Versace dress she wore to the 2000 Grammy Awards that (supposedly) led to the development of Google Images. Her intense relationships with Diddy and Affleck around that time were like catnip to the paparazzi, while the implosion of her three marriages, including her third to singer Marc Anthony, fueled a cottage industry devoted to Lopez being unlucky in love.

That said, recent coverage has been all over the place, even more so than usual. What she’s chosen to share personally has remained positive, professional, and steady. What the media has swirled is something else entirely. There’s an edge to it, almost a palpable glee at Lopez’s supposed tribulations. Take, for instance, Page Six’s recent announcement containing quite a tone: “Jennifer Garner visits ex Ben Affleck on his birthday while Jennifer Lopez gushes over her own big day.” The gall! Of that jilted woman! To celebrate her birthday!

It’s hard to remember a time when Jennifer Lopez wasn’t famous. She has been in the cultural zeitgeist for a very long time, for better or worse. She was a Fly Girl on In Living Color back in 1991, for goodness’ sakes. I remember my high school Spanish teacher rolling in a big-box TV and VCR to show us the newly released Selena, starring Lopez, in the late ’90s. Soon after, The Wedding Planner and Maid in Manhattan established her status as a rom-com queen. With her debut album On the 6, she moved into the pop world, and by the time “Jenny from the Block” came out, it was clear Lopez had conquered not only music, but also dance. She had rhythm. Her glow and glam became legendary, and even trademarked.

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Jennifer Lopez – Jenny from the Block

Over Lopez’s trailblazing decades, there have been several career highs and lows, and a multitude of tabloid onslaughts. Somewhere along the way, many of us (this writer included) have become invested in this headstrong woman who never seems to stay in one lane. We feel like we know her. We’ve followed her through so much. Personally, I cheered when she gave an Oscar-worthy performance in 2019’s Hustlers, and I side-eyed the heck out of the Academy when they denied her a nomination. When she performed at President Joe Biden’s 2021 presidential inauguration, I applauded her civic duty and bopped along when she broke into a little riff of her hit song “Let’s Get Loud.” And when she reunited with Affleck 20 years after the implosion of their first go-round, I couldn’t stop refreshing my browser to see the drop of their first official photos together.

Now in her mid-50s, Lopez shows no signs of slowing down. In early 2024, she memorably released her latest album, cheekily titled This Is Me . . . Now, with an accompanying interpretive film and documentary. Her rekindled relationship with Affleck seemed to be the foundation for all of this occasionally bonkers and at times brilliant creative output. When the rumor mill began churning that the on-again-off-again couple was having marital troubles, seemingly so soon after her artistic expressions of love for him, the ingredients for a totally predictable firestorm were in place.

This time, though, the furor surrounding Lopez has been tinged with a sense of comeuppance and delight. It hasn’t been limited to her supposedly floundering romance. The public has come for her singing, her acting, her posing, her body, and just about everything else. Seeing all the hate and vitriol directed at Lopez this year has been disorienting, but sadly, not shocking. We’ve been here before. (Can anyone recall the infamous South Park episode “Fat Butt and Pancake Head,” in which Cartman makes a Jennifer Lopez hand doll that draws ire from real-life J.Lo?) Clearly, society remains flummoxed by a successful woman who just keeps going and going, with no end in sight. In the case of Lopez, it seems to want her to be at all times both an icon and a diva, an inspiration and a cautionary tale, an abject failure and an impossibly glamorous phoenix rising from the pop culture ashes. How exhausting, for us and for Lopez herself, I’d imagine.

Amazon Prime

Jennifer Lopez in This Is Me…Now: A Love Story on Prime Video.

The wild headlines and searing takedowns show no signs of stopping, and neither does Lopez. In her latest posts on Instagram, she is tapping into the “very demure, very mindful” TikTok trend. She is also going to the local liquor store and promoting one of her brand partnerships. She is glowing and taking selfies with fans, and she looks fabulous. She is continuing to give some of the people what they want, myself included. Many of us don’t know her, but we see something in her that resonates. We want her to soar in spite of it all. Love it or hate it, she is carrying on. After all, in her wise words, “Everyone’s got to make a living.”