Nicki Minaj Fires Back At Sexist Tweets Spurred By Gossip Site’s ‘Serious Question’ About Women In Rap
On Friday, gossip and entertainment site Bossip posed what should have been a simple question on Twitter, asking: "Why aren't there more mainstream female rappers?"
The answer could have perhaps pointed to the idea that society tends to lump women in music together by their gender rather than their genre, for one—I mean, "female" rappers? Really?—not to mention the systemic sexism in the music industry as a whole, where women artists are commodified more for their bodies than their, you know, actual music.
Instead, the site began retweeting a series of replies from users, many of which were, surprise surprise, incredibly sexist, and some of which took direct aim at Nicki Minaj, like this "factual" little gem:
Now, while retweeting something doesn't necessarily always mean you agree with it, many have pointed out that Bossip's RTs seem to cosign the statements that were being made by users, especially the more insidious and misogynistic tweets. (Plus, why perpetuate ignorant statements like above anyway? It only helps to spread these already systemically hateful beliefs against women in music...)
Soon after the conversation started though, Nicki herself stepped in to set the record straight and take Bossip to task for retweeting so much sexism without actually standing up for the women artists at the center of the conversation—including her (very successful, very hardworking) self:
The most infuriating part though? After Nicki had the gall to stand up for herself as a "female" (cringe) rapper, the site still refused to back down, instead reducing Nicki to the "angry black woman" trope by tweeting her own lyrics in an attempt to invalidate her very legitimate and personal experience as a woman of color in an industry dominated by men:
The whole thing sucks, quite frankly, because at its core, the question Bossip asked is truly an important one, and one that, in an alternate reality of sense and ethics, could have catalyzed an impactful and potentially change-enacting conversation on Twitter. Alas.
At the end of the day though, no matter the struggle or how many haters come flying out of the shadows of social media, there's really no tearing Nicki Minaj—with her six American Music Awards, three MTV Music Video Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and over half a million album sales for The Pinkprint alone—down. So nice try. Better luck next time!
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