Is Your Feminism Intersectional?: Team Nicki vs Team Miley
By Porttia Portis
These days, it’s almost impossible to escape news about Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj. Even before the heavily publicized beef (and the call out heard ‘round the world), the two women have been both lauded and reprimanded by the press and public for their stances and representations of feminist values. But the height of the feud -- however entertaining or annoying -- shows that there are two starkly different sides to feminism that often go ignored, until incidences like this. For now, let’s call these two sides Team Nicki and Team Miley.
Team Miley is largely representative of “mainstream” feminism. While its main focuses are on sexual liberation and dismantling the patriarchy, there’s an air of privilege that seems to turn a blind eye on things like cultural appropriation -- especially if it’s a piece/part of a culture that can be co-opted into a fashion statement. This privilege also makes concerns like systematic discrimination hard to understand, as it’s something that this side has had less direct experience with.
Team Nicki is on the other end of the spectrum, with more of a focus on intersectional feminism. It’s inclusive of virtually all facets of the feminist plight, from race and gender, to body positivity, disability awareness, and everything in between. This side acknowledges the various struggles people endure in their fight for equality, and that no two experiences are exactly the same.
Granted, this is admittedly a broad grasp of the two sides, because people tend to fall on a spectrum with their beliefs. However, the way that both women have been portrayed during this whole debacle mirrors the same separation in feminist rhetoric that birthed this column.
Through decrying a pervasively racist system, Nick Minaj was labeled just about everything negative you can imagine, piling onto the years that she’s received racially-based media backlash for everything from her hair and body type, to her talent and artistry. Seeing that racism is a deeply-rooted issue, it’s only natural that there was some emotion involved.
Miley Cyrus, born into a life of privilege and long viewed as a media darling, felt that Nicki did not express herself in some type of “acceptable” manner, and chose to focus on the emotional context of the situation, rather than the actual issue at hand. Aside from the fact that her input wasn’t really warranted, her actions were just another example of respectability politics that have been used to silence and control PoC for generations.
This isn’t to say that Miley may or may not have had some valid concerns, but it’s really hard to take someone seriously on racial matters, when the person has used PoC and their cultures as props for her own gain. For Team Miley, it’s too often that these disparities fall by the wayside in lieu of the larger cause of feminism, because for them, gender inequality is the issue at hand. But for Team Nicki, there are a slew of other concerns in conjunction to gender inequality that take precedence, and can’t simply be ignored.
Is Your Feminism Intersectional?: A Genderless Target
By Porttia Portis
Compared to most major retailers, Target is one of the lesser evils on the political correctness scale. Sure, the company has had its fair share of faux pas, but it’s starting to get the right idea on matters of gender inclusivity.
Unless you live under a rock (and it’s totally cool if you do), you’ve probably heard about the store’s recent decision to remove gender-distinct sections in its toy, electronic and household departments. The clothing section will maintain most of its boundaries due to differences in sizing, but it will no longer separate sections by wall color. This move is not only indicative of changing times, but reflective of how gender distinctions are a social construct forced on children from an early age.
I’m pretty sure that most people at some point in time have felt dissatisfaction with assigned gender roles or biases. Lego toys in kids meals were sometimes more appealing than those annoying, immovable doll options. Barbies are just as capable of action as G.I. Joes (and come with more accessories to boot). I’ve met little girls who will choose Batman, Ninja Turtle and/or Star Wars merchandise, given the option, and pink lost its stigma back in 2003.
Why are conservatives so hell-bent against Target’s decision? Unless you’re searching for reasons to be angry at the world, generally it’s best to avoid comments sections. But my natural curiosity led me to discover asinine remarks — “how can we find tampons if there are no signs?” — which wouldn’t be so bad if they weren’t spouted from the braying meninist types, who obviously didn’t read the articles they were posting below.
Rather than focusing energy on actual issues of discrimination (where were these people during the company’s Equal Opportunity suit?), the dissenting crowd has shown its ass through its fear of a changing status quo. As science has actually proven, sex and gender are not interchangeable; gender is purely a social entity.
Kids don’t care about gender-specific merchandise or their implications until the idea is placed in their heads by adults who’ve grown to abide by these arbitrary rules to fit into “the norm.” But what has long been considered the standard doesn’t reflect the reality of today’s society: people fit along a broad spectrum of gender identity. What we once thought of as stark pink and blue is rapidly turning into a beautiful gradient of hues.
