Flower Crown Magazine: Issue 2

So Your Fave is Problematic
By Shanice Brim
Source: http://zustin.tumblr.com/post/85457457310/when-urfav-fucks-up-and-u-cant-defend-them
I’m not entirely sure how to talk about this subject
because it’s something I fight with every day. I’m a
Black feminist. It’s something that I hold near and
dear to my heart. I love Black feminism/feminism
and the culture even though it can get on my nerves
sometimes. I actually foam at the mouth with excitement
when talking about it but there’s this other
thing that I’m also really passionate about: rap. I love
rap. Yes, there are rap songs and there are rappers
who are woman-friendly but I still dance along to
“Pop That.” It’s terrible. The thing is I know the lyrics
don’t reflect my beliefs but sometimes when
dancing or singing along to certain songs I feel like
I’m co-signing the material. This is a problem any
conscious person is going to come up against at
some point because the sad truth is that because
we haven’t been able yet to eradicate the isms and
phobias we’re fighting against our entertainment is
littered with it. If we cut out every single thing that
was problematic I’m afraid we wouldn’t have much
of anything to consume entertainment wise. The
idea of the problematic fave has become something
of a tumblr talking point. It sort of started with the
tumblr Yourfaveisproblematic. It posts the receipts
of your faves problematic behavior and some of it
is, well, pretty damning. Some of my faves are on
yourfaveisproblematic. Hell, some of feminisms pets
are on yourfaveisproblematic. For instance, Courtney
Love. I grew up listening to Hole and idolizing
Courtney. I’ve seen Hit So Hard. I have the albums.
When looking for a name to encompass the theme
of this issue, her band’s song “Celebrity Skin” came
to mind. Here’s her list:
• Uses gay as an insult.
• To a black audience member: “Do you really like
rock music? Because you’re African-American.
That would be like me being into Lil Wayne.”
• “I’m allowed to use the word ‘f**’ because I’m a
gay icon”
• Said she hopes Dave Grohl get “ass-raped”
• Covered Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” and left all the
n-words in
• Has a song called “r****d girl”
• At the Comedy Central Roast of Pamela Anderson:
“I’ve been clean and sober for a year, so all
these drug jokes are r*****ed”
• “You African-Americans only know about me
because I’ve been arrested”