Lot's Wife Edition 6 2015

ARTS & CULTURE 39
Intersectionality and Feminism
The Taylor Swift/Nicki Minaj
Twitter Debate
BY CASSIE SPRY
"The intersection of forms of
discrimination are important
for all women to discuss as
discrimination often does
not happen in isolation. The
problems that Minaj faces as
a woman are not necessarily
separate from the problems she
faces as a person of colour."
Taylor Swift’s response to Nicki Minaj’s tweets calling out
racism in the VMAs sparked a fierce debate about which of
the two feminists was in the wrong. All Swift accomplished
was to derail Minaj’s valid points about discrimination in the
music industry. This situation has shown the importance of
intersectionality in feminism.
The ‘feud’ started when Minaj tweeted her anger for being
overlooked for many awards she believed she deserved
nominations for in the 2015 VMAs. She said ‘If I were a
different "kind" of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for
best choreo and vid of the year as well’ and also tweeted
‘When "other" girls drop a video that breaks records and
impacts culture they get that nomination.’
But when she tweeted "If your video celebrates women with
very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year",
Swift believed Minaj was personally attacking her and her
video ‘Bad Blood’ rather than the racism and sizeism in the
industry.
Regardless of whether Minaj was talking about Swift or not
(it’s more likely she was talking about Miley Cyrus’ infamous
video ‘Wrecking Ball’), Swiff should not have made it all about
her. Minaj was talking about something bigger than any
one artist; she was talking about the structure of the music
industry and how it rewards white women over women of
colour.
Taylor Swift demonstrated that she is a textbook white
feminist by making the issue about women in general
instead of engaging in how racism affects female artists.
Many people feel personally attacked by the term white
feminism, but it doesn’t refer to every feminist who is white,
but rather to a method of feminism. It is the type of feminism
that focuses on issues that affect white, middle-class,
straight, abled, cis women, and ignores how different types of
discrimination can intersect.
In this instance, white feminism meant prioritising the
experiences of sexism above the experiences of racism
through Swift saying "maybe one of the men took your spot".
Intersectional feminism looks at the experiences of people
who face more than one form of discrimination and
oppression; such as transwomen, disabled women, nonheterosexual
women, religious women, and especially women
of colour, and how they are often discriminated against
differently because of their overlapping identities.
This is crucial in a political discussion that has historically
been dominated by cis white women who have purposely
excluded women of colour for decades.
In the fight for voting rights in Australia, white women
fought for their own suffrage while still standing firmly
against Aboriginal women’s (and men’s) right to vote.
The Commonwealth Franchise Act (1902), which suffragettes
celebrated so joyously had a clause specifically prohibiting
"aboriginal native[s] of Australia Asia Africa or the Islands of
the Pacific except New Zealand" from voting, unless they were
already enrolled to vote in their state elections.
Even in the cases where they could vote, it was strongly
discouraged and many were kept ignorant of their rights.
It was not until 1965 that Aboriginals across Australia
had the right to vote. This could have been avoided if more
suffragettes included indigenous women when they were
advocating for their own rights.
In light of a history of exclusion of women of colour in
feminism, it is particularly important that they have a voice
now and are not overshadowed by white women who insist
in only discussing issues that affect all women and who
use ‘solidarity’ to derail important discussions about the
experiences and discrimination of women of colour.
The intersection of forms of discrimination are important
for all women to discuss as discrimination often does not
happen in isolation. The problems that Minaj faces as a
woman are not necessarily separate from the problems she
faces as a person of colour. Discrimination can occur from
both of these parts of her identity at once.
By making the issue about her, Swift robbed Minaj of
the opportunity to have a productive discussion on the
discrimination that she faces in the music industry and she
robbed her from being able to educate more people on how
the intersection of race, gender, and body type affects her
and many others.