Austin Morgan
With lyrics drawing from a lexicon of words like “tricks,” “hoes” and “bitches,” and music videos featuring so-called “THOTs,” “bad bitches” and “big booty hoes,” rappers have gotten a bad rap among feminists. Recently, rapper Fetty Wap and his famous song “Trap Queen” became prime targets for feminists. I claim that these feminists are shamefully ignorant to the cultural context of Fetty’s song, which is the opposite of sexist.
Let’s start with many feminists’ go-to line in their accusations of sexism: “Married to the money, introduced her to my stove; Showed her how to whip it, now she remixin’ for low.”
Feminists claim that this line perpetuates age-old stereotypes which relegate women to domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of the kids. But Fetty is not talking about a regular stove—he’s talking about a stove one uses to make crack. In other words, the woman is not being consigned to the cult of domesticity; she is being included in making crack—an economic activity from which women are typically excluded.
At first glance, this argument about economic inclusion seems unreasonable. Moving to the next line, however, it becomes undeniable: “She my trap queen, let her hit the bando; We be countin’ up, watch how far them bands go; We just set a goal, talkin’ matchin’ Lambos.”
Let’s define some terms: a “trap queen” is a street smart woman involved directly in gang-related activities, a “bando” is a place where one cooks crack and “bands” refer to the bands used to tie bundles of cash together. By stringing this together, it’s easy to see that Fetty is working to include his girlfriend in the making, selling and profiting involved in crack dealing. He wants to see how many “bands” they can accumulate and hopes to buy matching Lamborghinis for him and his girlfriend.
But oh, what about the theme of infidelity so common in rap songs? In this regard, feminists point to the following line: “Man, I swear I love her how she work the damn pole; Hit the strip club, we be letting bands go.” The issue is that Fetty is referring to two separate women in this line: the stripper and his girlfriend. The stripper is doing her thing while Fetty and his girlfriend are watching and giving her money. As Fetty said in an interview with “Billboard”: “We rolled up, we hit the strip club, she’d throw money with me; we hit the block.” There is no infidelity occurring in this example, despite what feminists have alleged.
Finally, at the end of the bridge Fetty says, “Everybody hating, we just call them fans though; in love with the money, I ain’t never lettin’ go.” In these lines, Fetty makes clear that his attachment to his girlfriend is not just about the emotional connection between them; it also owes to the mutual economic partnership their relationship has made possible. Fetty and his girlfriend are not defined only by their emotional connection; rather, they also enjoy a beneficial economic partnership.
I am a proud, radical feminist, a critical theorist and a social justice advocate—I am not one who criticizes the feminist movement from a place of ignorance. In this case, though, some feminists have gotten it wrong: Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” is not sexist; it’s liberatory. Existing feminist critique of Fetty’s work draws from White-centric experiences which overlook the cultural context which textures Fetty’s lyrics. By criticizing “Trap Queen” feminists ignore race and class—issues which inevitably affect the identity category with which feminism so proudly associates: gender.
In broader terms, the ignorance of this feminist critique is the tragic flaw of many feminists today. They overlook the places in which gender intersects with other identity categories, and, in doing so, they erase the unique experiences of intersectional groups.
