Happy to Be Me!

🎐 do you all remember mitski's "strawberry blond" discourse? for those who don't, mitski (an asian-american artist) wrote a song about the unrequited love she experienced for not fitting into eurocentric beauty standards.

Reach out the car window tryna hold the wind You tell me you love her, I give you a grin Oh, all I ever wanted was a life in your shape So I follow the white lines, follow the white lines Keep my eyes on the road as I ache

🎐 the racial undertones in "strawberry blonde" were overlooked and became a whitewashed version of itself. white women used it to show off their strawberry blonde hair, and the cutesy "strawberry cow" cover of the song went viral, divorcing it from its original meaning.

🎐 to this day, you can still find white people arguing that poc are "gatekeeping" the song and that art can be interpreted in many different ways. while they aren't wrong about interpretation, isn't it fascinating how this mainly happens to songs centering non-white people?

🎐 this happened to "black barbies" by nicki minaj, and it's happening to "isn't she lovely" by stevie wonder. "can't 'black barbies' be about all women's beauty? why is it only black women?" or "'isn't she lovely' is not just a black song now. it's a (white) trans anthem!"

🎐 this is whitewashing. white people have always sanitized art originally made by poc to insert themselves into the conversation. the true meaning behind non-white centered art can never be erased, but it gets exhausting seeing our spaces encroached over and over while the people remain just as disrespected.

And after that spectacle, you’re telling me we weren’t supposed to pick up any queer coding when…

…her sleeve is literally the GAY mlm flag colours 👀