pursuit of serendipity

The song Famous by Kanye West attracted a lot of media attention after the controversy it has stirred due to its lyrics and music video. It has especially caused commotion because of the lyrics that target Taylor Swift, in which Kanye raps:

“For all my southside niggas that know me best, I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”

For this specific line, Kanye has presented two examples of reappropriation. Galinsky defines reappropriation as taking back what was taken from them. In this case Kanye has taken words that were originally used to demean a group of people, and has reappropriated them as something positive. He often uses the N-word as a term for endearment -- another word to regard someone as his friend, as many African Americans have as well. However, the more controversial term is his use of the word bitch, which Taylor Swift and other audiences interpreted as a disrespectful and oppressive way to label Swift. However, Kanye West defends himself after a stream of numerous tweets.He said:

“Bitch is an endearing term in hip hop like the word Nigga”

  Kim Kardashian, Kanye West’s wife, has also defended the rapper’s lyrics and agrees that the word “bitch” is not offensive, at least to her. Kanye West has also called Kardashian a bitch in his song “The Perfect Bitch.” 

Much like how the LGBT+ community are (for the most part) okay with calling each other queer, and how the African American community often refer to each other as the N-word to refer to their friends or loved ones, when someone outside of this cultural group uses a reappropriated term, it becomes offensive. Kanye West received a lot of hate and criticism for calling Taylor Swift a bitch because he is male, and also partly because Swift did not interpret the word bitch as something that has been reappropriated.

Pink Matter by Frank Ocean is a song that has a lot of symbolism. Symbolism is the use of objects, words, or events to have a hidden meaning within it, which can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the context and the individual reading the symbol. 

With my interpretation I think the song speaks for Frank Ocean with his views on women, being that he is queer and has admitted this to the public, however his sexuality and queer identity is still left in question. Frank Ocean uses his music to express his queer identity. In this song, Frank Ocean talks about women and “pink matter,” which symbolizes the woman and her reproductive organs. He talks to his “Sensei” in the lyrics, which I think represents his conscience or his identity, asking him “what is your woman” and if she’s “just a container for the child.” Throughout this song, Frank Ocean is figuring out what a woman is to him and what he enjoys with a woman. He argues with his conscience about what women are to him when Frank Ocean sings “Sensei went quiet then violent, and we sparred until we both grew tired, nothing mattered.” The tone of the song is very sensual and soft, which answers this question of what a woman is to him -- women offer him sexual pleasure but nothing more. He says in the lyrics “she’s giving me pleasure” but also says “pleasure over matter,” meaning that the things that matter such as love or emotional intimacy doesn’t interest him from women.

Throughout the song he talks a lot about different colors of matter that represent different things. He mentions “grey matter,” which I think represents his mind because he was talking about what the brain is made for. He also talks about “purple matter” which I think represents the queer community since purple is their symbol of color. Frank Ocean also talks about aliens that are watching behind the sky and the stars from the purple matter. Aliens might be a representation of the queer community since they are a different community from the mainstream heterosexual community. He also talked about “blue matter,” saying that blue was his favorite color but now he has no choice. Blue is color that is a categorized as a norm for heterosexual men. Perhaps blue matter represents Frank Ocean’s heterosexuality and how he has left this binary. 

Lyrics:

Piper, the main character from Orange is the New Black, is an example of a character that went through passing as a lesbian/bisexual woman. In this TV series, it tells the story of how Piper was thrown into prison for being involved in selling and distributing drugs, which happened when she was in a relationship with Alex, who at the time was a drug dealer. While Piper was in a relationship with Alex, which was her first queer relationship, her straight parents and friends disapproved of it and thought that she was just having a phase. Nevertheless, Piper continued her relationship with Alex until Piper got tired of being involved in Alex’s life as a drug dealer.

After breaking up with Alex, Piper got in a relationship with a man afterwords, Larry, which suggests that Piper also felt ashamed or afraid of being in a relationship with a woman and being persecuted by her family and friends because of it. She followed the mainstream heterosexual norms and dismissed her queer identity as a lesbian. She lived a different life that was more normalized compared to her adventerous life with Alex. Piper was passing for her fiancé, her family, and friends by following these mainstream heterosexual norms. While she was with Larry, her family and friends dismissed Alex as an experimental relationship and therefore was not accepting of Piper’s queer identity. They believed that this was just a phase for Piper and did not accept it as a real part of Piper’s sexual identity.

When Piper went to prison and reconnected with Alex, she was able to regain her queerness. Being in a setting full of women who openly expressed their sexuality with other women as lesbians also helped Piper to slowly feel that this is a comfortable and more accepting place so that she does not need to pass as a heterosexual. Her parents and friends and fiancé are not present to judge her for her sexual identity as well. Overtime Piper really opened up as a character. When she was passing as a heterosexual, Piper was still following the binaries as a woman by being emotional and sensitive. When she regained her queer identity, she regained her confidence and emerged as a stronger woman who knew how to outsmart people and was later on feared by many other women because of her new alpha-status.

Brammer, John Paul. “Why I’ve Decided to Start Dressing More Femininely.” Buzzfeed.com. July 17, 2016.

Princess Bubblegum and Marceline from the TV show Adventure Time are an example of subtext, meaning that there are scenes that suggest that the two female characters were once in a romantic relationship, or currently are in a romantic relationship. There have been many instances that show examples of Bubblegum and Marceline as queer or lesbian characters. 

The two female characters seem to have some baggage between them that has caused some fighting between the two, and this was first shown in an episode where Marceline sings “I’m Just Your Problem” which is an emotional song that seems to be targeted towards Princess Bubblegum. Overtime, there have been more episodes of Bubblegum and Marceline acting like they are much closer than just friends, and they obviously mean a lot to each other. 

Being that this is primarily a kids’ show, I think that the creators of the show want to prevent any distinct instances of a queer relationship, which, in our time, would obviously cause much controversy especially for parents. However, some older audiences are reading against the grain and are excited about seeing queer meanings within a show that is meant for kids. This adds a level of deeper meaning and seems to be a sign towards progression for the queer community, which would all the more attract more mature audiences to watch this show, and not just kids. However, in a way, Marceline and Bubblegum are also an example of queer baiting, because their relationship never does turn into a solid, romantic relationship and they seem to just be stuck in the friend zone, thus keeping the audience wondering and hoping for another episode dedicated to unfolding their true relationship. 

Works Cited