FOF #2148 – Shea’s Not Having It
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Language is a delicious melting pot of cultures, but just like that tasty cheese fondue pot you got as a gift, sometimes you can get burned.
Today, the delicious Shea Coulee from Cooking with Drag Queens Season One, has a lot to say about some people’s response to the UK student group’s declaration that asks white gay men to stop talking like sassy black women.
Listen as Shea reads to filth gay guys who think it’s cool to mince around like black divas, what it takes to walk the walk if you’re going to talk the talk, and being an outsider in an outside world.
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Comments
Shea’s outrage over having “sassy” appropriated from the black community is a grave matter indeed.
As Jake points out on the Facebook page, it is time for drag queens to be given a new list of words they cannot use, as well as a general prohibition over being too sassy. (At least the white ones. Maybe the Asians.) I would love to hear Lady Bunny’s response.
I’m afraid Fausto this applies to you as well. You sir are far too sassy.
(I wish there was an edit function for these comments…)
Here is what I should have said: As Jake points out on the Facebook page, drag queens are guilty of this. It is time for drag queens to be given a new list…
(Sorry Jake.)
Here’s the way I understand Shea’s and other’s like her’s frustration.
It’s about stuff getting stolen that doesn’t belong to you.
Here’s an analogy that might make more sense: we’ve seen this all the time, or experienced it when we post something online and someone else reposts it without crediting you.
When we post a photo or video online and someone, especially a rich media company steals our hard work without credit or paying us. Now imagine that feeling and add on top of that slavery, racism, ignorance and general stupidity.
When we talk or participate in the great melting pot of culture- like all delicious melting pots, sooner or later you’re going to get burned. I think the conversation here needs to focus on being more mindful and taking action when you can to credit your sources.
Give credit and a little respect when we inevitably imitate the people and cultures we see.
White like me is a great documentary to watch.
Funny. I find myself adjusting my speak depending on the social setting. Never really thought anything of it…until now. I hope I haven’t pissed off anyone;)
I know you can’t say yet, but I hope you have Pearl on CWDQ. I don’t know what it is about her, but I just get sucked into those hot, bedroom eyes of hers. PRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
If not I’ll have to message her to get onto your show.
Love you both!!!
Jim C – Minneapolis, MN
Marc & Fautso,
I love love love Shea Couleé (almost as much as I love you guys!). She’s sassy, smart, articulate and funny. I agree that Chris Crocker has made a name, and money for himself being an annoying Sissy White Boy. And I certainly understand the oppression of privilege and entitlement. But Fautso, you said it best, culture belongs to everyone. There is no way for one group to identify separate parts, ’claim’ them as their own, and forbid other members of the culture from using those characteristics. Culture is a dialogue, not a monologue. And no one owns a dialogue. It is shared.
And even if we could separate culture, its been tried before. Apartheid, Segregation, ‘Separate but Equal’ ask your parents and grandparents how those ideas worked out.
Also, I assume that Shea identifies as a male, which I think is safe since she proudly announced that she ‘tops most of the time’. If so, I am disappointed that you guys missed the opportunity to ask Shea how she feels as a man to be appropriating FEMALE cultural characteristics as a drag queen and serious Diva? And while we are at it lets talk about identifying as a ‘Diva’. As someone with Italian heritage I could say to ‘Beyonce, Aretha, Shea and all you other sassy black women out there, “STOP APPROPRIATING THE CULTURE OF EARLY 19TH CENTURY WHITE ITALIAN OPERA SINGERS YOU PRIVILEGED AMERICANS!”
I would suggest to continue this ‘dialogue’ in an upcoming podcast (AFTER ‘Cooking with Drag Queens has been safely downloaded to YouTube, of course), having Shea back on to discuss ‘Cultural Appropriation and Privilege’ with, another guest. Hmmm lets say someone as articulate and passionate about the subject as is Shea , um maybe, um, Parker Marie!!! How do you think THAT conversation would go?? Come on, please. I dare ya. I DOUBLE dare ya!
😉
xoxoxo
I haven’t ever commented on one of the topics before now, but I felt I really had to chime in on this from another perspective.
Something a lot of black activists will avoid discussing and showing their own hypocrisy is the constant accusation toward individuals of the African-American community of “being a race-traitor”.
I will have to start with the pretext that I am a (mostly) African-American bisexual man (prefer men however) and I grew up in New Jersey near NYC.
Having said all that, one of the problems I have always had with my “own community” is that every problem still relates back to an “us” as we claim to wish to be represented versus “them” as they claim to see us. In most cases, black people versus white people and how they see black people. Yet, black people themselves are NOTORIOUS for doing it to others and especially their own. See also: “Acting white”. Do white people accuse black people of acting white? I mean really? It’s usually black people inflicting it on themselves. Are those so-called “white-acting” black people appropriating white culture or are do black people themselves decide something is white and thus not “part of their culture” or at least something they don’t want to accept at that current time.
Personal example (back to where I am from): I am a huge fan of metal music and I honestly have a strong loathing of modern hip-hop, I connect with one (not all of it mind you) and I find myself deeply offended by the tendency toward very self-masturbatory messages that modern hip-hop is rife with (emphasis on “modern”). Back home, being a black man who liked metal and rock music isn’t an issue, but consistently, other black people have and continue to viciously denigrate my character because of my music taste or other facets of my being that they consider “white”. Without even knowing me, they decide these things for themselves and hold me and others like me in contempt. We’ve all heard it said, “…you must have a lot of white friends”. “… you must have grown up around white people.” I can cite numerous examples from other aspects of my life that often put me personally at odds with other black people and thus (obviously), I end up not relating to or having a lack of other black friends. Often I don’t even get along with other black guys and I definitely haven’t been able to date any. I bet most every black men out there who has every taken good white dick in his ass knows what I’m talking about when other black people get a peek at them.
Some white people can be pretty hard on black people based on hatred or stereotypes, but I know from experience how bad it is from other black people if you don’t “tow the line” on what they think you should be when it comes to being part of the black community. Are we really just trying to “be white?” Hell no, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.
I wish I was more well known enough to discuss this on the podcast, because it’s a topic that is almost NEVER addressed and it’s always buried. “The Lives of ‘White’ Black People in America”.
Or to put it squarely on topic: It can be bad when what you do is appropriate “for effect” by a peoples (white taking from black), but it is just as bad when black people contribute aspects of your being or your joys or accomplishments as being white or “you’re just acting white”. It’s reverse appropriation.
It is racist, sexist, and homophobic all at the same time to suggest that gay men, drag queens in particular, are imitating or appropriating the way straight African American women speak. It is generalizing the way gay men speak. It is generalizing the way African American women speak. It is the dumbest, most reactive form of phony political correctness I’ve ever heard of. It makes terrible, ignorant assumptions about the way culture evolves, and it foments derision among politically allied minority groups. We have enough things that divide us; we don’t need to go out looking for reasons to hate one another.