My commentary on the homophobic and misogynistic slurs rapper Azealia Banks threw at repeat transphobe/misogynist Perez Hilton via Twitter were screengrabbed to much attention yesterday. There’s only so much one can say in three 140-character posts so I must expand this a bit.
In no way am I an Azealia stan (I haven’t followed her career beyond seeing her on one of my favorite shopping sites ASOS.com) and my tweets should not be taken as a defense of her foul speech. Slurs are slurs especially when thrown with hurtful intent - no matter who the offender.
My tweets should be taken as a criticism of the media’s habit of highlighting black and brown celebs who say horrible things, while a gentle touch (or blind-eye all together) is utilized when white celebs say equally transphobic or misogynistic things.
The media’s selective treatment of these situations needs to be called out.
We must analyze who is at the helm of these stories/bylines/institutions and why certain communities/people of color are demonized, publicized and labelled as more homo/transphobic, and why the use of “f*g” or “f*ggot” is an outright slur that raises much frenzy, but “tr*nny” is seen as more of a debate (or ignored all together, like Banks’ own apparently transphobic lyrics) when used with the same vitriol intent.
(Source: fatwasandfanboys, via mochafleur)
