Hmmm… I do understand where you’re coming from on this. And I also agree that replying in kind isn’t optimal. In this particular case, black women’s bodies are so SO SOOO policed that I can’t fault her for that astoundingly quick witted, if not on the moral high ground, response. It is a shame that the dems response is to monetize it, but I’m not going to blame her for saying something back. Black women, specifically, are told to know their place and that she didn’t allow MTG to “humble” her is okay with me. White feminism has a part in this. Be mad, but don’t be mad THIS WAY. I think this is part of that.
Agree. And calling a Black woman’s clapback to a right wing troll the worst body culture moment of the year feels kinda icky to me. The very worst one?! I get that this piece is especially critiquing the way dems hypocritically ran with this as a body-shaming rallying cry, which I agree with, but calling Rep. Crockett’s words the “worst” feels pretty indicative of how heavily Black women’s words tend to be policed
So homophobic body shaming gets a pass if you’re black? Soft bigotry of low expectations indeed (especially for a congressional representative!). “Be mad, but don’t be mad THIS WAY” Unironically yes! Don’t be a body shaming homophobe, even when you are angry. Certainly, statements made in righteous anger are more understandable/ forgivable, but that doesn’t make them faultless or blameless. Bigotry doesn’t stop being bigotry just because someone else started it. And the fact that that’s where her “quick wit” took her when she needed to “clap back” says some things, none of them good.
But all of this sort of misses the point anyway. The bigger issue is how quickly “progressives” moved to embrace and celebrate B6, endorsing not only the anger but the hurtful, bigoted way that anger was expressed. That’s a problem, and that’s what makes this a moment worth noting.
Against my better judgment, I’m going to engage here… I didn’t say it gets a pass. I said it was not optimal and in the moment, I was basically impressed that she could clap back that quickly. And while certainly her word choices were suboptimal, calling someone butch is, on the spectrum of homophobic slurs, pretty benign. Obviously, your perspective is your own. My perspective was borne of doing a master’s thesis on Black women in politics this past year, and the impact of white feminism.
You said, “I can’t fault her” and are “impressed” by her “quick wit”. That sounds like “a pass” to me (certainly much stronger language than merely “not optimal”). I’m not sure what your stance on implicit bias is, but if you subscribe to it, the fact that her “quick wit” immediately reaches for “butch bitch” sounds awfully homophobic/misogynistic to me. The whole point here is that if we are actually serious about reducing body shaming of women, we need to break the cycle wherein the first place we reach for negative language is to insult someone’s body and their gender expression.
Either way, your repeated reference to “white feminism” makes it seem that you feel Rep. Crockett’s race gives her more leeway in her form of response, and that you are against criticism of any words she chooses to use to express anger so long as you feel the anger is justified. I don’t subscribe to this notion of an oppression hierarchy: racism and misogyny are both bad, and using the latter to fight the former is a bad thing.
I don’t think it’s fair to quibble about whether “butch” is homophobic while taking for granted than a snark about fake eyelashes is clearly racially coded. If anything, the latter is more arguable. “Butch” deployed as an insult can pretty much only mean unfeminine, manly, etc. and is most often deployed to imply the target is a lesbian with the implication that that is a bad thing. Again, you say Crockett’s language is “not optimal” but you’re bending over backwards to excuse it.
Finally, you do note this but it’s the larger issue so it’s really where the focus lies: Rep. Crockett isn’t taking a line of “look I said something in anger, I’m not going to apologize for feeling insulted but I’m sorry that I used some language that caused collateral damage to other people”. She’s making money off a T-shirt line celebrating her insult, all six b-words in it. I don’t think that is defensible.
A witty response would have focused on what actually makes MTG a bad person (hint: it isn’t her body). You are right that comments on black women’s bodies are unacceptable. However, if you’re willing to criticize a white person for making body comments in poor taste then it applies to black people as well. We have to hold our leaders to a higher standard (remember when Michelle Obama said “we go high”?). Frankly if she had made the comment and moved on, it’d be whatever, but the merch grab and rah rah rah’ing from the twitterati of something we see as unacceptable coming from the right is just hypocrisy. If we have are going to have standards on how people behave then it can’t apply only to one group.
“We have to be willing to resist the temptation to dole out the same bullshit if we want to make the case that such bullshit will not stand.”
This is the only thing I want printed on merch right now. This is true for body conversations and every other negative thing on the internet right now.
Sometimes people respond to disrespect in anger. Not trying to “send a message” or anything. Just expressing anger. This article feels like a white woman telling black people how to express their anger, and it’s gross to me. I get it but this can’t possibly be “the worst” body culture moment of the past year. I really enjoy your work and will continue to follow. But sometimes it seems like y’all won’t be happy until black women stfu in public.
Thank you for this. I’m incredibly frustrated and disappointed by this piece and will have to block and unsubscribe because this was not a place to take a “higher road.” I don’t think this exists when Greene was being not only deeply racist but extremely violent in her rhetoric towards Crockett. This was a violent, racist attack by a dangerous woman against someone at their place of work not a fucking “body culture”moment. Why do you expect a black woman to take the high road in the face of violence?
Is there something about Rep. Crockett’s skin color that makes it impossible for her to express anger without resorting to homophobic body shaming? Because otherwise criticizing her choice of insults is not the same thing as telling her she needs to “STFU”, at all.
And it certainly doesn’t make it cool for thousands of people of all colors who were *not* in the heat of that moment to celebrate and monetize those insults. This has nothing to do with Rep. Crockett’s color and everything to do with her choice of targets.
This piece is spot on, and you proved Mikala’s point - way too many people are quick to excuse, even cheer on, hateful and harmful rhetoric as long as it’s from someone on their team.
Respectfully, I think it’s a pretty big leap here to insinuate that this is saying Rep. Crockett should “STFU”. In fact, I would have loved to see her call out MTG for the racist ideology she spews. Heck, even if she had just called her a crusty ol’ asshole, it would have been better. And also I understand that in the heat of the moment we don’t always rise to the occasion, which Mikala did say similar, and we are all human so that’s okay. I don’t think Rep. Crockett needs to apologize for anything, but if things were reversed and MTG was making merch from her gross comment (wouldn’t put it past her), would that be cool in your book? This isn’t about being ultra-respectful in the heat of the moment, but after the heat dies down is when we can choose how to move forward and it seems a lot of people are like “body shaming is cool when my team does it” and at that point you lose the ability to get mad about people on the other side crossing the line.
I respect your vision for a better world, but respectfully, you don't get to tell someone how they should react to blatant racism and disrespect, nor do you get to criticize or condemn them for their reaction or response, especially when you do not have the same shared lived experiences. No one, especially not black women or WOC, should have to be under pressure to perform this idea of "love and light" which is really a manipulative way of getting people to minimize and downplay the ways they've been mistreated and disrespected by others and to take responsibility for what isn't theirs. Her reaction or response isn't the problem or hinderance for a better world, the system that enabled and encouraged that white woman to exhibit her racism without shame, is. This post feels like you didn't read the room and that's unfortunate.
I get what you’re saying, but turning it into merch shows a lack of humility. None of us are ever at our best in the heat of the moment, but it’s what we do after that defines our character. Our leaders should be held to a higher standard. I think Rep. Crockett is awesome in many ways, but it was disappointing to see her run with the B6 thing.
Consider this fact: Merch wouldn't have been made had racism not been projected and exhibited. Again, just like the author of this post, your opinion on what black women and woc should or should not do in a matter such as this, is irrelevant, Kayleigh.
When I watched this altercation, I cringed with disappointment that Rep. Crocket stooped to Greene’s level, & insulted women’s bodies everywhere in the process. Greene is a low-life but insulting women’s body type wasn’t the direction to go. I think Rep. Crockett is a bad ass but there had to be a better response. Yet I totally get that in the heat of the moment it was a gut response.
Man, the comments here are depressing and really show how necessary this piece was. Whether “butch” is an acceptable insult shouldn’t depend on your skin color or whether you’re angry. Most slurs are deployed in anger - doesn’t make them okay!
And even if we’re willing to offer grace and forgiveness to statements made in the angry heat of the moment - what’s the excuse for *turning them into a merchandise line*!?
YES. YES. YES. Could not agree more! Debate the ideas and get angry if you have to, but stooping to the level of personal insult doesn’t look good on anyone.
Women are their own worst enemies. Regardless of political affiliation, it happens in the workplace and all other sectors. Why can't we just be kind to each other and accept people for who they are? It's not that hard.
So could I please have a response Rep. Crockett could have used verbatim in that situation? Please bear in mind it needs to have identical levels of offense and aggression. Thank you.
Mikala’s work is aimed at creating positive change in the world, and it starts with each of us looking deeply into our own hearts and minds. Responding to offensive aggression with precisely equal offensive aggression is not the most productive (or even efficient) course of action if this is your goal.
Hmmm… I do understand where you’re coming from on this. And I also agree that replying in kind isn’t optimal. In this particular case, black women’s bodies are so SO SOOO policed that I can’t fault her for that astoundingly quick witted, if not on the moral high ground, response. It is a shame that the dems response is to monetize it, but I’m not going to blame her for saying something back. Black women, specifically, are told to know their place and that she didn’t allow MTG to “humble” her is okay with me. White feminism has a part in this. Be mad, but don’t be mad THIS WAY. I think this is part of that.
Agree. And calling a Black woman’s clapback to a right wing troll the worst body culture moment of the year feels kinda icky to me. The very worst one?! I get that this piece is especially critiquing the way dems hypocritically ran with this as a body-shaming rallying cry, which I agree with, but calling Rep. Crockett’s words the “worst” feels pretty indicative of how heavily Black women’s words tend to be policed
So homophobic body shaming gets a pass if you’re black? Soft bigotry of low expectations indeed (especially for a congressional representative!). “Be mad, but don’t be mad THIS WAY” Unironically yes! Don’t be a body shaming homophobe, even when you are angry. Certainly, statements made in righteous anger are more understandable/ forgivable, but that doesn’t make them faultless or blameless. Bigotry doesn’t stop being bigotry just because someone else started it. And the fact that that’s where her “quick wit” took her when she needed to “clap back” says some things, none of them good.
But all of this sort of misses the point anyway. The bigger issue is how quickly “progressives” moved to embrace and celebrate B6, endorsing not only the anger but the hurtful, bigoted way that anger was expressed. That’s a problem, and that’s what makes this a moment worth noting.
Against my better judgment, I’m going to engage here… I didn’t say it gets a pass. I said it was not optimal and in the moment, I was basically impressed that she could clap back that quickly. And while certainly her word choices were suboptimal, calling someone butch is, on the spectrum of homophobic slurs, pretty benign. Obviously, your perspective is your own. My perspective was borne of doing a master’s thesis on Black women in politics this past year, and the impact of white feminism.
You said, “I can’t fault her” and are “impressed” by her “quick wit”. That sounds like “a pass” to me (certainly much stronger language than merely “not optimal”). I’m not sure what your stance on implicit bias is, but if you subscribe to it, the fact that her “quick wit” immediately reaches for “butch bitch” sounds awfully homophobic/misogynistic to me. The whole point here is that if we are actually serious about reducing body shaming of women, we need to break the cycle wherein the first place we reach for negative language is to insult someone’s body and their gender expression.
Either way, your repeated reference to “white feminism” makes it seem that you feel Rep. Crockett’s race gives her more leeway in her form of response, and that you are against criticism of any words she chooses to use to express anger so long as you feel the anger is justified. I don’t subscribe to this notion of an oppression hierarchy: racism and misogyny are both bad, and using the latter to fight the former is a bad thing.
I don’t think it’s fair to quibble about whether “butch” is homophobic while taking for granted than a snark about fake eyelashes is clearly racially coded. If anything, the latter is more arguable. “Butch” deployed as an insult can pretty much only mean unfeminine, manly, etc. and is most often deployed to imply the target is a lesbian with the implication that that is a bad thing. Again, you say Crockett’s language is “not optimal” but you’re bending over backwards to excuse it.
Finally, you do note this but it’s the larger issue so it’s really where the focus lies: Rep. Crockett isn’t taking a line of “look I said something in anger, I’m not going to apologize for feeling insulted but I’m sorry that I used some language that caused collateral damage to other people”. She’s making money off a T-shirt line celebrating her insult, all six b-words in it. I don’t think that is defensible.
A witty response would have focused on what actually makes MTG a bad person (hint: it isn’t her body). You are right that comments on black women’s bodies are unacceptable. However, if you’re willing to criticize a white person for making body comments in poor taste then it applies to black people as well. We have to hold our leaders to a higher standard (remember when Michelle Obama said “we go high”?). Frankly if she had made the comment and moved on, it’d be whatever, but the merch grab and rah rah rah’ing from the twitterati of something we see as unacceptable coming from the right is just hypocrisy. If we have are going to have standards on how people behave then it can’t apply only to one group.
“We have to be willing to resist the temptation to dole out the same bullshit if we want to make the case that such bullshit will not stand.”
This is the only thing I want printed on merch right now. This is true for body conversations and every other negative thing on the internet right now.
I would also buy that t-shirt! <3
Sometimes people respond to disrespect in anger. Not trying to “send a message” or anything. Just expressing anger. This article feels like a white woman telling black people how to express their anger, and it’s gross to me. I get it but this can’t possibly be “the worst” body culture moment of the past year. I really enjoy your work and will continue to follow. But sometimes it seems like y’all won’t be happy until black women stfu in public.
Thank you for this. I’m incredibly frustrated and disappointed by this piece and will have to block and unsubscribe because this was not a place to take a “higher road.” I don’t think this exists when Greene was being not only deeply racist but extremely violent in her rhetoric towards Crockett. This was a violent, racist attack by a dangerous woman against someone at their place of work not a fucking “body culture”moment. Why do you expect a black woman to take the high road in the face of violence?
In general I am so bored the “high road” rhetoric. Again, I think it’s just code for shhh 🤐 let the bigotry happen in peace
Is there something about Rep. Crockett’s skin color that makes it impossible for her to express anger without resorting to homophobic body shaming? Because otherwise criticizing her choice of insults is not the same thing as telling her she needs to “STFU”, at all.
And it certainly doesn’t make it cool for thousands of people of all colors who were *not* in the heat of that moment to celebrate and monetize those insults. This has nothing to do with Rep. Crockett’s color and everything to do with her choice of targets.
This piece is spot on, and you proved Mikala’s point - way too many people are quick to excuse, even cheer on, hateful and harmful rhetoric as long as it’s from someone on their team.
Ok.
Respectfully, I think it’s a pretty big leap here to insinuate that this is saying Rep. Crockett should “STFU”. In fact, I would have loved to see her call out MTG for the racist ideology she spews. Heck, even if she had just called her a crusty ol’ asshole, it would have been better. And also I understand that in the heat of the moment we don’t always rise to the occasion, which Mikala did say similar, and we are all human so that’s okay. I don’t think Rep. Crockett needs to apologize for anything, but if things were reversed and MTG was making merch from her gross comment (wouldn’t put it past her), would that be cool in your book? This isn’t about being ultra-respectful in the heat of the moment, but after the heat dies down is when we can choose how to move forward and it seems a lot of people are like “body shaming is cool when my team does it” and at that point you lose the ability to get mad about people on the other side crossing the line.
It’s really racist to hold people to a lower moral standard due to their race.
I respect your vision for a better world, but respectfully, you don't get to tell someone how they should react to blatant racism and disrespect, nor do you get to criticize or condemn them for their reaction or response, especially when you do not have the same shared lived experiences. No one, especially not black women or WOC, should have to be under pressure to perform this idea of "love and light" which is really a manipulative way of getting people to minimize and downplay the ways they've been mistreated and disrespected by others and to take responsibility for what isn't theirs. Her reaction or response isn't the problem or hinderance for a better world, the system that enabled and encouraged that white woman to exhibit her racism without shame, is. This post feels like you didn't read the room and that's unfortunate.
Wait so homophobia is ok when black people do it?
I get what you’re saying, but turning it into merch shows a lack of humility. None of us are ever at our best in the heat of the moment, but it’s what we do after that defines our character. Our leaders should be held to a higher standard. I think Rep. Crockett is awesome in many ways, but it was disappointing to see her run with the B6 thing.
Consider this fact: Merch wouldn't have been made had racism not been projected and exhibited. Again, just like the author of this post, your opinion on what black women and woc should or should not do in a matter such as this, is irrelevant, Kayleigh.
When I watched this altercation, I cringed with disappointment that Rep. Crocket stooped to Greene’s level, & insulted women’s bodies everywhere in the process. Greene is a low-life but insulting women’s body type wasn’t the direction to go. I think Rep. Crockett is a bad ass but there had to be a better response. Yet I totally get that in the heat of the moment it was a gut response.
Man, the comments here are depressing and really show how necessary this piece was. Whether “butch” is an acceptable insult shouldn’t depend on your skin color or whether you’re angry. Most slurs are deployed in anger - doesn’t make them okay!
And even if we’re willing to offer grace and forgiveness to statements made in the angry heat of the moment - what’s the excuse for *turning them into a merchandise line*!?
YES. YES. YES. Could not agree more! Debate the ideas and get angry if you have to, but stooping to the level of personal insult doesn’t look good on anyone.
thank you! the B6 comment made me uncomfortable but i hadn’t heard anyone critique it yet- it made me feel a little insane
BOOM! THIS.
Women are their own worst enemies. Regardless of political affiliation, it happens in the workplace and all other sectors. Why can't we just be kind to each other and accept people for who they are? It's not that hard.
so important
So could I please have a response Rep. Crockett could have used verbatim in that situation? Please bear in mind it needs to have identical levels of offense and aggression. Thank you.
Mikala’s work is aimed at creating positive change in the world, and it starts with each of us looking deeply into our own hearts and minds. Responding to offensive aggression with precisely equal offensive aggression is not the most productive (or even efficient) course of action if this is your goal.