divapic1

The homie Amanda Diva has been in the hot seat this week and sent this letter over to address said hot seat and the folks who turned up the burners. I am running out to an appt but I wanted to get this up before I did, because this week, the debate on sexism and censorship lead to some terse twitter moments, a biting complex poll, and some interesting thoughts on both ends. So I’ll check back in a few.

Amanda writes:

Well I pretty much got molly wopped by the internet this week and labeled “emo,” “emotional,” “trifelin,” essentially, “a pussy punk bitch” for speaking out against the ill treatment of women in regards to a blog post on the popular “Nahright.com.” I thought it would dissolve but after day two of being internet murked I decided to take a shot at clearing up a couple things.

When I first read the comments on Nahright.com I wrongly read them as being written to myself. Normally, were they simply referring to my music, I would’ve said “fuck em” and kept it moving. But there was something so personal, at first, about the sexually explicit nature of the comments that they really hit me. In reading more of the foulness I then took it as an affront to women in the game in general. Real talk we put up with SO much bs from dudes simply based on “I mean, niggas will be niggas. You know the game” But fuck that! It doesn’t have to be that way and the disrespect should NOT be accepted…..

Viewing the comments like “I wanna f— her raw in her c—,” and “She looks like she takes n– in her face,” (ewww nasty) etc. and the blogger’s indifference of them honestly made me feel like, “dag here we go with another forum for dudes to objectify and completely demean us.” It wasn’t about me wanting respect as an emcee but more so me wanting at least the minimum as a woman. So, I approached (not attacked as some have been insinuating) Eskay because I felt a “way” about his handling of it. In the end however, felt like he understood my point and have no ill feelings toward him whatsoever. There was no “twitter fight” of any sort. What I look like fighting on twitter?! Gimme SOME credit ya’ll, lol.

Then the epiphany. A friend of mine pulled a Mobb Deep and dropped a gem on me. He said, “Listen Deev, the commenters aren’t talking to you or women. They’re talking amongst themselves about their IMAGE of you and other women. They see you and other chicks and they see a target to get their frustration off on, their jokes off of, etc. They think hey, “They put themselves out there so we’re entitled to get at em! They don’t care! They’re off in the fun land of showbiz!”(<–he really said that word, haha)

You know what though? They’re right! Normally I wouldn’t care. Normally I would’ve laughed and went right back to recording but I admittedly stepped off my square for a second and forgot these three facts:

1. The blogs don’t love you but I nonetheless love the blogs and do appreciate their support of independent artists and personalities like myself.

2. The commenters on a lot of blogs are just bored, angry, resentful, etc and wallow in it with each other at the expense of whoever’s face is posted, regardless of how nice, talented, smart they are because for some reason it makes them feel better.

3. Artists, especially broads, ain’t allowed to EVER have a sensitive moment without being considered “pansies” and getting written about! (Ask Kanye! LOL)

4. Not all bloggers/tastemakers feel it is their job to influence their readers. They call it censorship. I call it responsibility. Tom’ay’to, tom’ah’to.

Of all those facts though, there is one thing that I, every other woman in this biz, and most importantly all bloggers and commenters know and must never forget:

Them same folks talking all that mess would NEVER say a word of that to our faces…let alone get a chance to nut in em!!! HAHAHA!

So yo, let’s move on and have a great ‘09 folks! I hope you enjoy Q-tip & I’s video for “ManWomanBoogie” droppin tomorrow and Tuesday finally begins the Obama era:) :) Woohoo!!!

Deev