Amber Rose & Her Fight To Rid Slut-Shaming, Do We Agree?
Amber Rose Slammed w/ Defamation Lawsuit + Slut-Shaming Against Women, Is There A Double Standard?
There has been a lot of buzz lately on Amber Rose. Some say that she’s part of a recent wave of women being ‘famous for doing nothing’, and others seem to admire her (and even believe that Azealia Banks’ recent nudes were inspired by Rose. We’ll leave it to you to find those yourself). Today, we are here to discuss someone with intimate ties to Rose, and we’re not talking about 21 Savage. No, today, we get to discuss a figure very rarely mentioned, Katie Wimbush-Polk.
You probably know this already, but Katie Wimbush-Polk is Wiz Khalifa’s mother. The streets are saying that she recently filed a defamation suit against Rose for $50,000, claiming that Rose damaged her rep as a mom. The situation stems from a phone call that Rose allegedly made to Polk’s account on June 19th, during which Danesa Lectic answered and Rose reportedly started screaming curses and accusations. Lectic, a friend and former employee of Polk, listened to Rose accuse Polk of allowing her daughter to die from lymphoma complications. As you can imagine, this enraged Wiz’s mom and the subsequent lawsuit followed. Ironically, the incident reportedly traces back to an accusation of Wiz’s mother calling child protective services on her ex-daughter-in-law, allegedly reporting on Rose’s mothering. Polk later denied making any such reports, but, by now, that probably doesn’t matter as the situation is now full-blown.
This issue of mothering and ‘being a good mother’ comes at an interesting time, indeed, since the Muva recently aired her thoughts on how women need to be viewed, as well as respected. More specifically, on how the term ‘hoe’ should be used. She made the comments during a recent Everyday Struggle interview, voicing a perspective that some would describe as ‘dangerous’, seeing as she wants to rid the world of the word ‘slut’ or ‘hoe’ in having any definitive meaning. The same critics may decry the attempts at neutralizing the ‘n-word’ since all terms carry stigmas and meanings.
The recent events and interview discussion have left a lot of unanswered questions. For instance, what do you really define the term ‘hoe’ as? Despite the fact that a double standard exists with regards to how men and women are perceived, is the answer to remove all standards and deny the existence of ‘hoe-ish’ individuals? Are Rose’s opinions really ’empowering’ women? Does ‘hoe behavior’ exist? If so, what defines it? More importantly, how do these questions relate to the image that we have of mothers?
Check highlights of Amber Rose’s Everyday Struggle interview below, and leave your thoughts!
On how and why she started her own Slut Walk:
“I was with one guy, and it was always like, ‘She’s a slut, she’s a hoe, she’s this, she’s that.’ I was with that guy for almost two years. I was single for like a year, and I met my ex-husband, at the time, and… ‘She’s a slut, she’s a hoe, she’s this, she’s that.’ I was like, ‘This is complete fucking bullshit!’ It’s just slut walk just completely pertained to my life, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna use my platform to have my own slut walk because I know I’m not the only person that’s going through this, and that’s what I did.”
On the definition of a ‘hoe’:
Joe Budden: “When do the actual women, themselves, start to label each other based on their behavior? So, we’re saying, now, a hoe and a slut, those terminologies don’t exist? Those are words. Those terminologies don’t exist, those are words that just exist because people are uncomfortable with–”
Amber Rose: “It’s the same way as black people use the n-word as a positive word now. Right? It’s still very controversial. Some people don’t like that, right? But, it makes black people feel comfortable that they took the word back, and that’s it.”
On de-stigmatization of the term ‘hoe’:
Nadesca: “Do you see a time soon when these words will be destigmatized?”
Amber Rose: “I mean, listen, it’s just bringing awareness to it when I go speak at colleges…”
