Grace Elizabeth Hackney | Staff Writer
With the recent release of Drake’s tenth studio album, Certified Lover Boy, Drake has taken over the Billboard Hot 100 chart with nine of his songs in the top 10. There’s one song that got my attention, the song that holds No. 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts: Girls Want Girls ft. Lil Baby.
Songs like Girls Want Girls are harmful and emphasize how romantic relationships between women are not seen as valid relationships.
In Girls Want Girls, Drake says, “She said she a lesbian, girl me too.” Drake is not the first musical artist to fetishize same-sex relationships between women. Many popular songs have fetishized relationships relating to the broader LGBTQIA+ community.
In 2019, PnB Rock and Lil Skies released a song entitled, I Like Girls, where PnB Rock sings, “I like girls who like girls.” The song that launched Katy Perry’s career was I Kissed a Girl. Coi Leray says, “Couple bad bitches with me and they go both ways” in the song Ocean Prime.
Nicki Minaj even has multiple songs where she insinuates women-loving-women relationships even though she is straight. Why is this? Simple answer: misogyny.
Part of what encompasses the LGBTQIA+ movement is the freedom to enjoy your relationships without anyone else inserting themselves or their opinions into it. From what I’ve seen, LGBTQIA+ women do not have that freedom.
Instead, people fetishize women loving women because, I guess, it’s impossible for a woman to be happy in a relationship that does not involve a man.
Relationships between LGBTQ+ men are rarely fetishized this way. Most women do not constantly yearn for relationships with gay and, at times, bisexual men.
In our society, women are already objectified for every little thing and seen as objects.
This is reflected in the way lesbian relationships are often treated as if they are a show for everyone’s enjoyment. Drake’s new song just feeds the fire from which LGBTQIA+ women are trying to escape.
Girls Want Girls has prompted a TikTok trend of men stitching and duetting videos of lesbians with the song playing in the background. It’s an attempt to show that they are attracted to these women regardless of their sexuality. As if saying “I’m a lesbian” means “try harder to flirt with me.” It does not mean that, by the way.
Now let me make something clear: I’m not trying to take away Drake’s—or any musical artist’s—artistic license. This is not an attempt to cancel Drake. I’m not telling anyone to stop listening to Drake. I still like Drake’s new album. I understand free speech.
However, musical artists should be aware if they are spreading content that is harmful to marginalized groups. Truthfully, I do not think Drake knows the effects of the fetishization of lesbian relationships. I doubt he was purposefully trying to be harmful. That still does not mean he is free from accountability. This goes for his listeners as well because the goal is always education and awareness.
And to my men who pine after women in hopes of fulfilling some sort of fantasy: Stop.
The Hampton Script 