Shirley Manson is wrong: Kanye's Grammy rant was an act of brave solidarity
When West steals the stage it isn’t the voice of a lone attention-seeker. It’s part of a collective howl, rooted in a very real inequality
I have a lot of time for Shirley Manson. She’s brassy with brains, and isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. I enjoy her commitment to feminism, and her hella cute best-friendship with Brody Dalle, who expertly describes Manson as “a cupcake with a razor blade in it”. But sometimes, her ire is woefully misplaced – and the recent open letter published this week proved to be one of those occasions.
Taking
to her Facebook page, the Garbage frontwoman criticised Kanye West’s recent stage invasion during Beck’s Grammy acceptance speech, claiming that the album of the year trophy should have gone to Beyoncé. In her letter, Manson accuses West of being “small and petty and spoilt”, of “making a mockery of all musicians and music from every genre, including your own.”
Woah there. Why so mad, Shirley? West stans hard for Beyoncé – this is an established fact. And he suffers for this fraternal love. It’s a fealty that turned him into something of a cultural punchline – a fallacy
Heben Nigatu
eloquently debunked in 2013.
West’s admiration for Beyoncé is fierce and beautiful. But it’s a bittersweet pleasure to witness these displays of mad love. When West goes off in defence of Beyoncé, it’s not someone throwing a fit because his favourite artist missed out, someone who needs to “grow up” or “stop throwing his toys around”. It’s a grown-ass black man fearlessly articulating his support for a female peer. If West is protective of Beyoncé, it’s entirely understandable: like himself, her art and politics are held up to
constant scrutiny
– from MRA’s and feminists alike (Annie Lennox, I’m looking at you girl).
Manson’s respect for the formalities of award-show pageantry – and offence over Kanye’s lack thereof – is surprising coming from a frontwoman who celebrates rule-breaking. Maybe the disruption was a spontaneous act on his part; I prefer to believe it was strategic. Seizing a platform like that was a power move designed to shake us out of our passive viewing – and it worked. Politeness only goes so far when you’re engaged in the thankless, high-risk work of destabilising established power structures – just ask Pussy Riot.
Manson’s letter may be tempered with praise – she observes West’s “remarkable talents” and Beyoncé’s having-it-all-ness. But it does raise the question: who is she really defending here? The event may have been somewhat embarrassing for Beck,
but he endured it with humour and good grace. It won’t hurt his bank balance, or his career – he’s just won a Grammy! And if he wasn’t upset at having his thunder stolen, why should we be?
The rage West articulates when he steals the stage to challenge award-show monoculture and whitewashing isn’t the voice of a lone, narcissistic, attention-seeker (though even if it were, that wouldn’t be unusual – music is full of these types). It’s part of a collective howl, rooted in a very real and historic inequality. It’s
why J Cole calls out Iggy Azalea and Justin Timberlake on the excellent Forest Hills Drive; it’s why Azalea Banks weeps over “cultural smudging” on live radio; it’s why Macklemore publicly apologised to
Kendrick Lamar
last year after cleaning up at (surprise, surprise) the Grammys, admitting plainly that Lamar had been “robbed”. Hard data backs up what black artists have been articulating for years: white men run this game. When Manson tells West to pipe down, she dismisses that howl, and when
she claims
that Beyoncé “doesn’t need you fighting any battles on her account” I think she could benefit from perusing the #solidarityisforwhitewomen hashtag.
What viewers saw on Sunday was not a man-boy throwing a tantrum, but rather a radical auteur – a “black skinhead” articulating solidarity and feminism in a space that has historically crowned white guys. And what some folk feel when they witness these disruptions – taking to the internet to indulge their outrage – is the prickly, unacknowledged power of productive discomfort.