During the course of last week, Rita Ora, Cardi B, Chalie XCX, and Bebe Rexha were promoting their new single together called ‘Girls’. It was highly anticipated by all of their fans, many thinking it would become an LGBTQ+ anthem. After the song dropped on Friday, it seemed the reception they expected did not materialise, and people took to Twitter to offer their two cents on the single.
LGBT+ community: express your sexuality!! It’s what we fought for! Be true to who you are ??
Rita Ora: Releases #girls about her own experience
LGBTQIDKFJ: no not like that
— Brianna Nancy (@bndaisies) May 14, 2018
"Girls by Rita Ora, Cardi B, Bebe Rexha & Charlie XCX is a song with a nice basic beats but VERY offensive for the lgbt community : a thread. pic.twitter.com/GmAL7adfWm
— n (@duartistic) May 13, 2018
What the LGBTQ+ community had to say on Twitter was mainly how the song was doing more harm to the perception of the community than good. Many believe the song to be reinforcing the misleading idea that Girls tend to get drunk and kiss each other on a night out for fun after weed and wine, which has been a harmful idea to many people struggling to have their sexuality taken seriously, along with having the Lesbian community overly sexualised in the media and marginalising the idea of Lesbian relationships.
The singers were hit with personal comments online, including people stating that they are disappointed in Rita Ora, and how she has let down the LGBT community, as she herself is openly bisexual. Twitter then began bringing up how CardiB has made offensive comments towards the LGBT community, by using the word ‘tranny’, and defending her fiancé for using the word ‘queer’ in the song ‘Boss Life’ with YFN Lucci. After this incident Cardi B took to her social media to defend her Fiancé and asked for less arguing and more educating on the topic of LGBTQ+ and the vocabulary used.
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Hayley Kiyoko was one of the first to call out the singers for being disrespectful and ignorant to the LGBTQ+ community. Hayley has been known for her involvement in the LGBT community, and is hailed ‘Lesbian Jesus’ by many of her followers due to her support of the community and being open about her own sexuality. In her statement she explains the misconceptions that songs of this kind can cause, and the harm it does to people in the LGBT community:
Real talk ? pic.twitter.com/9EbZd5dYZq
— Hayley Kiyoko (@HayleyKiyoko) May 11, 2018
Rita Ora had so far stayed quiet on the issue with the lyrics of her song that was meant to be ‘a celebration of love’, up until last night when she posted to her social media:
— Rita Ora (@RitaOra) May 14, 2018
Although this is one of the few controversies Rita Ora has been involved in as of late, including the bashing she received for posting a picture with Conor McGregor with the caption ‘date night’, the song still managed to reach the Top 10 on iTunes this week. It seems Rita is trying to make her mark in the LGBT community, along with the fellow artists on the track, but has slipped up and instead managed to do the complete opposite, and offend the entire community. This might take a good bit of grovelling to reconcile.
