Amber Rose: A Slut in the Media, A Third-Wave Feminist in Reality

When asked about Amber Rose, there are primarily two different responses to the question. One is, “Who the hell is Amber Rose?” The other is, “Oh, that hoe who rose celebrity status by sleeping with rap superstars? Who’s she with now?”

However, there is much more to Rose than is perceived through gossip media and hate she has received via Twitter and Instagram. The model, actress and fashion designer added one more title to her impressive résumé, and that is “women’s activist.” That’s right: the once-stripper, Kanye West-dating, ex-spouse of Wiz Khalifa could be considered one of the important voices in third-wave feminism today.

So how does a woman known more for twerking than leading a feminist movement have such an important role in third-wave feminism?

Well for one, there are a lot of parallels drawn between what Rose stands for and the opinions of third-wave feminists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards. Both Baumgardner and Richards strongly believe that embracing the “girlie” self is an affirmation of the progress feminists have made, which is written about in their book titled Manifesta.

In the chapter titled Feminism and Femininity, they go on to talk about the huge differences between second-wave and third-wave feminism. Second-wavers fought for women to have the ability to do masculine things, rather than embracing the stereotypical motifs of “girliness”.

Wearing pink, painting nails, strutting in high-heels and sporting sexy, tight dresses would make a second-wave feminist shudder. However, third-wavers see this as a powerful, independent identity of what being a woman is.

“Girlie says we aren’t broken, that our desires aren’t simply booby traps set by the patriarchy. Girlie encompasses the tabooed symbols of women’s feminine enculturation… and says using them isn’t shorthand for ‘we’ve been duped.’” (60)

Amber Rose is known for wearing promiscuous clothing and gets “slut shamed” all the time in the media.

During an interview with Kanye West on Power 105.1 radio, West said he had to take “30 showers” after dating rose. The shaming continued after West featured a naked wax figurine of Amber Rose in his music video “Famous” without her consent.

Rose and her mother Dorothy during the Slut Walk in L.A.

Instead of letting these negative things get to her, Rose has used the criticism against her sexual demeanor to lead third-wave feminist movements. One of the points that Baumgardner and Richards make is that girlie culture is “a rebellion against the false impression that since women don’t want to be sexually exploited, they don’t want to be sexual” (62).

Rose demonstrated this statement by organizing a Slut Walk in downtown Los Angeles during October of last year. The walk had 15,000 supporters who wore revealing attire in order to make a point that wearing sexy clothing shouldn’t mean a girl is “asking for it.” Instead, it should empower them and make them feel confident in who they are.  

Another way Amber Rose has spoken out against slut shaming is through wearing clothing that speaks a message. One example of this is when her and female rapper Blac Chyna wore anti-slut shaming attire to the 2015 VMAs. Words like slut, stripper and whore were plastered to the clothing to show Rose has been called awful things in the past that most women have probably faced at some point in their lives. Rose was using this display as a tactic to let naysayers know that women are powerful and aren’t afraid to show their beauty (which may be flaunting their bodies) even if they receive flack for it. 

One piece of dialogue that I pulled from Baumgardner and Richards’s reading, which I found interesting, was when they said feeling girlie is “a feeling of independence, irreverent and free from judgment” (61). We see in shows like Sex and the City in which women are smart and powerful, while also embracing sex and not being asexual about things like some second-wave feminists would be.

One of the examples of Amber Rose displaying this idea of feeling free from judgment was a video she put together on the website Funny or Die. The skit involves Rose leaving a house in the morning after a one-night stand. Instead of being embarrassed or ashamed that she had hooked up with someone she might have just met, she embraces it.

 This includes the milkman from the video matter-of-factly saying, “Say, it looks to me like you had sex last night,” with Rose responding with a nonchalant “I sure did!”

There is a double standard when it comes to a man proudly say he has had sex with multiple people when for women, it could be considered taboo. Rose uses this video to tackle this double standard and let women know it’s empowering to feel independent and sexy.

According to Baumgardner and Richards, third-wave feminism is not seen as a specific set of assumptions or theories, but as an evolution of feminism built on previous generations (63). Because of the opportunities second-wave feminists opened up for the future generation of feminists, the approach to current issues is tackled much differently. I feel like Amber Rose is a solid representation of this new evolution of feminist third-wave culture.

Always seen as a sex symbol, known as an exotic dancer in the past and receiving scrutiny over social media for being a whore is a tough mountain to climb over. Rose is a different person than she was in the past, but is still considered the poster-girl for sex in the music industry. In the girly culture that third-wave feminists live by, embracing the things that make you a girl/woman is what it’s all about. Rose is doing exactly this, and even though it may appear unorthodox or inappropriate to younger generations, it is empowering to others.  

In terms of that tough mountain again: Amber Rose hasn’t just climbed it, but she’s conquered it.


References: 

          Bahadur, Nina. "11 Times Amber Rose was Unapologetically Feminist." Huffington Post. N.p., 20 Oct. 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

          Baumgardner, Jennifer and Amy Richards. Feminism and Femininity: Or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Thong. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

          Funny or Die. "Walk of No Shame With Amber Rose." YouTube. YouTube, 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

          Melas, Chloe. "Amber Rose: 'I Take a Lot of Punches for Being a Feminist.'" CNN. N.p., 29 Aug. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.