{"id":17277,"date":"2019-03-06T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=17277"},"modified":"2019-03-27T15:25:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T22:25:07","slug":"nicole-arbour-needs-to-learn-the-difference-between-satire-and-stupidity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2019\/03\/06\/nicole-arbour-needs-to-learn-the-difference-between-satire-and-stupidity\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Nicole Arbour needs to learn the difference between satire and stupidity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You might recognize Nicole Arbour\u2019s name from the viral 2015 YouTube video \u201cDear Fat People,\u201d or one of her countless other filmed rants, such as \u201cDear Black People,\u201d \u201cDear Feminists,\u201d \u201cDear Sluts,\u201d \u201cDear Refugees,\u201d or myriad other distasteful videos created by the Canadian comic and YouTube star. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just when we thought that she couldn\u2019t go any further, the former cheerleader and self-proclaimed \u201cmotivational creative powerhouse\u201d has got the public fuming again with her parody of \u201cThis Is America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This story originally appeared in our March 6, 2016 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with the original, \u201cThis Is America\u201d was released in May 2018 by Black rapper Childish Gambino. Gambino\u2019s lyrics are jam-packed with symbolism and, coupled with the song\u2019s critically acclaimed music video, have earned Gambino 13 awards, including a Grammy Award for Song of the Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arbour\u2019s classless adaptation, \u201cThis Is America: Women\u2019s Edit,\u201d is disjointed at best. In the opening scene of the parody, Arbour puts on lipstick in place of Gambino lighting a cigarette. Arbour replaces the scene of a man with a bag over his head being shot with a breastfeeding woman being taken out of the room. Incoherency is peppered throughout the song with muddled lyrics such as \u201cThis is America\/got rape in my area,\u201d \u201cI wear Fendi\/I\u2019m so sexy,\u201d and \u201cI gotta give up my dreams\/… rather be the Taliban.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, Arbour thought it was a great idea to translate the immensely layered song and music video to an incoherent parody that profits off of Gambino\u2019s concept and art. Instead of a thoughtful portrait of issues such as gun violence, police brutality, mass shootings, and America\u2019s deep-rooted discrimination toward Black people, Arbour\u2019s video equates these pressing tragedies to the \u201cchallenges\u201d which face white, cisgender, able-bodied, thin, and, ultimately, extremely privileged women living in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have pointed out that while the execution of the video may be easily misconstrued, Arbour\u2019s objective is to bring attention to the sexist issues facing American women. While this goal may seem innocent in nature, it\u2019s clear from the moment you press play that Arbour\u2019s version of the video and song is nothing more than an attempt to profit the hell off of Gambino\u2019s success and appropriate the issues that the original song explores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This video is hardly an attempt at fighting for equality: instead of dancing with children, as in Gambino\u2019s video, Arbour dances with thin, promiscuously dressed women who also mainly just happen to be white. What kind of female empowerment is this supposed to be representing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arbour\u2019s response to the backlash from the video is unsurprisingly similar to her reaction when she was called out for claiming that \u201cthey [fat people] smell like sausages\u201d during the \u201cDear Fat People\u201d controversy four years ago. She claimed that it\u2019s \u201cfunny\u201d to her that some people couldn\u2019t understand that the video was clearly<\/em> satire, something that only \u201csmart\/spiritual\/conscious people\u201d will get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s interesting how satire is a literary device taught to us all in grade school, yet college-graduate Arbour can\u2019t seem to figure out the difference between being satirical and being just plain short-sighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arbour has apologized for \u201cThis Is America: Women\u2019s Edit\u201d and claimed that she understood why some people were upset, but said that her intent was always to \u201chonour the spirit\u201d of Gambino\u2019s original. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This public apology, however, came after she posted the since-deleted responses to comments in which she complained about \u201c[B]lack women tears everywhere\u201d and that she is \u201csick of people mad at slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing is for certain: this is not Nicole Arbour\u2019s first controversy, and until she can learn the difference between satire and stupidity, it will not be her last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might recognize Nicole Arbour\u2019s name from the viral 2015 YouTube video \u201cDear Fat People,\u201d or one of her countless other filmed rants, such as \u201cDear Black People,\u201d \u201cDear Feminists,\u201d \u201cDear Sluts,\u201d \u201cDear Refugees,\u201d or myriad other distasteful videos created by the Canadian comic and YouTube star.  Just when we thought that she couldn\u2019t go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-march-6-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17491,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17277\/revisions\/17491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}