While a lot of colonial thinking still permeates within our uses of gossip, there are examples in our modern-day that echo the theoretical practices of queer chisme. Notably, Rina Sawayama’s “This Hell” is not only an empowering song that reclaims the threat religious fanatics spew at queer people, but the song itself is grounded in our sociocultural, political, and historical realities and celebrates heterogeneity. Sawayama (2023) begins the song by stating, “Saw a poster on the corner opposite the motel / Turns out, I’m going to hell if I keep on being myself” speaking on the current and historical threatens that queer people have faced for simply being queer. She immediately follows up by stating, “Don’t know what I did, but they seem pretty mad about it / God hates us? Alright then, buckle up, at dawn we’re riding” (Sawayama, 2023). In effort to disrupt the normalization of this treatment of queer people, she calls for a collective abandonment of this treatment and normalization in saying “at dawn we’re riding” to voice a resistance to this treatment (Sawayama, 2023). Sawayama uses “us” generally in effort to bring together the multitude of queer people (whether referring to gender, sexuality, etc.) to affirm their identities when cisheteronormative people and systems attempt to restrict their expression.
Sawayama’s use of gossip in this song being one that celebrates heterogeneity, builds a sense of community, and all while criticizing a bigger system that is at play in allowing this anti-queer rhetoric to be seen as normal. She reclaims this hateful, colonial rhetoric of restrictive gender expression and sexuality as she reframes “hell” as a place that where resistance and change is possible. She also denounces the colonial restrictions and portrayals that are set upon women as she states, “[f]uck what they did to Britney, to Lady Di’, and Whitney / Don’t know why we’re here, but might as well get down and dirty” (Sawayama, 2023). Hell being a place where gossip is utilized to communicate the insufficiencies of the current system that is alive today while celebrating our resistance to it, nonetheless. Sawayama thus reframes hell and the use of gossip in a manner that creates a safe space grounded in being resistant to cisheteronormative, oppressive thinking and challenges us (the listeners) to be active agents in our role as knowledge creators. She sets an example of utilizing gossip as a place to challenge ideologies that restrict us and build community among ourselves rather than oppress one another. Thus, this creates a decolonial use of gossip and an avenue for a decolonial realty in which gossip is used both as a space and a tool to challenge colonial thinking and create an inclusive decolonial reality for ourselves[i].
Even though gossip can arguably be seen as a practice that has been used to perpetuate colonial thinking, its use can be redirected by the theoretical framework we use when practicing gossiping. Rather than find comfort in this colonial uses of gossip in which it is used to restrict one another and perpetuate colonial thinking, it can be reshaped into a practice and a space to envision a heterogenous reality where all sorts of identities are embraced and celebrated. The reality of this safe space ultimately begins with our shift from passively utilizing gossip to utilizing it in an active way in which we acknowledge our existence within sociocultural, political, and historical realities when creating and transmitting information among one another. When we bring ourselves to be conscious of our roles as knowledge creators when we take part in gossip, we can then bring ourselves to be critical of what we say, how we say, and ultimately what ideologies we either affirm or challenge.
References
Sawayama, R. (2023). This Hell [Song]. On Hold the Girl (Bonus Edition) [Album]. Dirty Hit.
[i] Rina Sawayama’s music video for “This Hell” echoes this energy as well. I advise you to watch the music video to see what this decolonial, safe space could look like.
