The Toxicity of Fletcher’s Latest Release: “Becky’s So Hot”

Fletcher dropped a bombshell of a single on July 20, 2022. It’s titled “Becky’s So Hot,” and comes from her upcoming album, Girl Of My Dreams, being released on September 16th of this year. We already got the track, “Her Body Is Bible,” a few weeks ago — an absolute Sapphic love anthem. We just can’t say the same about “Becky’s So Hot,” and here’s why.

Fletcher has written plenty of songs about her breakup with ex girlfriend, YouTuber Shannon Beveridge, and this is a continuation of that theme but with a twist. Becky Missal is Shannon Beveridge’s new girlfriend and the woman behind the name drop in “Becky’s So Hot.”

The song starts out with a grieving Fletcher stalking her ex’s new girlfriend’s social media (innocent enough; we’ve all been there.) But the energy starts to shift as Fletcher sings, “Fine, okay, I’ll say, I went and stalked her/ And I don’t really blame you ’cause / Damn, the waist (The waist), the hips (The hips), the face, this is awkward.” Mmmm, okay now we’re straight up objectifying Becky — a whole woman now being reduced to a wet dream. This is mild enough, though, that it could pass as a crude compliment embedded into a deeper song. But let’s continue on.

The chorus :

“Are you in love like we were? / If I were you, I’d probably keep her / Makes me wanna hit her when I see her / ‘Cause Becky’s so hot in your vintage t-shirt / Ooh, she’s the one I should hate / But I wanna know how she tastes / I kinda wanna hit her when I see her / Becky’s so hot in your vintage t-shirt”

There’s been some speculation on the literal versus figurative meaning of hit in this context, as the lesbian community has been analyzing this song aggressively since Fletcher started dropping bits of lyrics several weeks ago. The face value take is that Fletcher is so jealous and pining for her ex, that she wants to physically attack Becky for being with Shannon. The more nuanced suggestion is that hit actually means that Fletcher’s saying she wants to have sex with Becky — which would follow along with the theme of this song. 

On one hand, we have Fletcher promoting violence towards the women our ex lovers move on to be with (ahem, what) and on the other hand we have Fletcher following in the footsteps of misogynistic men with no boundaries who think it’s okay to make any woman they want a sex object. And Fletcher, as an extremely popular musician with a huge cult following, is broadcasting that to a huge audience. 

This has led many women-loving-women to question, how does Becky feel about this? Some women are quick to push the old adage, “It’s a compliment! She should be flattered!” but we all know where we have heard that before: from gross dudes who think we should be grateful to them for yelling sexual obscenities at us in public. And here we have Fletcher also saying she wants to hit her (if we are speaking of an actual knuckle sandwich) and that could be really unnerving to hear as a public threat being celebrated and amplified by every Fletcher fan around the globe. Listen, I’m not saying everyone needs to wear kid gloves around adults and to make sure we never ever say anything that could potentially hurt anyone’s feelings. I am not a part of that movement. I am, however, wondering if this is just in very poor taste.

Becky hasn’t released a statement or offered any response to the controversy stirring. Fletcher’s ex, Shannon, did release a video on TikTok to address, “a little bit of a situation going on.” Some fans were suggesting the drama was all one big PR stunt, insinuating that Shannon and Becky were involved. Shannon put that notion to rest, specifically pointing out that, “this is not PR that I’m a part of. This is not a collaboration.” And here’s the poignant statement, “No one asked permission.”

Music is a catharsis — this is a fact I know and love. Hearing songwriters and musicians process their emotions and find an outlet and healing in their music is so enjoyable. But perhaps this is one song that should have stayed in the drafts? 

As a community, is this what we really want as representation? Exes who make public declarations about wanting to f*ck their ex girlfriend’s new girlfriend. And it being so cringeworthy that her current girlfriend, your ex, has to take to social media to say, “Hey, she did not consent to being publically sexually exploited.” And yes, I did call it exploitation because Fletcher is using Becky’s attractiveness, and talking about her in a solely sexual way, to sell a song and an album. 

Celebrating this behavior and giving Fletcher a pass just because she’s a celebrity who herself is lusted over just isn’t it. Are we trying to follow in heteronormative footsteps and dish out abuses against ex-lovers and pretend that it’s cool to do so? Power move it may be, but it’s a power move in a very disproportionate dynamic. Becky has no power in this situation and Fletcher has all of it. And she took that and ran with it. It’s giving toxic.

We don’t live in an ideal world. Hurt people are hurting people and dysfunction and reactive behavior runs rampant. I would still like to think that there is a certain level of respect that women owe other women, especially within the women-loving-women community. I’m disappointed to see how easy it is for a lesbian to throw another woman under the bus who hasn’t harmed her in any way — she just had the seeming misfortune of being the ex-girlfriend’s new girlfriend. It’s unhealed behavior, and that’s a permissible part of the healing process, but it’s not anything to glorify or broadcast. Fletcher, babe, we can do better.

The post The Toxicity of Fletcher’s Latest Release: “Becky’s So Hot” appeared first on AfterEllen.

Read the full article here