Considering that men are all too eager to grasp at any means to reclaim the power they feel has been stripped away from them (which isn’t true as the U.S. president continues to sit like a giant unformed piece of dough on his throne) in the face of women being somewhat less afraid to speak out and say, “Uh, hey maybe don’t touch me or put your dick in me just because you feel like it,” it comes as no surprise that many with penises are glomming onto the notion of Cardi B as a “female Bill Cosby.” This comparison comes in the wake of a video of Cardi from three years ago resurfacing, during which she talks about taking men back to hotel rooms, drugging them and robbing them.
In addition to the Cosby joke, the hashtag #SurvivingCardiB on Twitter began to materialize in reference to the documentary about R. Kelly’s abused victims, called Surviving R. Kelly, and how his sexually demonic behavior somehow “parallels” what Cardi did in her pre-fame days to make ends meet. For starters, again, this was done before her fame, whereas Cosby and Kelly engaged in these horrendous activities precisely because of their fame and the power they felt emanating from it. While, of course, it would be a double standard to defend Cardi B when, had a man done the same thing in the current climate, he would be very openly maligned (though likely come to no legal consequence), it has to be stated that the eagerness with which men in particular have repurposed this information is all too telling. As though grasping at any reason they can to prove that women are just as if not more culpable of the same comportment for which men have been condemned in the twenty-first century.
To once more clarify the aspects of this scenario that vastly differ from this the “antics” of men like Cosby and Kelly, Cardi did not take men back to hotel rooms with designs on raping or sexually violating them. Her intent was solely to render them unconscious so as to take their money and run. Sort of like a lazy prostitute unwilling to fulfill the sexual end of a presumed bargain. Cardi’s acknowledgement of her behavior as both wrong and shameful is also something that vastly differs from how men act when they’re caught red-handed. Instead of copping to their depravity and apologizing, they deny, deny, deny, making insane claims like, “I’m fighting for my fucking life” in an attempt to make themselves seem like the victim.
Cardi, contrastly, in addition to apologizing by saying, “I made the choices that I did at that time because I had very limited options,” also goes on to note that, “The men I spoke about in my live [feed] were men that I dated, men that I was involve with, men that were conscious willing and aware.” That last little tidbit was, of course, left out of news headlines seeking to paint Cardi as a modern Joyce McKinney (who herself noted a man can’t be raped as it’s like shoving a marshmallow into a parking meter), some sort of female raping monster, when, in fact, as most women in pop culture have constantly iterated in works such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, “Material Girl” and “7 Rings,” a female’s interest typically lies in the financial. Not in the sexual. If monetary gain is a byproduct of putting out, so be it.
And sure, Cardi might not be the brightest bulb in the tanning bed from an intellectual standpoint (her decision to get back with Offset and her illustrious response to the government shutdown being just such an examples), but there can be no denying her street smarts, her sheer force of will to survive. That was what this tango with immorality was about–not about some sick need to assert her dominance over someone more helpless. And therein lies the fundamental difference between men and women when it comes to their motivations in committing a societally non-kosher act. That, or it’s coming from a place of revenge (see: I Spit on Your Grave, which Cardi might want to consider remaking when she’s done promoting Hustlers with fellow “Dinero”-loving Bronxian Jennifer Lopez).
