“Part of our strategy from the beginning has been to engage with people who have questions, and answer those questions,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on September 16th, three days after what can now be referred to as “Ballgate.” More specifically, Nicki Minaj’s little Twitter anecdote about how her cousin’s friend’s balls swelled up and he became impotent after getting vaccinated (the scene of the incident being, per Nicki, in Trinidad, where she was born). It’s the type of lore that would cause even the non-vaccine hesitant to think twice about getting it. Especially those who are fans of Minaj’s (whether casual or full-tilt Barbz). As the White House proceeded to get involved, more controversy swirled when Minaj said she was invited there for a sit-down, whereas Psaki clarified the offer was a call to resolve some of her questions.
The speculation surrounding why Minaj would cast doubt on something more life-saving than life-threatening has ranged everywhere from sheer ignorance to Minaj attempting some kind of publicity stunt. Hence, an entire team weighing in on Slate with the assessment, “This has worked with her in the past, right—are there other examples we can think of, of times when she has gotten particularly…uh…viral on social media while things are going poorly in other areas?”
That “conspiracy theory” would check out based on how Minaj, with hindsight, appeared to prime the Barbz for a defense of her comment on the 13th on, of all days, September 11th. That was when Nicki tweeted, “I love the barbz,” “I speak to the barbz only. My beautiful fanbase. We don’t talk to the help” and “Anyone who doesn’t like the barbz is #Ugly.” In which case, there are definitely quite a few ugly people circulating around the U.S. right now based on the backlash caused by her “This one time at band camp”-esque intonation. But for as much of an uproar against Nicki as it invoked, it also sparked a fervent movement in her defense, with the hashtag #ISTANDWITHNICKI trending on September 16th, showing more than thirty thousand users implementing it. While this is somewhat horrifying in terms of how a celebrity can mobilize their legion of devoted fans to support them no matter what (Woody Allen, unfortunately for him, only has a very specific handful of fans), it’s also vaguely “encouraging” to see people being willing to separate the artist’s views and personal life from their work when said artist is a woman. For, in the past, this luxury has generally only been granted to white men (see: Hemingway, Picasso, et al.). That script has been flipped in the post-#MeToo era, with the tarring and feathering of sexually predatory male “artists” being a given once the news breaks. This as opposed to the former practice of dredging up the old chestnut about how we must separate the person from their “artistic” output (though not that much of anything is artistic anymore).
With her location on Twitter listed as, “Always on your mind,” that very much seemed to be the case the past week, and will likely continue to be as Minaj persists in defending her actions as a question of free speech and healthy curiosity about what we’re all so “willingly” (despite the immense hesitancy even now) putting into our bodies. Leading one to think, Bish please, like you haven’t put more toxic cum in your mouth than whatever’s in this vaccine.
And while, sure, that’s a “fine” argument, it’s a bit more complicated when a public personality involves themselves in such an already delicate matter. One that prompted the Health Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Terrence Deyalsingh, to shoot down Minaj’s claims at a press conference held specifically to acknowledge what should have been an off-handed and ignored comment on the internet. Instead Deyalsingh stated, “One of the reasons we could not respond yesterday in real-time to Miss Minaj is that we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false. Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim.” He says as far as the government there knows, “There have been no such reported either side effect or adverse event.” He adds, “As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effects or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad…none that we know of anywhere else in the world.”
Minaj, therefore—as if everyone didn’t know already—wasted the valuable time and resources of several governments in addressing this “matter” (nothing more than clucking hen hearsay). This included not only the U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago governments, but even the UK one, with Boris Johnson and Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, each commenting on her undercutting encouragement of misinformation. Minaj, clever enough to not reveal herself as entirely anti-vax, was sure to state that she would probably end up getting it since it’s required for going on tour (lest she spray all of her precious Barbz in the mug with infected saliva). The fact that she wasn’t yet vaccinated was revealed when she explained that was a primary reason she didn’t go to the Met Ball—she didn’t want to “waste” getting vaccinated for that event when, apparently, she still needed more time to “pray on it.”
If it wasn’t bristling enough to learn she was dragging her feet about being jabbed (even though she herself had already suffered from coronavirus), she didn’t stop there in assuring the impending pitchforks and torches. For then came the tweet heard ‘round the world: “My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.” Well, that’s a bit fuckin’ rich coming from a woman who is currently bullying the rape victim of her husband into silence. And of course, Joe Biden’s recent rash of mandates is being constituted as such a form of “bullying.” Falling under the argument that a government shouldn’t be allowed to make legislation regarding a citizen’s body. In which case, why the fuck isn’t abortion the free-for-all it should be? Perhaps because 1) stifling a woman’s choices with regard to her body has always been acceptable in society and 2) the government wants as many pregnancies as possible to be carried out so that more capitalist soldiers will be generated. Something Minaj has been happy to oblige.
Soon, everyone—ranging from the left to the right—was weighing in, with the likes of Tucker Carlson seizing upon the moment as the crumb of “coolness” he’d been searching for to validate the Republican platform of how vaccines should be a choice as part of the testament to “American freedom.” Minaj engaged with Carlson, then inciting furor over her talking to a white supremacist. She then used the example of Joy-Ann Reid, a Black liberal, being an “Uncle Tomiana” (not going to lie, that’s a pretty good one) for being the first to lash out at her, a fellow Black woman. Which, in Nicki’s mind, proves that just because someone “looks like you” doesn’t mean they’re an ally. All of this, naturally, serves to sow the seeds of discord among the Black community, already disproportionately affected by coronavirus and likely to be all the more so if they hear about hesitancy from someone like Minaj.
As for people standing by her regardless, fans tweeted words of praise like, “I love how Nicki is having this dialogue utilizing her platform. She’s showing people it’s safe & ok to have these conversations, to share our questions, experiences, concerns, reassurances, differences, etc. We can all benefit from this discussion. Stay safe y’all.” What is the discussion though? “Let’s piss away more valuable time allowing the disease to mutate and propagate while we wonder what the vaccine ‘could’ do.” And again, where is all this concern about what people are putting into their bodies on the regular, when the vast majority of shit bought at any U.S. grocery store or fast food chain is utter bile? The citizens of this country seem only to concern themselves with their health arbitrarily. And, of course, because it isn’t politically correct to do so, the topic of how obesity—specifically American obesity—plays into vulnerability to the disease is not being talked about enough or used as a potential means to promote healthier lifestyle choices.
Sustaining her 22.7 million followers in the wake of the incident, Minaj persevered in turning her statement into a matter of freedom of expression by going live on her Instagram to say, “It’s disgusting that a person can’t speak about just questions or thoughts they’re having about something that they’re gonna have to put in their body.” Um, maybe don’t speak on it as a person with mad clout and influence until one actually has consulted with the proper sources and then come out and talk about swollen balls with authority. To compound the situation, she then made the entire incident about how celebrities are victims (despite the millions of dollars of profit they make off their fans, as well as corporate partnerships that actually serve to kill off their fans in the long run when the environment, too, is killed), declaring, “I see why a lot of celebrities keep themselves bubbled up.” Maybe that’s the part of the live Insta that got Lindsay Lohan to hit the heart button.
This all coincided during the same week Pope Francis expressed that he couldn’t understand why vaccines, which have been historically embraced, are suddenly becoming a political issue. But being that Pope Francis is another old white man sanctioning its use, that still doesn’t seem to come across as enough reason for Minaj to trust in its safety. Even so, the pope announced, “It is a bit strange because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines. As children [we were vaccinated] for measles, polio. All the children were vaccinated and no one said anything.” Perhaps the shift in the current divided public perspective is indicated right in the part of the statement where he mentions it was as children that people were given vaccines in the past. One of many aspects about the vaccine against COVID that differentiates it from others is that it still has yet to be approved for children under twelve. What’s more, in the past that Pope Francis is talking about there was much more faith (no pun intended) in government institutions, particularly in America, where the population lapped up all propaganda of the red, white and blue. And plus, Elvis fucking Presley went on TV to get the polio shot. It doesn’t get much more ironclad than that in terms of celebrity testimony. Which brings us to the main point about why Minaj has received so much flack for her casual anecdote: celebrities have power. And when that power is used to turn a fan base—particularly a Black fan base—off of something that means the difference between life and death, well, it’s pretty fucked up.
Dr. Fauci said as much in the euphemistic proclamation, “There’s no evidence that it [i.e. ball swelling] happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen. There’s a lot of misinformation, mostly on social media. And the only way we know to counter mis- and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information, and to essentially debunk these kinds of claims, which may be innocent on her part.” Delivering his coup de grâce on the entire week-long affair, Fauci concluded, “I’m not blaming her for anything. But she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis.”
Nonetheless, Minaj is clearly trying to turn her vaccine commentary into a conversation about how we’re all being told not to question anything (which always goes without saying anyway). And that just isn’t the look for attempting to turn this “dialogue” around. Whatever happens next, though, we can all rest assured Minaj will be including this incident in a song. One only hopes her fans will still be around (instead of dead after not taking the vaccine ‘cause they wanted to pray on it and not feel bullied) to consume her forthcoming product.
