#aesthetics and not otherwise (i suppose). masculine aesthetics are not just for men though like you gotta expand your understanding of

[alluralater]

did you ever have a 'oh i'm a lesbian' moment because let me tell you i've been going back and forth. i'm bi and for the life of me i've just been wondering if i'm just really into penetration.

Maybe another part is being NB. maybe i just want a dick to ride a girl and i don't really like guys at all just the aesthetics. i've always been really into feminization anyway....maybe i'm into fem/masc girls if that's a thing?

maybe i do like girls and i just wanna be ridden if you get me?. so confusing to wrap my little noggin around <3

i’m gonna be honest with you, i sent this to a mutual in hopes of decoding what any of this means and we had zero luck.

first thing- penetration has nothing to do with being a lesbian, that's a personal thing based on the individual and also has nothing to do with men specifically.

second thing- a lot of this stuff can exist and has really nothing in particular to do with being a lesbian. these just sound like your personal preferences for sex. you can like non-men as a bisexual so i don’t really get where you were going? like you don’t like riding dick with guys but you do like it with girls? is that what you’re saying? if yes then yeah you might be a lesbian. do you mean feminization as in like sexually? like kink? i have so many questions and so few answers because basically none of this says lesbian rather than bisexual. btw 'fem/masc' girls (if you mean as a combined label) are not a thing because if someone doesn't fit into either label they don't have to take both, it's okay to not be either one. those labels exist to serve the people who identify with them. as for the rest + everything actually, replies are open if someone else wants to hop in and try to figure out what’s going on here and help this anon <3

[toycarousel]

Hello Wren, I'm here because I need your help (in a way). So I'm a perfectly "normal" cis girl, I live in a great family and my parents never judge me. But I have a boyfriend, he's wonderful, very kind and good looking. He really likes to dress up as a woman (on a daily basis) but he's not transgender. And he has a lot of problems: his parents are really religious, he's often told he's just gay and he should stop being with me (that part uspets him a lot), and he gets insulted just because [1/2]

Of his apperance. I get really angry about that and often yell at whoever upsetted him. I wondered if you could provide us some advices concerning this. My boyfriend and I are very much in love and it kills me seeing him sad because of some random assholes. Thank you And I Hope you'll anwser. [2/2]

Hello, Anon! My apologies for the late response (I’ve been even more scattered than usual these days!)

I can offer peer advice, but I’m definitely not a professional, so if anything I say feels off to you or your boyfriend, just know that you don’t have to take my word as law or anything~!!! You can absolutely write off anything that doesn’t feel right to you! : O

Anyway, I’m totally with you two wrt how ppl are treating your boyfriend.  I’m not trans either, but I like to dress up as a girl fairly often (for me, it’s because women’s clothing/makeup is just typically a lot more aesthetically appealing than men’s -- mens’ clothes and such can be very, very dull, unfortunately).  Your boyfriend doesn’t need to have a reason for dressing the way he likes to dress (no one does!)

It sounds like you’re both confident in your relationship, and I wish that the ppl around you two understood that him wearing a certain type of clothing doesn’t say anything about his sexuality, gender, or relationships -- because it doesn’t! I actually suspect a lot of men, of all sexualities -- even the most intensely straight, cisgender man possible -- would wear women’s clothing and makeup and such, if it were considered socially acceptable.  A lot of straight, cisgender women prefer men’s clothing, because it’s just to their taste.  The reverse is true too, it’s just stigmatized so much more, and I wish your boyfriend didn’t have to deal with all that judgment from other ppl.  It sounds like he’s experiencing a lot of misdirected bigotry.

My casual advice to him would be to just stay true to himself, and continue to do what makes him happy! He can also try to let ppl know that no, he’s not dressing this way because he’s gay, that he doesn’t have to leave you, that he is attracted to you and wants to be with you, and that, ultimately, clothing is just clothing.  Though I’m guessing he’s already said things like this to some of the assholes who are picking him apart, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t listen.  Despite that, it’s still good to confidently tell them that he knows who he is, and that they’re wrong.  If some of these ppl do listen and internalize the message he’s trying to get across, that’s great! 

As for the ppl who don’t -- it’s not his job to make them understand.  They’ve got their own biases.  They’ve decided (his family, and everyone who doesn’t listen), that their own prejudices are the truth, and they likely don’t want to listen.  This probably scares them -- a lot of ppl are terrified when they’re forced to confront the truth that clothing + presentation doesn’t determine gender and/or sexuality.  I suspect that a lot of cisgender and/or straight ppl like feeling as though, as long as they wear the clothes they’re “supposed” to wear, and do the things they’re “supposed” to do, that it means their gender is the “right” gender, and is unquestionable and solidified.

So, when they’re then faced with someone like your boyfriend, who is attracted to women, and who isn’t transgender, but still likes to wear traditionally feminine clothing -- it just shakes those ppl to their core.  They’re used to believing things like “men are biologically wired to like blue, and trucks, and Man Things,” and “women are biologically wired to like pink, and dolls, and Woman Things,” but none of that stuff is true.  It’s all socially constructed.  (That, of course, doesn’t mean that it’s not okay for girls to be into girly things and guys to be into masculine things, but it’s not the rule, and it’s certainly not rooted in biology).

And when people are faced with their own internalized biases, and the silly gender beliefs they’ve held for a very long time are challenged like that (whether the person they perceive to be challenging these norms means to or not), they get scared, and feel insecure.  Your boyfriend is on the receiving end of them acting out on their own insecurities.  And that, ultimately, is their problem -- not his.  He’s done nothing wrong.  

And he doesn’t owe his family members anything, either.  Just because they’d be more “comfortable” being able to slot him into the cliche of “effeminate gay man”, in order to avoid facing their insecurities about clothing and appearance wrt gender/sexuality, doesn’t mean that he has to do anything about it.  If you want to be together, then you should be together.  And you should both be able to dress and behave however you want, regardless!

The only thing I’d warn for is taking safety precautions! Some ppl will just assume he’s transgender or gay, and will try to harm him based on the assumption.  If he’s in a physically safe space, then this shouldn’t be an issue, but if he feels like he’s going to be somewhere there could be violent ppl, or ppl he doesn’t know very well, he should be very careful as to how he presents himself -- again, not because he’s doing anything wrong, but because some ppl won’t just be assholes, they’ll be violent.  And neither of you should ever have to be subjected to that violence.

Otherwise, I’d honestly just reassure him that he’s gorgeous, and kind, and wonderful -- that he looks great the way he likes to dress, and that it’s not his responsibility (nor possible, in many cases) to change the minds of ppl who’ve decided to be bigoted, insecure, and shallow.  I know it can be difficult to write off the cruel things that ppl say, and that it has been getting to him, so I’ve linked a few resources below that can help with techniques as to how to ignore and/or cope with the things that bigots and bullies say.  I think that self-care and being reminded of how awesome it is that he expresses himself despite society’s terrible, arbitrary “rules”, is healthy too!

Here are some of those resources (and I included a couple crisis chatlines at the very bottom, in case he’s ever in a situation where he just rly wants to talk to someone supportive right away, you know?)

https://medium.com/@duncanr/how-to-respond-to-bullies-4db037629510 (this one is focused on how to respond to bullies, and in many cases I think this has a good message for you and your boyfriend, but again, be careful when applying this advice to a potentially dangerous situation -- avoiding danger and calling for help is the most effective way to go, imo).

https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/59nz5z/how-to-deal-with-friends-family-who-are-racist-sexist-or-bigoted 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-mysteries-love/201612/the-most-effective-way-put-end-verbal-abuse

https://www.verywellmind.com/identify-and-cope-with-emotional-abuse-4156673 (how to identify and cope with emotional abuse -- this can be applied to any relationship, including how your boyfriend’s family treats him, and how strangers treat him! Similar to the prior link!)

https://self-care-club.tumblr.com/post/139740925552/giant-self-help-masterpost (self care masterpost, full of nice things + sites and coping tactics for both you and your boyfriend’s general mental health -- for when you both need to take a step back and simply be kind to yourselves~!)

https://codedredalert.tumblr.com/post/109005732295/helpline-masterlist (crisis hotline masterpost)

https://www.7cups.com/ (free counselling, both phone and text chatlines available!)

Oof~! So, I know that was a long, long response (my apologies for being so wordy), but I hope some of what was said and linked here is helpful to both you and your boyfriend, and that your situations improve soon~

[cardentist]

I’ve been chewing on trans discourse here on tumblr for around 8 years now. it’s been a very slow process of learning how to put a words to feelings that I couldn’t understand or that I didn’t know were there how I interactive with and consume this discourse has fundamentally changed over the years, in part because the consumption of that content has fundamentally changed me in that same time

I don’t have eyes on the entire internet, and certainly I don’t have eyes on the trans community as a whole, as it is or as it’s always been, so my perspective is inherently limited. that said, there are some trends that I’ve noticed in the parts that I Have seen, and I think I’m finally putting words to one of them now I will say now though that as a trans man this is reflecting on trans men, because I’m currently speaking on my experiences as a trans man. I’m certain that some of what I’m about to say can apply to other trans people, but I’m speaking from a place where I don’t need to speculate. it’s not my place to speak for trans women or nonbinary people or multi-gender people, but I would more than welcome anyone from those groups to speak up here likewise I’m a white man, no matter how much effort I or any other white person puts into listening to and understanding poc experiences we will never be able to speak from a place of truly Knowing. I greatly encourage poc trans men and poc trans people in general to spread their voices and experiences here if they’d like.

but I think people view trans men as the platonic ideal of what trans men “”“should be””” rather than who they are. when people speak about trans men as a group in a generalization they speak about them as if they’re fully transitioned, fully socialized, fully male presenting in aesthetics, and in a sense totally indistinguishable from cis men. of course people know that fully transitioned trans men don’t just spring out of the ground, but even so they speak as though this is what all trans men Want to become and as if that want or even just the eventuality of Becoming itself inherently erases all that came before

and this has, Several different branching consequences. I mean, speaking realistically there’s potentially as much diversity in how these ideas mingle within our community as there are People in said community, but both my perspective and my time are limited. so to keep this at least somewhat digestible I’m going to be speaking on this from the perspective of masculinity being treated as the inherent ideal that trans men are expected to not only strive for but be measured against and from the perspective of trans men being stripped of their lives as previous or Currently feminine people to be painted as outside of femininity itself and outside of the reach of misogyny. 

it would be foolish to suggest or even imply that the enforcement of hyper-masculinity as a standard for trans men has nothing to do with misogyny, internalized or otherwise, or the hyper-masculinity of society at large. however, I think tumblr culture has found a way to re-brand this toxicity, as tumblr does, and specifically peddle it in discourse and activist spaces.

particularly you see this in the backlash against gnc trans men, trans men who can’t or don’t want to bind, and of course in the backlash against trans men without dysphoria.  not all of these are inherently tied to the idea of masculinity, but even so you see it in the way that the general groups of people talk about and depict trans men that they feel don’t perform masculinity correctly.

caricatures of “real” vs “fake” trans people, a line that superficially is only supposed to be drawn at having or not having dysphoria, consistently depict “”fake”” trans people, those with dysphoria, as aggressively feminine, as curvy, as not binding, as wearing make up and heels, and more often than not as hyper sexual in a way that specifically speaks to how women are coerced into presenting for men.

the message is clear, trans men who don’t replicate masculinity purely enough aren’t real trans men, Especially if they do so by choice. to present outside of the platonic ideal of what a trans man should be is to forfeit your place as a trans man I shouldn’t have to explain why this is harmful, I shouldn’t and yet I do.

the enforcement of masculinity or femininity is inherently violent. if your presentation isn’t a choice then it is a limitation, a confinement. if a trans man looks inside of himself and sees that there are parts of femininity that he likes, not because he was expected or forced to like it but because it’s something that he enjoys, then it’s no one’s place to tell him that he shouldn’t engage with it. forcing someone to lose a part of themselves just so they have the Right to be respected as a human being is a violent act.

and outside of that, there are people who just aren’t where they want to be yet and who may never be. someone may be pre t because they’re young, because they’re poor, because they’re not safe where they are, or because they medically cannot be. there are people who are forced out of presenting masculinely or outright forced into performing femininely don’t need to have their features plastered on a meme painting them as “fake trans.” they don’t need to be told that who they are isn’t good enough for the cis Or the trans community. and they sure as shit don’t need scumbags here on tumblr dot com coming directly to them to harass them.

whether through necessity, situation, or genuine want there are always going to be feminine trans men. reinventing and rebranding toxic masculinity to try to cut other trans people out of their community won’t make you feel better and it won’t make the transphobia trans people face go away

stepping away from denying trans men the choice of feminine presentation, we have the denial of femininity as a whole in relation to trans men.

this is something that I’ve noticed for a very long time, far longer than that the resurgence of trumeds and far longer than I myself have identified as a trans man, and it honestly played a role in creating the self doubt that delayed my own growth and understanding of myself. 

at it’s worst, from what I’ve seen, this is a rebranding and refocusing of the transmisogynistic “predatory man” trope that views men as invaders of women’s spaces, as leeches vying for resources and spaces that they don’t deserve. and certainly I don’t doubt that this came from the influence of terfs in feminist spaces, even people who understand that terfs are wrong are still influenced by their talking points and ideas, particularly those presented without being Overt. laden with “concern for the safety of women” and who gleefully take advantage of genuine and deserved outrage of toxic masculinity to insist that all men are inherently violent and evil and deserve to be hurt, and if internally you two happen to disagree with who exactly counts as male then only one of you knows it. and another one of those ideas has been portraying trans men as misogynistic women betraying their sex because they’re desperate for a slice of male privilege they can rub in the face of other women

bucking this influence, even in progressive spaces, in with people who really do know better, is a process. because the language is everywhere, terfs and people influenced by them are constantly evolving, constantly finding new ways to make their ideas palatable. and people consume their ideas may still integrate them into their own worldview even as they fundamentally disagree with terfs as an ideology. even people who are making an active effort to improve this regard will take time doing so, will miss the ways it’s influenced them subconsciously.

a few years back I’d see this manifest itself more overtly. such as posts promoting solidarity between cis and trans women that Also just so happened to go on a tangent about trans men being Male Invaders in women’s spaces such as women’s homeless and crises centers.

it’s typically less severe nowadays, though that in itself is both a sign of progress and problematic to making progress. on some level the lessening of the severity is a sign of growing awareness of terfs and, if not informed understanding of what makes them awful at least a surface level awareness of that fact. however, intentionally softening your ideals to make it more palatable is on vogue with extremists nowadays. a skinhead with a swastika tattoo isn’t going to get as far as someone “concerned about the safety of our borders” in a crisp suit, but ultimately they believe and want the same thing

this is obviously an incredibly complex and active issue, and I’d be Incredibly ridiculous and just outright dishonest to suggest that trans men are the only target here, but for the sake of this post and my sanity I will be focusing on generally one specific issue from the perspective that I have to offer. again, I highly encourage further conversation on this topic if you have it.

generally speaking, this can be boiled down to “trans men are men, men are privilege, privilege is bad” none of these ideas are inherently malicious, but together they’re the cursed lovechild of the radical feminist idea of trans women being violent, selfish, aggressors and the idea that trans people genuinely are the gender they identify as. it’s a bucking of terf beliefs because they’re wrong about who is and is not a man, not because their beliefs themselves are wrong.

in service of this, trans men are stripped of their femininity and seemingly stripped of their past as being treated as women. they are the platonic ideal of what trans men are supposed to be, indistinguishable from cis men even if they’re still acknowledged as being “not as bad as” cis men

this is problematic and in some situations violent even if it is true, but we have to remember that it isn’t. even under the assumption that every single trans man in the world holds the goal of becoming indistinguishable from cis men and will eventually achieve that, every single trans man has been affected by misogyny. they have been raised with the expectation that they will identify as women. they have lived their lives up until a certain point being treated exclusively as a woman. and indeed there will always be people who see them as women

even for a trans man who fully and completely embraces their masculinity, healthily or otherwise, being forcibly parted with any part of their femininity is being asked to forget or ignore their own lived experiences 

trans men who can live up to the “platonic ideal” of what trans men are supposed to be are the minority, but every single trans man has been treated as a woman

and again, for many people they live actively as trans men without transitioning, whether that be temporary or for their entire lives.

you can argue that trans men experience misogyny separately from their identity, as many people do, that it’s “misdirected misogyny” which while to a degree that may be true that can only matter so much when what you’re asking people to do is separate who they are from their lived experiences 

I didn’t identify as a trans man when I was assaulted, but I am a trans man I was assaulted and those two things have both shaped who I am and my feelings on one inherently impacts my feelings on the other. it may have been “misdirected” but they’re inescapably connected in my life. because I’m not a conversation, or a statistic, or a compilation of discourses vaguely shambling in the shape of a man, I’m a person

and even still, there are people who know I am a trans man, who even make an effort to respect that, who are still misogynistic towards me. and even more still who are misogynistic towards me Because I’m a trans man

trans men have a better ability to pass in some cases yes and trans men are generally less well known, but the ability to hide is not itself a privilege, it’s fear. it’s repressing a part of yourself knowing that if you slip up in front of the wrong person at the wrong time that could mean the end. it could mean violence, it could mean discrimination, it could mean death

trans men are denied this fact, sometimes incidentally sometimes intentionally they’re denied language specific language to express this because Trans Men Are Men, And Men Aren’t Oppressed For Being Men.

ultimately, trans men and trans women both face an intersection of transphobia and misogyny, with our oppression being Different but Intertwined  denying or ignoring one means limiting our understanding of the other and vice versa

there are trans men who hurt trans women and there are trans women who hurt trans men but we as a community need solidarity not just because it’s mutually beneficial but because our experiences are closer than some want to make them out to be

taking radfem rhetoric and pointing it somewhere else will never be the answer, and it’s Certainly not going to help keep transwomen safe

[ricekilla]

u.s. hip hop artists must learn from bad bunny

There’s a nobility to watching someone speak a second language in public—especially on live TV, as Bad Bunny did in his performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. It is that cringe-inducing reality of imperfection; of the accent, the mispronunciations, the stuttering, that can leave a human so vulnerable. You’re watching a young man who knows his grip on The World’s Most Important Language is far from perfect. But rather than quietly accept this and avoid speaking it altogether, rather than resting on his native tongue and his many native successes, in a moment of exposure wherein most young artists would understandably reserve their vulnerabilities to avoid ire, Bunny decides to go for it. He speaks English, and it’s not perfect; but it is powerful. In his first televised American performance, El Conejo Malo spoke on the natural disaster that ravaged his home of Puerto Rico, including a barb at Donald Trump, all in accented English.

Yes, everyone’s got a Trump take, and most of them are Trump Bad. And yes, we need more than just cute speeches, verses, and social media posts. We need real activism; the activism that can actually send an impoverished child to school and help a sick mother pay for her health care. We should expect that Bunny put his money where his mouth is and work to fight against white supremacist leaders like Donald Trump as well as continue to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. But there’s something special about Bad Bunny’s words in particular; unlike your safe American (and Latinx) stars, he’s not necessarily supposed to be speaking out. He could easily just be Lil Pump Puerto Rico for some years before his stature expands to the point of political expectations. He could easily just be the ignorant Latino rapper, or the ignorant Latino star, and not be expected to empower the world his art illuminates.

There is an ignorance associated with Latinx rappers in comparison to their influential American counterparts. The mainstream American musical lexicon only knows Daddy Yankee and Don Omar; Calle 13 is not even a footnote for your average hip hop fan. People are just beginning to take Latin “urbano” seriously as being led by artists that do more than make bops for your friends to slur-sing at high school dances. Bad Bunny sat with Colombian reggaeton king J. Balvin for an interview with Complex magazine, in which they announced a potentially seismic collaborative album. The two discussed and affirmed their place as trendsetters shirking norms; Balvin describes Bunny’s nails as a “very beautiful thing”. He tells Complex in Spanish that the message of expressions such as these is to “Be yourself. …If they say, he’s crazy, or he’s gay or whatever, who cares? If he’s gay, then he’s gay! When they see that, they say ‘Okay, if Bad Bunny isn’t gay, but he feels comfortable with what he’s doing, why won’t I come out of the closet and say it’s okay?’”

And in this moment wherein the ostensible Drake of Latin hip hop is encouraging defiance towards gender norms, I have a realization: somehow, the artists that do not even perform in English are the ones whose words should be most important to us in American hip hop right now.

How many American artists put themselves in a position to be vulnerable or ill-equipped for the sake of trying to say the right thing? It’s easier for G-Eazy to drop Donald Trump diss verses; he’s rich, established, and white, and he’s got little to lose. It’s easier for a rapper like Logic to plead for everyone to get along. It’s easy for Soundcloud rappers to dye their hair, rock their satchels, and tat their faces; how many of them are going to tell you about what social standards made those features shocking in the first place? How many of them are going to speak out against traditionalist aesthetics that they’re breaking? How many of them have something important to say?

We should, of course, be careful to exalt El Conejo Malo as some sort of feminist hip hop icon. Though he’s shown remarkable qualities as a public figure, he’s still a work in progress like the rest of us; often his music is charged by hints of debaucherous misogyny that is understood as the genre standard. It’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but that doesn’t make it ideal. And in this moment of hypertense political stances and, of course, Cancel Culture, seeing Twitterers post quips like “we stan an artist that is against toxic masculinity and gender norms 💅🏽” causes me to cringe; it feels like we’re setting ourselves up to be let down whenever Bunny makes a mistake.

Bad Bunny has not been cancelled yet, but he has been tested. His encounter with a salon that refused to paint his famous nails caught some flack from commenters. Many were angered by his reaction, in which he told doubters of his sexuality to “bring their women to his house” to watch them “have his babies”. In response to this, he clarified his sentiments in a classically defiant way (as translated by Remezcla: “’I was saying that I’d have sex with their wives, get them pregnant (which is wrong) and the men would raise my kids,’ he wrote, adding, ‘It was only a nice and exaggerated way of saying, no, I’m not gay and I love women. That’s all.’”) Eventually, the Latin trap star deleted his Twitter account.

Like the Fallon performance, this was an instance of Bunny using his words even at a point of potential vulnerability. He started by doing a typically millennial thing in calling out a salon for being decidedly unwoke and refusing him nail service because he was a man. He affirmed his gender expression as a straight man painting his nails because he wants to, understanding that there’s nothing wrong with that. Yet, in trying to say the right things, he said some wrong ones. There’s an obvious tint of misogyny in the “I’m gonna fuck your girlfriend” approach, particularly in this case, even if it is so hip hop and so inane that your average person would hardly bat an eyelash to it. Regardless, it was a failure on his part; he was a bad Bad Bunny, and it’s important that we acknowledge that.

It’s not to say that we should totally overlook the misogyny in Bunny’s lyrics or any other rap artists’, which both result from and contribute to a society that sidelines women as objects of desire, existing as complements to a man’s journey. I just want to write some nice words in Bad Bunny’s obituary before a Twitter storm eventually comes and gets him. He’s made mistakes and he’ll make more; unfortunate word choices and collaboration choices will get to any rapper’s resume in this toxic landscape. But what Bunny has decided to do so early in his career is remarkable for the fact that he is being abnormally, bravely thoughtful for someone in his position; someone who is young and misunderstood.

He is misunderstood because of the way he rebels against gender norms. He is misunderstood because his music isn’t in the right language; he’ll always be a Spanish rapper and not simply a rapper to the average hip hop head. He is misunderstood because of his drawl, his sluggishly opened vowels both as an intended stylization and as a natural result of his speaking voice and accent. He is also misunderstood as a young Latino from an island ravaged by natural disaster and poverty; overlooked by world powers, mocked by their cultures. He is misunderstood within that Latin American culture that physically and emotionally beat down young men who express themselves in “feminized” ways. If we know anything about mumble rap, or even music in general, it’s that the misunderstood artists have the most to add to the conversation.

Some of our misunderstood artists beg to be misunderstood. Kanye West went on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in a MAGA hat, highlighting a Yandhi press tour which we may otherwise know as Crazy Kanye 2: Electric Boogaloo. What’s most insulting about his whitewashed whimpering is that it’s become boring. We already know that none of us will completely understand his actions; he and his stans will equivocate that with us not being able to criticize him, which, no. The ignorance of his political speech is staggering, almost purposefully so. Rather than work to validate his perspective through an informed compassion, he manufactures a plastic one to hide behind when critiqued by the likes of known Chomskyites like Lana Del Rey. It’s a circus sideshow that only exists to benefit TV executives, Kanye West, and to some degree, Lord Voldemort himself.

Let’s compare that to another performance on a marquee NBC program. In his television debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Bad Bunny gave a speech to the opening chords of his trap banger “Estamos Bien”. In his gravelly Borinqueño drawl, he preached with efficiency: “After one year of the hurricane there’s still people without electricity in their home. More than 3,000 people died, and Trump is still in denial, but you know what? Estamos bien!”

Rather than simply make fun songs and letting the rest of us intellectualize his place in this crazy world, Bunny is telling us what he’s fighting for. Rather than benefit himself through latching to causes, Bunny is benefiting causes through testing himself. And although his message is still a bit surface level and his songs sport the occasional (frequent) shallow lyric, his choice is important. He is putting words to his rebellion; substance to his style. Rather than settle for iconicism like young American rap stars, or navel-gaze with conjecture like some of our living (dying) legends, Bad Bunny is fighting for goodness that should be much simpler to see than it seems to be.