Social media lit up this weekend with news that Soulja Boy and Lil Yachty were feuding over India Love, a member of the Westbrooks, a California-based family full of beauties, who are frequently compared with the Kardashians.
The back and forth between the two rappers was amusing at first, if only because Soulja Boy, fresh off a struggle season of “Love and Hip Hop Hollywood” is known for being dramatic and inappropriate (which some view as an attempt to prop up his sagging career), while the beaded and red-haired Yachty seems to be the polar opposite. But as the day went on, the taunts from Soulja Boy escalated and he turned his ire on Love when she implied in a tweet that she didn’t have a physical relationship with him . He responded with a series of graphic comments, pointing out while he and the 20-year-old Love never dated, on multiple occasions, he had unprotected sex with her.
He then tweeted he had photos and video evidence of them having sex, which he threatened to publish, acknowledging they were shot without her consent. It’s since been deleted, but he also tweeted a nude picture of Love, and afterward claimed his account was hacked.
While a lot of the social media commentary on the fight was focused on the two rappers, there were also endless derogatory comments about Love, who it appears was completely blindsided by the feud and from the jump, expressed a wish to be left out of it.
The entire exchange as it relates to Love was completely vile and yet on social media it was treated as utterly normal and par for the course to drag a woman who’s all of 20-years for filth. As a tutorial or a reminder for anyone who seems to think everything that was said and done to Love was okay, here are a list of five things she is and is not:
- India Love is an entrepreneur, not a ho, and as her twitter handle @indialoveinc implies, she is a woman who smartly has used her good looks and attractive body to make a living. Remember, when men like Hugh Hefner profit off of pimping out women’s good looks, they are lauded as business savvy, playboys, living the dream. Woman who cut out the male middle man just like anyone else should be recognized for their business acumen and efforts to start and grow their own businesses.
- Love is a model not an “Instagram ho” or as is often derogatorily implied, an “Instagram model.” She is being hired and paid by multiple companies to wear their clothing, making her a model, point, blank, period. And by the way, it’s the height of hypocrisy for members of the fashion world to scream for greater diversity on the runway, but when designers use models who look like Love, the social media response is almost entirely negative.
- Love is a 20-year old free human being not a sex slave and she retains agency over her body and mind no matter what she posts on social media or who she is hanging out with, dating or sleeping with. And anyone who implies he has ownership over her should be viewed as a scary individual with issues who should be avoided at all costs.
- Love is a consenting adult, not a slut and as such she is free to have sex or not with whomever she wants without being labeled with pejoratives, all of which are hugely problematic because they’re only applied to women. And as is often the case with women who are as attractive as Love, the term is applied not in connection with sexual activities but simply because she exists and is attractive and of child-bearing age.
- Love is living her life and is not a thirst trap manipulating grown adults into viewing and following her. And yes, while she benefits from people’s interest in her life and pictures, she is not forcing you to look upon her. If she and other models like her irk you so badly, all of social media includes methods for blocking people’s feeds.
All that said, could all of what went down this past weekend have been a plot and a plan that Love was complicit in? Maybe so, but that still doesn’t change one iota what Love is and is not.
