Is Amber Rose a Feminist or an Attentionist?

Unless you’ve been under a rock the past few days, you’ve witnessed the firestorm Amber Rose sparked over the weekend. Amber Rose, as we allll know, loves her body. And she does not care to show it off (she actually loves to show it off). Well, she showed us a vast majority of her lady lumps this past weekend. But this wasn’t your typical *almost* nude photo, this photo was taken to empower other women. This photo was taken in the name of feminism. Of  course, the photo received a good mix of praise and backlash. Amber Rose even took to Twitter to defend herself and her beliefs. And honey, did she READ a few people along the way. Yet, the real question remains: “Was Amber Rose’s stunt for feminism or attetionism?”

Let’s  talk about Amber Rose’s foundation “The Amber Rose SlutWalk.” The website for the SlutWalk (Click Here) states that their mission statement is: “To deliver a flawlessly executed event geared toward raising awareness about sexual injustice and gender inequality. The Amber Rose SlutWalk aims to impact and uplift, while shifting the paradigm of rape culture. The event provides a safe, all-inclusive space to entertain, educate, and empower.”

The #SlutWalk is a two day event that not only celebrates empowering women, but it also celebrates gender equality. On day one of the event there is a women’s conference titled “OPENed” that not only highlights the academics supporting social injustice, but it also (basically) guarantees that participants will be able to have true, raw and unfiltered conversations about the different types of social injustices women face. The website states that the goal of this conference is for women to open their minds to other women and be able to leave the “OPENed” women’s conference feeling “empowered, educated and most importantly OPEN to listening to others perspectives on issues that affect us as women today”

The second day of the #SlutWalk includes all people from all walks of life gathering in a violence free zone to celebrate gender equality and women empowerment. This day long festival includes a variety of marches (where the participants sometimes dress in costumes or… don’t dress at all), events, DJs, and basically all of the fun that a participant can have FREE of “hateful language, racism, sexism, ableism, fat-shaming, transphobia, or any other bigotry”, as the #SlutWalk website states. Because of the foundation of beliefs the #SlutWalk stands on, there has been a large following of admiration created for the #SlutWalk in the LGBTQ community.

Amber Rose definitely represents her foundation well. Via her social media accounts (username: @DaRealAmberRose), she is constantly and consistently promoting her foundation, women empowerment, gender equality and fighting social injustice. Is her foundation a solid representation of/for feminists? Absolutely.

The definition of feminism according to Merriam-Webster is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” Because feminists push for this social equality, society sees an influx of women empowerment. There are many different aspects of women empowerment. Some so not extreme (like a woman coworker encouraging a fellow woman coworker to go for the job of CEO that she has always wanted) and some VERY extreme (like Amber Rose posing with a hairy pooch to let the world know that she is in control of her body and can’t NOBODY tell her how her body should look *two snaps up*).

Another facet of feminism is that women should be allowed to do whatever men do without the backlash of society. Women should be able to play football, women should be able to run multi-billion corporations, women should be able to be the breadwinner of the family whilst their husbands stay at home and care for the children.  But does that necessarily mean that women should be able to pose *almost* nude to feel a sense of empowerment? Granted, you typically don’t see men posing nude freely without backlash from society. But, what you *do* see is a majority male “empowerment society” that is verbally controlling and dictating others around them. Maybe this is Amber Rose’s way of saying “Yeah, you can control them but you won’t and you can’t control me.”

Let’s be clear here, though. Amber Rose did exactly what she needed to do. Was this her attempt of utilizing feminism for her personal thirst of attentionism? The answer to that question is debatable. But what she did do is insert the word feminism back into the topic of conversation. Hey, American society is fascinated with the sexual culture. Anywhere you look: on social media, on television, in magazines there is sex appeal dripping from the photos and videos. So what better way to grab the attention of the American society? By utilizing your sex appeal. But, was this particular stunt, done in true Amber Rose fashion, truly done for the sake of feminism? IDK.