Hi, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. Hope you're doing well. Let's talk about a quote that has been making the rounds, dividing people across social media, from the one and only Chappell Roan.

Now, look, if you're at all familiar with Ms. Roan, you know not only does she make some bangers, but also she is known to make a public social or political statement or two here and there that does get her in hot water.

That is also the case with this recent quote that has been making the rounds. "I'm never dating a man again. I'm not attracted to them. I don't like having sex with them. I don't think they understand me. I don't think they make good art." A series of statements that have been pissing people off for a myriad of different reasons.

There's really different tiers at which you could be ticked off by this. Maybe the dumbest of all of them being Chappell Roan, saying that she's never dating another man, she's not even attracted to men, which is fine. That's her sexual orientation education and preference. She does not have to date men. There is absolutely no issue with someone deciding who they do or do not want to date based upon their personal preferences and just a baseline attraction.

Then after this, you could argue she's pushing things a bit further, saying, "They don't even understand me." Personally, I think that saying a particular gender of people just don't have the comprehension skills to understand a person or a concept, it's a bit much. But you know what? As Chappell Roan says, she's not even attracted to men. So whether or not men even have the capability to understand her is something that is not even of interest to her. So I guess who cares?

But then, finally, we have the real kicker. "I don't think they make good art," which I think could be interpreted a couple of different ways. But before I get into that, let me first say, I do feel like the very outsized reaction that this quote has seen on social media in for recent days is a little outsized, given that this is an old quote and is seemingly just being recycled onto the internet for rage bait purposes.

Eliciting responses like this one. "I'm sorry, but Chapel saying, Men don't make good art is insane. Not only is this objectively untrue, but her entire drag queen-inspired esthetic was created by gay men." Or this, "People who only engage with feminism through resentment toward men always end up throwing up that word man around like it doesn't also include people who are more often than not in the same as them, like gay and trans men, to the point of just sounding like TERFs." Which, again, I agree. Sometimes these very flippant statements can read in that way.

But simultaneously, Chappell's opinions on the trans community are pretty well established at this point. And that's the thing, as hamfisted as this statement from Chappell is, I feel like in order to take it to that logical point, you would have to know nothing else about her opinions on everything. Like, Chappell support of the broader LGBTQ community is pretty well established at this point. Still, Chappell Roan did, in fact, say this, and I think it could be read in a few ways...

One, she could be saying that she feels men don't make good art in that she doesn't feel they make good subjects for art she wants to continue to make into the future. She doesn't want men to be the thematic or romantic focus of her music from here on out. I feel like that's been pretty exemplified by recent singles such as "Subway" and "The Giver". But then we have this other obvious interpretation of this quote, which I think is also valid. And that's that just men don't make good art, period. Which is just so obviously patently false that honestly, it makes Chappell and anyone endorsing the sentiment look foolish and dumb for echoing it.

Because, yeah, not only have men made some pretty great art and some pretty great music, I mean, do I even need to list it out? I surely don't, right? I don't need to do that. I don't need to do that, right? But also, you don't really need to look too much further than Chappell herself to see the way men have inspired her actual music, be it through the production on her own actual songs or, I don't know, the ways in which her styles and esthetics are so clearly influenced by drag, which regardless of whether or not she intended for that statement to be directed right at straight men, and that's it, that still does result in a othering of sorts because gay men are men, too. No less so than straight men. And categorizing them as other, I think, in a way, is a product of homophobia.

Now, one might argue in light of this quote that if you really pressed Chappell Roan about what she was saying here, do we really think that she was trying to undercut the artistry and the creativity of gay men or men who suffer through other types of systematic oppression? Would Chappell say this in the face of, I don't know, let's say, a really well-crafted hip hop album that engages in discourse around black struggle? No, she probably wouldn't.

But that's exactly why this quote is giving the energy of that really shitty comment people keep posting for my Fiona Apple review for Fetch the Bolt Cutters. Because a hilarious component of that comment is that I should be ignoring artists and avoiding artists like Fiona Apple in favor of listening to stuff instead, like Death Grips, which, whether or not you want to acknowledge it, does feature the lyrics and perspectives of a black man. And I'm sorry, why is a woman's lived experience inherently more difficult to understand than a black person's?

And while it's true, I'm never going to fully, personally understand the lived experience of a woman or someone of color. The point of representation in art in the first place isn't for all of us to only singularly consume art from people whose lived experience we literally one-to-one relate to and identify with. You shouldn't be actively disengaging from and avoiding art just because the artist is of a different gender, race, or sexual orientation than you.

Again, not that I think this is an opinion or a perspective that Chappell Roan holds, but from what I'm saying here, you see how easily these sorts of statements could quickly be read as just not being very intersectional and completely ignore the ways in which these same systems and hierarchies and biases impact numerous groups of people.

While, personally, I'm no stranger to the idea of a little performative misandry because, hey, men suck, and patriarchy sucks, and fascism sucks. If we are going to broadly hate on and shit on men, and believe me, I fucking hate men at this point. There truly are a lot of men that I just wish weren't here anymore. If we are going to engage in that, though, should we not at least be hating men on the fronts where they are actively making the world and everybody's lives worse?

Yeah, there truly are a lot of things that men do right now that absolutely suck. But their broader capacity to make art is honestly not one of them. In fact, it's the opposite. Some of the shittiest men on the planet make some halfway decent art and are platformed and celebrated despite their behavior. And if anything is an issue here, it's that. It's not the quality of the art itself.

But yeah, honestly, at the end of the day, regardless of where you fall on this quote, it is really being dredged up right now as a means of just generating internet clicks and traffic and probably just feeding into further divisions, which will result in less overall solidarity.

Because not only will a lot of people glom onto the surface level sentiment of this statement simply because they love Chappell, but there are a lot of men and a lot of people who won't really read that deeply into this either, not dig any deeper and will just perceive Chappell and anyone who messes with her music as being some border into a world that they're not supposed to cross into. Leading to a further lack of curiosity and broader understanding standing in discourse between different types of people, communities, orientations, and walks of life.

Not that safe spaces and closely-knit communities built around marginalized groups aren't necessary. They most definitely are. But given Chappell's size and influence and platform, nearly everything that she says, even if she is speaking directly to the queer community, is likely not going to stay within that containment forever because she is one of the most popular in demand and well-streamed artists walking the planet right now.

I mean, maybe the luxury of communicating in that way could have been afforded to her if she were just a fraction of the size that she is right now. But she's not. Her appeal and her success is actually very wide and very broad. And as a result, her words and sentiments are going to carry in that way. A lot of this outrage also feels a little in line with the recent discourse there was around Billie Eilish. It's almost like there's this wider project on social media to discredit women in the music industry who happen to be very outspoken and opinionated, who at least make attempts to stand for something, even if they're not doing it perfectly all the time.

There are many more things, I'm sure, can be discussed as a result of this quote and the reaction to it. But as of right now, I'm going to leave this here. Let me know what you guys think in the comments, please.

Anthony Fantano, Chappell Roan, forever.