“Didn’t She Used to Sell That WAP?”: Cardi B, Clashing Femininities, and Citizenship

Abstract

Abstract “Didn’t she used to sell that WAP?” tweeted Afro-Latina rapper Cardi B on August 16, 2020, in response to California congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine’s post: “America needs far more women like Melania [Trump] and far less like Cardi B.” This exchange and others foreground this article’s argument—namely, that conservative reactions to Cardi B’s performances of racialized and classed femininity on Twitter, especially from right-wing cisgender women, aimed to put the rapper “in her place,” which is outside of politics and in opposition to (white) American values. Even though Cardi B’s working-class Black femininity places her outside of discourses of normative U.S. citizenship and meritocracy, the rapper “makes herself at home” by engaging in civic practices regardless of the classist misogynoir directed at her.