Using the word spouse in a song, totally bad, horrible, remove it, offensive.
Having full scale songs for children about the moisture
state of your vagina, that is Shakespearean wonder.
>> Ben Shapiro is not pleased with the fact that Beyoncé has decided
to concede to her critics who believe the word spas in one of her songs is ableist.
So she has decided, okay, people don't like the word, they're offended by it,
I'm going to change the lyrics to the song.
Well, Shapiro thinks that that's not okay.
And he draws this false equivalency between the word spas and
what Cardi B sang about in one of her songs, WAP.
It's, that song really does bother Ben Shapiro,
it's come up several times for him.
I don't,
I can't imagine being that obsessed with any song to be honest with you.
But nonetheless, let's hear the rest of his argument and
I agree with some of what he says here.
So let's watch and I'll tell you what I mean.
>> A representative for Beyoncé has confirmed to insider.
The lyric containing the word spas in her new album will be changed as well.
In the statement from Beyoncé's team, they claim it was not used intentionally in
a harmful way, which by the way is true.
I actually, I can't believe I'm defending the Queen Bay here.
I'm now one of the praetorian guards for the Queen Bay, but apparently I am.
It is amazing, these are the standards in our society.
Using the word spouse in a song totally bad, horrible, remove it, offensive.
Having full scale songs for children about the moisture state of your
vagina that is Shakespearean wonder show it is,
I mean that's just the stuff that you should play for your kids.
It's very empowering, empowering stuff.
So I feel like the left is very strict on its language and
very loose on its morals and ideas.
>> So where do I agree with Ben and
I don't agree with the entirety of his argument.
In fact, I think he gets several things wrong there.
But where I do agree with him is, look,
I don't think that that Beyoncé intentionally offended
the disabled community by including the word spas.
And to be sure, in the context of the United States,
I don't think that the word spas is offensive and anyone who is offended by
the word spas I think is looking for something to be offended by.
I know, some of our audience probably will hate that.
You can be mad at me.
We need to move it along guys.
Okay, the idea that Beyoncé is ableist is insane, It's just insane.
When I use the word bitch for instance,
to respond to a little bit like Matt Gates for
instance, I'm not being hateful towards women.
It is a word that we use not because we're trying to refer to weak women or
make a statement about women.
It's a word we use to make a statement about the weakness and
pathetic behavior of the individual we're attacking, right?
So words mean different things in different context, and
I think it's important to acknowledge that.
Needlessly jumping up and saying no, that is a word that offends me and
it's intentionally meant to target me, I think it's just crazy.
And I I'm getting a little tired of the nonstop, like is this word okay?
Wait, is that word okay?
Like Constantly.
Okay, intentions matter, and also context matters,
not just in terms of the context in which the word is used.
I think it also matters regarding the culture and country we're talking about.
Because well, I think in the United States the word spas is really not a big deal for
most people.
Apparently in the UK and other places,
it is used in a very derogatory way toward the disabled community.
And I think that's important to understand, right?
Because if we're looking at artists like Beyoncé, who want widespread appeal, she's
selling us a product at the end of the day and it's not just about the United States.
She's trying to sell a product internationally.
Well, she doesn't wanna do anything that might turn off other fans in other
countries.
So if she wants to make that decision, do you boo, right?
I'm not going to get all up in arms about it.
But I also want to note that while Ben Shapiro is
critical of people who are mad at Beyoncé and
maybe he's mad at Beyoncé for changing her lyrics,
he also engages in language policing himself.
And so which one is it?
Do you like the language policing or do you dislike the language policing?
Because number one, the Cardi B WAP song was not directed towards children.
I think parents get to parent, right?
I'm not a parent, I mean I have a dog and I'm a very good parent to my dog,
let me just keep it real.
But if I had children like human children, no, I'm not gonna let them listen to WAP.
I'm gonna be super involved in what type of content my children are consuming.
And I'd venture to say that most parents like to take a good,
hard look at what their kids are watching or listening to and
they censor things accordingly, that's what good parents do.
I don't think Cardi B wrote the song,
Wet Ass P word with the intention of selling that song to children.
And if children are listening to it,
their parents should be a little more aware of what their kids are up to, okay?
But again, who is the arbiter of what is and is not acceptable in pop culture?
That's the real question here.
And if Ben Shapiro doesn't want super sensitive people on the broadly speaking
left, to dictate what kind of lyrics get to go into various songs and
genres, you can't have your cake and eat it too.
You can't then turn around and be like, I would like to censor Cardi B because
the notion of moist vaginas makes me uncomfortable.
No, you don't get, don't listen to the song, move it along.
You get what I'm saying guys?
And much like, I get on the right wing's case a lot
because all they do is engage in endless culture wars.
And I think it's meant to distract you from issues that really matter.
I think the same can be said about the super sensitive people on the left who
are hyper focused on these very specific language, policing social issues.
I wanna live in a country and live in a world where all our needs are met and
we can just focus on those things.
But for now I'm not interested in policing lyrics.
And where does it end?
Because fact of the matter is, there's a ton of music out there that has a ton of
lyrics that I don't like, that I do find offensive.
But in the grand scheme of things,
censoring the artistic expression of others, even if I dislike it,
it's just not really where I want the focus to be right now.
I think there are more important things to focus on.
Now with that said, for those who don't like the word spas, for those who live in
a context where spas is constantly used in a derogatory way toward disabled people,
I get their perspective.
And Beyoncé has a product to sell and
she's gonna do what she thinks she needs to do to sell that product.
More power to her, that's called capitalism.
The market has spoken, the market wants her to take that word out,
she's responded to that.
And turns out the market really likes moist vaginas, because Cardi B still
doing real well, still able to sell her music with no problem.
And so, really this is an issue pertaining the personal preference and
what might offend you doesn't offend a lot of other people.
So again, who does the arbiter get to be?
And I would venture to say that we should just accept and support artistic
expression regardless of how we feel about a particular artistic expression.
Obviously there are limits, let's be clear about that.
But the idea of wanting to censor Cardi B, but not wanting to make
a statement about a word like spas for Beyoncé's music is kind of crazy.
You got to be consistent, I like being consistent.