My first time encountering Black media legend Dana Owens, aka Queen Latifah, was on “The Recent Prince of Bel Air.” In some unspecified time in the future in elementary faculty, I used to be watching reruns on BET, and Will was assembly yet one more feminine visitor star. I used to be shocked once I noticed Dee Dee; she was almost as tall as Will and had what my granny would name a “fuller determine.” It was the primary time any lady on the present, not to mention a love curiosity for Will, appeared like me.
Plus, she was superior. When Will made an inadvertent dimension reference, she bagged on his skinny body and large ears. She gained him over together with her humorousness, and was by no means afraid to name him on his shit. This wasn’t the primary time I needed to emulate a TV character (I’d had an entire factor with Susie Carmichael from “Rugrats” and Francine Frensky from “Arthur” at that time). However it was the primary time the character appeared a lot like me: not simply Black, however tall and plus-size too.
Finally I realized who Latifah was as my mother rented her movies. I beloved watching her run a enterprise in “Magnificence Store,” take an expensive trip in “Final Vacation,” and clear up a criminal offense investigation with no coaching in “Taxi.” She was no-nonsense, beautiful and humorous, taking every day one step at a time. She confirmed a imaginative and prescient of what maturity could possibly be, if I formed myself in her picture.
My most lively season of Queen Latifah fandom was fall 2007, once I transferred to a brand new center faculty. Lots of the children on the majority-rich, majority-white faculty had already chosen their mates years prior, and along with being the brand new child, I bodily stood out. I used to be nerdy, nervous and quiet; many academics didn’t know what to make of me, not to mention college students. I didn’t know what to do with myself.
“Hairspray” got here out that yr, and all I knew of the musical was that Queen Latifah sang in it. My dad and mom gifted me the DVD for my birthday, and I spent the following a number of months studying each track, each dance routine, watching the particular options nonstop. Motormouth Maybelle’s track “Huge, Blonde and Lovely” was awkward, with all of the innuendos I didn’t perceive, however I belted out her finale verse in “You Can’t Cease the Beat” again and again till I may do it whereas dancing. Singing “I Know The place I’ve Been” in all its rebellious, hopeful glory pushed a few of the unhappiness of these first months on the faculty out of my physique.
I like to recollect my time watching “Hairspray” each evening for months as endurance coaching for dealing with the world, or replenishment of my vanity. I had been pushed into an surroundings the place I needed to face what different individuals consider me on daily basis. In elementary faculty, bullies or boys would make enjoyable of my weight once in a while. However questions of whether or not or not I belonged there by no means even crossed my thoughts. In center faculty, everybody was commenting on how in another way I acted from how they thought somebody who appeared like me ought to act. Oh, you’re so good. You employ a number of huge phrases. How come you’re so tall?
If it wasn’t sufficient to listen to about how unusual I'm, I additionally needed to do bodily training as a substitute of recess for the primary time, and take part in weekly mile runs the place I used to be reminded about my dimension and health stage once I all the time got here final. Youngsters would joke how I’d have all As besides in P.E., in that means that children will casually throw your deepest insecurities in your face. Below their gaze, my Blackness and my fatness grew to become a supply of disgrace. I realized to suppress them and concentrate on mixing in till I may go residence, activate the TV, and take into consideration Motormouth Maybelle as a substitute of myself.
I didn’t comprehend it again then, however I used to be solely participating with one facet of Queen Latifah’s work. My concentrate on her rom-coms and “Hairspray” match what I needed to see in myself by her, that I could possibly be beloved, admired and profitable. That’s what I wanted from her again then.
However childhood doesn’t keep. I grew up, left that damaging surroundings the place I used to be put into one field, and wanted to find the complete me and work my means out of it. In center and highschool, my lane was “super-smart Black lady who didn’t act Black,” as my classmates would say, and I used to be OK with it. However then I went to school, the racial justice motion rose up within the face of a number of shootings of unarmed Black individuals, and I noticed I needed to get in contact with the cultural heritage I had pushed down to slot in. That’s once I found Queen Latifah, the rapper.
Studying about Queen’s early rap profession helped me see how the way in which she carried herself knowledgeable her entire profession. Her rap was all the time about displaying that girls have an uncontested place within the tradition regardless of how male rappers seen “females.” With the intention to be a fan, I’ve all the time needed to ignore the way in which that rap hypersexualizes or promotes violence towards ladies. After I realized about hip-hop on drives with my dad, he largely performed gangsta rap, dominated by males calling ladies bitches. His favourite feminine rapper was Lil’ Kim, however he by no means performed her for me, saying she was too vulgar (however he had no drawback taking part in “Pure Born Killas” by Dr. Dre and Ice Dice, which terrifies me to today).
I didn’t even know in regards to the feminine rappers who spoke out towards ladies’s objectification till the primary time I heard Queen ask, “Who you callin’ a bitch?” on “U.N.I.T.Y.” That very same ethos of calling out males’s shit and commanding house for your self was obvious in each position I beloved her for. I simply didn’t have the title for it again then.
One other trait from Queen Latifah that I’ve all the time beloved is how she’s finished so many alternative initiatives in her profession. Trying by her IMDb, there’s movie, tv, drama, comedy, motion, romance, animation, producing, writing, directing. Not solely has she finished all the pieces, she’s gotten acclaim for therefore many alternative roles and genres. She’s gained a Grammy, an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award. She’s produced biopics that give her favourite singers their flowers, in addition to competitors reveals giving up-and-coming rappers a stage. “Hairspray” wasn’t even her first musical; earlier than that, she was in “Chicago,” and she or he was nominated for an Oscar for it. Her success jogs my memory that I by no means must maintain myself in a single lane. I can do something I need, led by a guideline.
My Queen fandom has waned since its final peak, when “Residing Single” was added to Hulu in 2018 and have become my persona for a full yr. I by no means bought round to watching “The Equalizer” or ending the final season of “Star,” and 13-year-old Quinci could be very disillusioned.
Possibly it’s as a result of years of remedy have helped me construct a powerful sense of self, or that I need to maintain my childhood imaginative and prescient of her trapped in amber. Social media reminds followers that celebrities are imperfect people who can’t be placed on a pedestal endlessly, and we might not agree with them on each stance or challenge.
Although I don’t want her to be all the pieces for me anymore, Queen Latifah was the position mannequin at a time the place I struggled to find who I truly was outdoors of the slender containers the world made for me, and regardless of who individuals thought a fats Black lady was alleged to be.
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