A few months ago, Cape Flats hip hop star and coloured activist, Emile YX?, slammed a music video by Die Antwoord depicting Cape prison gangs.
He said the track, called Baita Jou Sabela, was a typical example of white-dominated industries profiting from other cultures.
“Die Antwoord’s success in South Africa or in the world is to steal or appropriate others’ cultural stereotypes and make the most money from it,” he said.
“Elvis did it with rock, Johnny Clegg was the best-known Zulu, Eminem is the best known
rapper.
“It’s how racist the industry actually is. White people need other white people to first say it’s OK... it’s how it works on every level of white-run media or entertainment. Without white endorsement it’s a moerse struggle.
At the time, Munier didn’t give much thought to Emile’s rant about “cultural appropriation”.
Until the very same thing happened to the Daily Voice with its usage of the word “moffie”.
You see, over the years, the Voice has from time to time been called out by members of the gay community for publishing the M-word, or even quoting someone who has used the word - whether in a positive or negative context.
And as much as we have argued in favour of using the word - that it is not only a homophobic slur; that it is also a traditional Cape cultural word with a rich history; that it is sometimes used as a term of endearment - we just can’t win.
No matter how much positive work we do in the queer community, or how many gay pageants we cover.
In the end, we just decided to avoid the word altogether.
Then along came the local movie Moffie, which incidentally debuted on yesterday.
GAY CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: Moffie movie
Here at the Voice, when we heard the title, we all thought: “ Hoooh, someone’s gonna get into trouble for this.”
But ironically no one did... because no one has complained, it seemed.
Instead, the movie - about a young man’s forbidden gay romance in the SADF in the 1980s - has gotten rave reviews so far. From the queer community in particular.
Why? Because it is essentially a white story-cum-movie featuring a white, male cast?
Let’s let Emile YX? answer that question, shall we?
Well, at least if the M-word ever becomes destigmatised and part of popular mainstream language, we’ll have the movie Moffie to thank for it.