Nicki Minaj Addresses VMA Snub, Taylor Swift Misses the Point

By Sameer Rao Jul 22, 2015

Making a "Bad Blood" joke would be low-hanging fruit. Needless to say, Tuesday’s MTV Video Music Award nomination announcement touched off a small feud between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift—two people that, as the picture above suggests, have been friendly—and mirrored a lot of larger-scale debates about women’s agency in showbusiness and intersectionality. 

It started when Minaj, a sort of model for body-positive and empowering sexuality in music tweeted about her "Anaconda" video not receiving the "Video of the Year" nomination, as well as the normative standards that seemed to guide those women nominated for the award (including Swift, who was nominated for her "Bad Blood" video featuring Kendrick Lamar): 

Swift, who’s been a public champion of what might be termed contex-less female empowerment, tweeted back: 

Minaj responded, asking Swift to respond to the bigger issue: 

Swift’s conclusion to the convo was expectedly well-intentioned, kind, and totally missing the point: 

Here’s to Taylor Swift missing the point, forever and ever more. 

(H/t Spin