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The CJDS

Sep 7, 2022 • 43 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X

Good evening/morning/afternoon folks!

The first (ever) #LectureCJDS, "Discourses on Disability, Race and Masculinity in the Wheelchair Drake Meme" is about to get underway.

@jeffpreston

We will be tweeting on @jeffpreston's behalf, but he is ready, waiting, and excited to receive your questions.

If you have a question, make sure to @ him and use #LectureCJDS.

And off we go....

@TheCJDS

Today I am thrilled to be sharing a Tweet thread about my article published by @TheCJDS entitled “They See Me Rollin’, They Hatin’: Discourses of disability, race and masculinity in the Wheelchair @Drake meme”.

A (not so) brief twitter thread about #6god memes...

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Content warning: White guy talking, sometimes indirectly, about race. I recognize it would likely be more fair for a Black scholar to take this space AND in my research on memes, disability and masculinity I would be remiss to ignore this meme or not address race within it.
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To think about the complex intersection of disability and race in this meme, I have turned to the work of exceptional scholars, namely Tommy Curry’s work on Black masculinity, and Anna Hinton, Moya Bailey, Izetta Autumn Mobley & Therí Pickens work on disability and race.

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If you feel as mixed or conflicted as I do, I value feedback and criticism (especially but not only from Black folks) that may directly challenge my perspective or choices here. I am grateful for the venue but understand if this might be a “pass” for you, dear reader.

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@jeffpreston

A brief video introducing me, Dr. @jeffpreston

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What follows is a glimpse of my study presented within the confines of social media bird law (dang character limits!). If you prefer the novel over the Coles notes, you can find the FULL article (FOR FREE) that this thread is based on here: cjds.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cjds…

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Some (all?) might wonder why a DS prof would be researching OVO XO Certified Lover Boy, actor turned rapper, Aubrey "Drake" Graham. For me, like many Canadians, my curiosity with Drake began with his TV stint on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

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In my book, I explore how physically disabled characters, like Drake’s Jimmy Brooks, are overcome by anxieties of emasculation and sexual impotence. Disability is thought to both symbolically and literally prevent one from being a "real man".
routledge.com/The-Fantasy-of…

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During that study, I stumbled upon a growing collection of memes using a Degrassi promo photo of Drake, featuring him using a wheelchair, with added jokes juxtaposing the lover boy rapper Drake and this teenager in a wheelchair.

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It was surprising how the jokes in the memes echoed the anxieties displayed in Degrassi. In the show, Brooks worried being disabled made him less of a man. In the meme, disability was proof that Drake isn't the man he claims to be.

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So I decided to dig a little deeper, tracking down over 500 "Wheelchair Drake" memes on several meme generator websites and conducting a thematic analysis to consider how the meme was being used and, more importantly, what discourses of disability & masculinity were present.
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Summary of findings: Part 1
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Summary of findings: Part 2

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Although not super surprising, disability appears in the memetic cluster in some traditional ways. Most commonly, the memes focus on the wheelchair itself, tethering imaginations of disability to the adaptive device.

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The wheelchair, an iconic symbol of disability in the West, appears throughout the memetic cluster as the core prism through which disability is seen. The wheelchair becomes an important signifier of identity: once in a wheelchair, Graham can no longer be JUST Drake.

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We also see a conflation of wheelchair use and the complete inability to walk, a discourse found in other viral images (see image) and disability is seen as a loss of normalcy, caused by injury or violence, that is sure to last forever.

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Interesting, the sample also consists of some direct claims of universalized impairment. Wheelchair users are thought to slobber or drool on themselves or depend on others for things like getting into their chair or putting on a pair of pants.

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As an aside, the meme format was (rarely) used to offer counter hegemonic narratives of disability. For a handful of memes, the problem is not bodily impairment but the ableist world we find ourselves within.

An interesting moment of the social model in popular discourse.

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Considered broadly, the memetic cluster regularly situates disability as a tragic experience of loss and, worst of all, bodily carnage that is feared to last forever.

Bodily loss is both painful and shameful, leading to dependency, suffering and isolation.

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As it turns out, the presumed link between disability, weakness and rap was an anxiety we now know Drake also had while on Degrassi: buzzfeednews.com/article/ellend…

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In the sample, disability becomes useful metaphoric tool deployed to level harsh critiques of Drake’s lyrical claims to embody an expected or desired masculinity. In the sample, there is a particular focus in contrasting Drake as deficient compared to other Black rappers.

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An important aside: my intention here is not to define what "proper" masculinity is/should be, nor is it about making claims about what are/aren't true experiences of Black masculinity.

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Instead, I seek to explore (some) contours of white supremacist masculinity when brought into conversation with ideologies of compulsory able-bodiedness and how these rhetorics are deployed to frame Drake as an illegitimate man and/or rapper.

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Like many rappers, Drake is no stranger to discourses of wealth as symbolic of masculine status, with many of his songs embracing the hip hop braggadocio’s “money over everything” or getting too drunk because he always drinks to his accomplishments:

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One meme offers a significant revision of the Headlines lyric as “rolling” instead of floating, shift the emancipatory meaning to the “confining” nature of a wheelchair. Perhaps, like a wheelchair user unable to jump, Graham is not flying quite as high as he claims.

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Another important status symbol, owning expensive cars, is also drawn into question. While Big Tymers may have a quarter tank of gas in their new e-class Mercedes-Benz or cruising with the top down in their 430 Lexus, Graham is instead only able to drive his wheelchair.

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With women, Graham assures, he has “plenty of luck”. More recently, the cover of his 2021 album Certified Lover Boy verifies Drake’s sexual potency with a series of female emojis modified to appear pregnant—real men do not just have sex, but procreate prolifically.

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Despite these assurances, the Wheelchair Drake cluster contains a high volume of memes that draw into question Drake’s success with women. While Jay-Z may have 99 problems but a “b*tch ain’t one”, Drake has two problems—his dysfunctional legs.

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Leaning on the belief that physical impairment results in sexual impotence, one meme scoffs that he “cant have none” or if he does have sex he might end up in a wheelchair because he is not man enough to handle a woman like Nicki Minaj.

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While Drake's music suggests he is strong and capable of violence, the memes regularly question his toughness, focusing on how he is more likely to fall victim to the violent prowess of other (more potent) rappers.

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One meme implies that Graham’s excessive bragging will get him “hit”. Another references Chris Brown’s violent attack of Rihanna, implying Drake is in a wheelchair because of a “beatdown”. Another cites a feud with Pusha T with Drake’s wheelchair use being the end result.

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Woven into all of these examples is the notion that by comparison Graham is a weak man unable to compete with the violent and aggressive tendencies of “real” rappers, with the wheelchair embodying his emasculated identity.

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Vulnerability and repression are again tied to sexuality and castration, with these questions animating the final thematic cluster of the Wheelchair Drake meme—that Graham is not a “real” man because he is effeminate, homosexual or possibly transgender.

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Drake's inability to stand up for himself, deadlift weights, or drink anything but rosé all mark him as an effeminate man who falls outside dominant discourses of masculinity. Drake is also said to be fellating Lil Wayne or having sex with J Cole.

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All of these memes leverage femininity and homosexuality to articulate the ways Graham has failed the test of white supremacist masculinity—while he may claim he is a “real” man, the Wheelchair Drake memes insists that is merely a “wheel” man.

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