Slay queens are the talk of social media town. From what I gather, slay queens are young women in their early 20s to mid-thirties, very attractive and attention-thirsty. They spend their days on Instagram and Snap Chat flaunting their bodies and appearing to live glamorous lives. They only hang out in high-end places and only attend high-end social events. They have the latest Iphones, truckloads of make-up and knockoff designer clothes. Women loathe them. Men love to hate them. Everyone thinks of them as moral and intellectual degenerates. And yet I am here to side with them. Here’s why. First of all, I do not like the hypocrisy of hating on slay queens. Everyone pretends to hate them so much and yet they have a multitude of social media followers. Of women who are there to quietly envy them and men who are there to ogle their behinds, ‘love’ their photos, and then compare them to their wives. Comparing almost always results married men pursuing the slay queens, showering them with expensive gifts, throwing them extravagant birthday bashes, taking them to exotic places around the world. The married men become willing and active participants in breaking the vow they made to their wives. And yet it is the slay queens who take the heat; they are accused of stealing husbands and destroying marriages. When slay queens post photos in places we all know they can’t afford to go, we ridicule them for not including their ‘sponsors’ and yet it is the sponsors who prefer to remain anonymous because they don’t want to get caught. We lie and say that looks don’t matter and that slay queens should aim to become women who care more about their brains than their waistlines. And yet slay queens command more attention than the women we all pretend to admire. Another reason why I can’t join the burn-the-slay-queens bandwagon is that I like to give credit where it’s due. Do you know the amount of energy required to wake up every morning and put on a show? You have to choose the right outfit, wear a lot of makeup, look for the right background, take a million photos, pick one, edit it until your skin looks like glass and then look for the right caption to keep things fresh. Meanwhile, I can’t even remember to wear earrings before I step out of the house. And yes, what we know what slay queens portray on social media is a complete lie. We know that some of them do in fact sleep hungry. But I won’t cast a stone because I know that we all lie. There is no adult who has not engaged in false advertising at one point or the other. Whether it’s puffing up your experience on a résumé to get job, or parting with a larger sum of money during a wedding meeting than you can afford to keep up appearances, we all lie. So until we can truly admonish slay queens and drive them to extinction, we need to lay off of them.
