“The idea of an artist “belonging” to any particular group is questionable in itself, but even worse when this kind of language alienates people — namely people of color —
who may actually get a lot more out of Mitski’s discography than a white person, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.”
Anyone who’s been on the internet — Tumblr, Twitter, Tik Tok — in the past three years has probably seen people talking about how Mitski is “for the gays,” etc.
Alternatively, people tend to focus on feminist analysis of her work, often grouping her with other contemporary female (and primarily white) artists such as Phoebe Bridgers,
Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, and Julien Baker.
These takes aren’t necessarily wrong; it is extremely valuable to discuss how gender and sexuality play into Mitski’s work and the contemporary music scene at large. The issue is that they tend to leave out an important, perhaps the most important, dimension of Mitski’s work: race.
As an Asian-American or Asian-European woman, it is rare to find anything in the entertainment industry that is inclusive or representative of our demographic.
While we could list the names of popular white female artists forever, we can barely count on ten fingers the number of female Asian-American pop artists whose music I can hear my own experiences through.
Listening to Your Best American Girl or Strawberry Blond takes a lot of us back to every time we would pinch our nose in an attempt to make it look pointer, stuck eyelid tape on to give the illusion of bigger eyes – all the qualities of myself that were intrinsic to the Asian physical identity that I hated.
Mitski is helping the Asian-American/European women slowly unlearning my internalised racism.
Your Best American Girl is a cathartic release of the self-hatred we held onto for so long.