The Criticisms of Jahan Yousaf’s Billboard Article Are Missing the Point

Jahan Yousaf performs at Beyond Bay 2014 in a not so skimpy outfit.

On Monday, Billboard ran an essay by Krewella’s Jahan Yousaf about dealing with the aftermath of Kris Trindl (aka Rain Man, the group’s producer) suing her and her sister Yasmine for a casual $5 million. Yousaf’s lengthy article was essentially a statement against online bullying—as well as the many instances of the sisters being called whores/sluts/hoes/cunts/bitches and other choice terms on the internet—after the lawsuit became a trending story on Facebook and a headline on TMZ.

Whatever way you swing it, the Yousaf sisters are in an unpleasant situation. It’s not fun to get sued, and it’s not fun to have thousands of strangers call you a slut on social media.

The response to Jahan’s piece in the Billboard comment section have largely focused on whether or not the sisters were actually behind the group’s music, with many people reducing their roles to little more than glorified hype girls. While that’s an intriguing topic (and surely the crux of the lawsuit), their Krewella workload is not at all the point of the op-ed. Instead, Jahan writes about how the internet backlash against her and her sister has been not just gross and upsetting, but sexist, intolerant, generally nasty and indicative of the double standard women in the electronic music industry experience.

The Billboard article has created a whole new wave of criticism saying it’s diverting the focus away from Kris’ leaving the group (whether he got kicked out or left of his own accord) and making the issue more about the sexist response the women received.

Perhaps it’s a PR red herring, but it doesn’t make what Jahan is saying any less relevant. Ironically, this piece about why people shouldn’t be dicks on the internet has been met with, you guessed it, a ton of people being dicks on the internet—Deadmau5 included.

.@Krewella @billboard it has nothing to dow ith you being a woman, it has everything to do with you sucking at music. Im an equal sex hater.

— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) December 9, 2014

As a good editor once said, you can’t feed the trolls, and an article asking people to be nicer to each other online is simply ripe for attack. Still, it’s disappointing that reactions to the article basically embody the problem it addressed in the first place. Though the responses have not been as visceral as the initial attack, plenty of commenters have questioned the girls’ talent, saying they would have been nothing without Trindl, and criticized the “skimpy outfits” they wear while performing. Trindle himself has kept mostly quiet, except for a single tweet:

everyone on krewellas team has betrayed me. believe what you’d like but i have been forced out so that everybody could cash better checks

— Delirium Tremens (@omgRainMan) December 10, 2014

And of course, Deadmau5 chimed in again, accusing the girls of playing the sexism card and once again emphasizing that he thinks they lack any talent.

of course that fuckin idiot would play the sex card…. get the fuck out of here. please. just go.

— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) December 9, 2014

Sure, the internet is the internet, and haters gonna hate, but whatever the truth is behind the lawsuit, the world (wide web) would be a nicer place if everyone would just embrace the think-before-you-comment ethos Jahan outlined:

“Is the message in your text box aligned with your future aspirations in life, like being a father, mother, lawyer, politician, actor, musician, activist or whatever your dream is?”

What she’s saying is, when you’re on the internet casually calling some stranger an asshole, take a second before you hit send and consider: Do I really think this person is an asshole? Would I say this to the person’s face? Would I want the people I respect to see what I’m writing? Am I actually saying something intelligent, or am I just spewing hate speak into the world for no reason other than a momentary thrill?

The entire Krewella affair is obviously a complicated one, but really, taking two second to think about the impact of your words would make the internet a vastly nicer place to exist.

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