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Onesmus Obetto finds fault with the Daily Nation for calling Caroline Mango, a police corporal accused of tax evasion, a “slay queen”.
He suggests that was sensational, subjective and in bad taste. His letter is published below, under “Readers Have their Say”.
The Nation first called Ms Mango a slay queen in a splash front page headline on October 24. The headline read: “‘Slay queen’ corporal is NYS tender tycoon.”
A follow-up story the following day, also featured on the front page, said: “It wasn’t me, ‘Slay queen’ corporal says.”
What is a slay queen? There is no entry for the term in major dictionaries such as Oxford, Cambridge, Collins or Webster.
Only the Urban Dictionary, a crowd-sourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases, defines the term. And it gives seven different definitions.
The “top definition” defines ‘slay queen’ as: “Young and naive girls, who apparently do not date broke men. They spend hours on Snapchat and Instagram showing off things they don’t even own. Nairobi slay queens are the worst; they will milk you dry then run way.”
Another Urban Dictionary definition says a slay queen is: “A beautiful but dumb young woman who chases after wealthy men. Nairobi slay queens ride Ubers and only drink Moet.” (Moet, or more appropriately Moët, is a reference to varieties of popular and expensive French wines produced by Moët & Chandon.)
‘Slay queen’ is a term that can mean so many different things, depending on the user, as in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass.
Humpty Dumpty says to Alice, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Alice responds: “The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
What is certain is, in the context in which the Nation uses the term in its headlines, ‘slay queen’ is sexist and negative.
It humiliates the women concerned. The Nation does not use a similar term to describe men in similar circumstances.
Nairobi News, an online NMG newspaper, uses the term ‘slay queen’ liberally in its headlines.
Example: “Slay Queen detained in Nairobi pub for a whole day after failing to pay Sh3,000 bill” (Nairobi News, November 29, 2018).
This story is about a college student who was detained at an entertainment joint in Rongai for a whole day for failing to pay her bill.
She says she was duped by her boyfriend, who had asked her to go to the entertainment joint and wait for him but never showed up.
The use of the term ‘slay queen’ is particularly questionable in headlines. Apart from photos, headlines are what the reader sees first.
They are the entry point to the story for the reader. Busy or lazy readers first scan the headlines (and photos, if any) before deciding whether to read a story. For some, headlines are all they get to read.
For those reasons, headlines must be accurate both in fact and implication.
They must match or set the tone of the story. A headline must be correct and easily understood by an ordinary reader.
It must also reflect the essence of the story, even as it tries to grab the attention of the reader.
Cute and creative headlines must not sacrifice the need for accuracy. Headlines must not have meanings or connotations not supported by the story.
They must not exaggerate or mislead the reader. They must also be neutral.
The term ‘slay queen’ should only be used in idle gossip, not in the headlines of a quality newspaper — unless the story is about the subject of slay queens, such as the July 21, 2018, Saturday Nation story which was headlined “Slay queens of Africa: Play pokes fun at prima donnas.” The story is a review of the play, "Slay Queens of Africa", by Linda Nabasa.
To use the term freely to describe women in the news is prejudicial and in bad taste, if not entirely inaccurate and misleading.
It is also lazy journalism because the term does not have a precise or universally accepted meaning.
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