2015 has definitely been the year of the side chick. The secretive role that used to cause public shame and at one time required women to be banned from their communities is now something reality stars, professional women and even writers claim with pride. We can definitely credit Mona Scott-Young’s “Love & Hip Hop” as one of the main culprits for taking the position that used to be taboo and making it mainstream. But Scott-Young isn’t the only one celebrating the side position that has eclipsed the coveted wife role in many instances.
Atlanta author Antoinette Smith has a collection of novels dedicated to alternative relationships, especially the “side b—-” role that Smith says she claims with pride. In fact, Smith has a line of tee shirts emblazoned with the slogan “proud side bish” and talks very candidly via her social media pages about her married boyfriend. “I love my married boyfriend and there is nothing anyone can say that would make me feel bad about that. He treats me better than I’ve ever been treated and we love each other. I wouldn’t want to be his main chick, he obviously doesn’t respect her,” Smith says.
NY Times best-selling fiction and erotica writer Mary “Honey B” Morrison frequently does google hangouts, sex instruction classes and interacts via social media with her fans. Morrison empowers her readers to get what they want out of love and romance, including men that may be otherwise attached. Morrison uses her Facebook page to break down the definitions of “main side chick” vs. “a side main chick” and the various titles of priority between the sexes. “There are levels to this, but women should get what they want by any means necessary. Most women don’t get what they want from relationships, men want sex and they are clear about that. Most women don’t go after what they want. If it’s sex, that’s fine, if it’s not that’s fine too. The only way to play the game wrong is if you don’t play for yourself,” Morrison says.
Urban culture’s most infamous side chick has to be “Love & Hip Hop” Atlanta’s Puerto Rican princess, Joseline Hernadez. The former self-proclaimed “side b—-” managed to snag her former hip-hop hitman Stevie J, from his longtime girlfriend Mimi Faust and ended up switching her title from side chick to wife. Another “Love & Hip Hop” alumna, Amina Pankey managed to trade her original “side chick” status for wife status also, trading places with Peter Gunz’s main chick, Tara Wallace.
It’s common knowledge that ballers and entertainers have always had women on the side, it wasn’t until recently that it became commonplace for the side chicks to come out of the closet with pride and confront their man and his leading lady. After NFL player Victor Cruz’s fiancée confronted a group of her man’s side ladies, one of the alleged side chicks sat down with US Weekly to confirm the communication between the sides and the main.
As one poster on Facebook stated, “if the side chicks have all the information about the main chick, but many times the main chick has no idea the side chick exists … wouldn’t that mean the side chick has the upper hand? I don’t want to be a side chick but from where I’m sitting, they seem to be winning.”
Sounds like great deductive reasoning to me. I am not saying I’d ever want to wear that title, but we all have to admit 2015 was a great year for side chicks everywhere.
