Rapper T.I. disturbed fans everywhere last week when he proudly revealed, on the Ladies Like Us podcast, that he has his 18-year-old daughter’s hymen checked annually by a gynaecologist to confirm her virginity.
While there are a whole host of things wrong with that — most notably that a hymen in any condition does not denote virginity — the statement had just about everyone weighing in on the issue.
That includes political activist Gloria Steinem, who took perhaps the boldest stance yet, telling TMZ she thinks he’s breaking the law.
“That is a human rights abuse. It is not his hymen. It is not his body. He does not have any right to be there,” Steinem said, after TMZ informed her T.I. had his daughter sign off on him having access to her medical information. “You can’t invade a child’s body for anything other than a medical emergency or reason. There’s a power relationship that’s very suspicious there. I don’t think it sounds like free will.”
When she then learned the rapper allows his younger, 15-year-old son to have sex, she said, “That makes it even worse,” she said. “He is the sexist of the most classic sort. And the courts should be after him.”
After T.I.’s bold declaration swept through social media, his daughter Deyjah unfollowed him on both Twitter and Instagram, liking tweets calling his behaviour “disgusting” and “controlling.”
Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham, the hosts of Ladies Like Us , have since taken down the episode and apologized in a statement for their reaction — which was mostly nervous laughter — to T.I.’s confession.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
