Photo Credit: T.I./Instagram; Dayjah Harris/Instagram
One of the more bizarre stories occurred over the last few weeks involving rapper T.I. stating on a podcast that he accompanies his 18 year old daughter on her gynecologist appointments. But it wasn’t just that he accompanies her, he instructs the doctor to “check her hymen” with him sitting there to ensure she’s still a virgin. The store was so bizarre that we originally decided not to cover it, hoping it would just blow over. Some things just don’t need to be said, and we’d prefer it to blow over without further exploiting it. But of course, time went on and Irv Gotti talked about waving a gun around at his daughter’s boyfriend before prom, so in noticing a trend, we decided to chime in.
T.I. immediately got labeled a creep and the memes of him peaking at his daughter flooded the internet. Worse than the act itself is whatever his daughter Deyjah Harris had to have been feeling through all of it. Of course no one ever thinks about the affect these stories have on others. Well she thanked her fans for all of their support and went on to deactivating her accounts… presumably until all of this blows over. Now a number of UN organizations have spoken against this type of virginity test calling it humiliating and unnecessary. It’s also worth noting a hymen can be broken by other ways, including horseback riding. But fret not, he had that covered, stating she doesn’t do sports or rigorous activity so there’s no reason for that.
The hosts of the show have apologized for laughing while he told the story of the two going to the OBGYN together every year since her 16th birthday, which is understandable because it’s a shocking thing to hear. The episode’s since been removed as well. I’ve personally heard that he had a bet with her where she would get a certain amount of money if she remained a virgin, which I haven’t been able to confirm, but if that were the case, it would at least make some sort of sense out of this. I could sum this up to the fact that all parents embarrass us in some form of fashion and this just happens to be one of those wildly uncomfortable moments of a parent going too far. It’s worth the discussion for us all to learn from, but I don’t see it as any reason to overly demonize T.I. for it as it appears his intentions were well. Even Irv Gotti said that he and T.I. have been not so nice guys in the past and are simply trying to protect their daughters. The next part of this discussion needs to be protecting daughters, likely in a more sane way.
