2019 has been a big year for women’s rights. The #MeToo movement gave a voice to victims of sexual assault, women were championed in business, entertainment and sport, and abortion was legalised in a handful of countries – including NSW
But just when you thought women had started to regain control over their own bodies, rapper T.I makes a bunch of comments about his daughter’s sexual health that make it feel like we’ve taken one hundred steps backwards.
In a recent interview with Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham on Ladies Like Us, T.I was asked if he’s had the “sex talk” with his daughters.
“Not only have we had the conversation,” T.I said. “We have yearly trips to the gynecologist to check her hymen…Yes, I go with her.”
T.I, whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr, went on to explain that after his daughter’s 16th birthday, he “put a sticky note on the door,” which read: “Gyno. Tomorrow. 9:30.”
“So we’ll go and sit down and the doctor comes and talk, and the doctor’s maintaining a high level of professionalism,” he said. “He’s like, ‘You know, sir, I have to, in order to share information’ – I’m like, ‘Deyjah, they want you to sign this so we can share information. Is there anything you would not want me to know? See, Doc? Ain’t no problem.”
Later, T.I said the doctors informed him of the many ways a hymen can be broken other than through sexual penetration. “I say, ‘Look, Doc, she don’t ride no horses, she don’t ride no bike, she don’t play no sports. Just check the hymen, please, and give me back my results expeditiously.”
“I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact,” he added.
T.I’s comments were quick to cop major backlash online, with Twitter users claiming his fixation on maintaining his daughters virginity is “outdated,” “weird and toxic.”
It also begs the question: how much control should parents have over their 18-year-old child’s sexual health – or more specifically, the state of their hymen.
In response to T.I’s comments, OB/GYN Dr. Jennifer Gunter said, “the hymen is no virginity indicator, 50% of sexually active teens do not have a disrupted hymen.”
“The hymen means nothing physically and hymen exams are medically not a thing and are unnecessary,” she said. “And support a disgusting patriarchal trope.”
Dr. Jennifer Gunter isn’t the only one who views T.I’s control over his daughter’s sexual health as a violation. The World Health Organisation says “‘virginity testing’ has no scientific or clinical basis.”
“There is no examination that can prove a girl or woman has had sex – and the appearance of a girl’s or woman’s hymen cannot prove whether they have had sexual intercourse, or are sexually active or not.”
A 2017 study reviewing virginity testing published in the Reproductive Health Journal found that not only does hymen examination “not accurately or reliably predict virginity status,” but it “could cause physical, psychological, and social harms to the examinee.”
It appears that T.I’s efforts have already had a negative impact, with his daughter Deyjah retweeting a series of posts denouncing her father’s behaviour.
It’s time to do away with the outdated views and the persistent desire to control women and their bodies. It also sounds like T.I could do with a healthy reality check when it comes to his daughter’s sexual health and independence.