Last week, rapper T.I. faced immense backlash after revealing that he makes annual trips to a gynaecologist with his daughter, now 18, to "check her hymen is still intact".
T.I. made the admission during an appearance on the Ladies Like Us podcast, before revealing that his daughter, Deyjah, waives her right to doctor–patient confidentiality so he can access her results.
And T.I. also revealed that he ignores the doctors who have informed him that the hymen can be broken in ways other than sexual penetration.
He added: "I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact."
The comments sparked immediate backlash on social media, with many people expressing shock and disgust.
So instead of celebrating the fact that his child lived another year, TI spends his time hyper-fixating on whether or not her hymen is intact? This is so overwhelmingly weird and toxic and he needs to be stopped
This hymen talk is very strange and at the core of it teaches your daughters their bodies aren’t theirs. Don’t do that.
I’m gonna need everyone, especially men, to let go of this “viriginity/hymen/purity” concept. It’s outdated, let it go. Virginity is made up. It doesn’t exist. Shut the fuck up.
As the backlash spread, Deyjah went on to like a series of tweets describing T.I.'s actions as "disgusting", "possessive" and "controlling".
And it seems Deyjah has now taken things a step further, by unfollowing T.I. on Instagram.
She's also unfollowed him on Twitter — these are the only verified accounts Deyjah is following now.
When people noticed, they were quick to share messages of praise and support for Deyjah.
i’m happy that deyjah unfollowed her dad and her family. she needs to maintain that boundary so they can know that publicly airing out her business and subjecting her to something so invasive was wrong
deyjah unfollowed ti off ig. lmfaosksks good for u deyjah.
Meanwhile, the hosts of the podcast, Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham, have released a statement apologising for their response to T.I.'s comments and their failure to challenge him further.
Following the backlash, many qualified gynaecologists — have spoken out against "virginity testing", explaining that it's widely considered an unnecessarily invasive practice that has no medical benefit and causes profound psychological distress on its subjects.
The hymen means nothing physically and hymen exams are medically not a thing and are unnecessary. And support a disgusting patriarchal trope. 11/12
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood highlighted the fact that "virginity" is a social construct, and explained that the appearance of a hymen cannot indicate whether or not a woman has had sex.
Idk who needs to hear this but virginity is a made-up social construct, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your hymen.
Some people think you can tell if someone’s had sex before if their hymen is stretched open. But that’s not the case. Say it with us: YOU👏CAN’T👏TELL👏IF👏SOMEONE’S👏HAD👏SEX👏BY👏THE👏WAY👏THEIR👏HYMEN👏LOOKS👏OR👏FEELS