T.I. – please leave your daughter’s hymen alone!

It’s crazy in 2019 that we need to be having this conversation, but apparently rapper T.I. hasn’t got the memo about women’s genitals being none of his business. Yesterday, it was reported that the rapper makes his daughter visit the gynaecologist annually, for the sole reason of making sure her hymen is still intact. Yes. You read that correctly. 

Appearing on podcast Ladies Like Us, the rapper was asked whether he had had the ‘sex talk’ with his daughter Deyjah Harris. “Not only have we had the conversation — we have yearly trips to the gynaecologist to check her hymen,” he said, before adding. “Yes, I go with her.” Despite the intimate nature of the visit, and the doctor trying to maintain a level of privacy, T.I. makes Harris sign a document so the information can be shared with him. He recalls leaving a post-it note on her door when she turned 16, to start the disturbing tradition, and proudly adds: “I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact.” 

The checking of Harris’s hymen, a so-called virginity test, has been widely denounced – with the breaking of the hymen from non-sexual activities like horse-riding, bike-riding, and general athletic activities a common occurrence. The World Health Organisation called it “a violation of the human rights of girls and women.”

Beyond that, the message it sends to his daughter (and women in the wider world) is that being sexually active is something that isn’t right, and that women shouldn’t be in charge of their own bodies. 

So, it bears repeating, T.I. – leave your daughter’s hymen alone!