rapper too $hort remained true to his pimp persona when he was solicited to give “fatherly” advice during a xxl interview last week. in the interview, which has since been removed from the magazine’s website, he gave little boys insight into how to sexually assault their female classmates:
“when you get to late middle school, early high school and you start feeling a certain way about the girls… i’m gonna tell you a couple tricks…lot of the boys are going to be running around trying to get kisses from the girls…we’re going way past that. i’m taking you to the hole.”
it gets worse:
“you push her up against the wall…take your finger and put a little spit on it and you stick your finger in her underwear and you rub it on there and watch what happens.”
many people, rightfully so, are upset that xxl allowed this detailed rape scenario to be filmed and posted to its website. the magazine’s female editor, vanessa satten, has since apologized, claiming it “goes against her value system.” *side eye* i hate to sound condescending, but ms. satten’s value system is up for debate–she heads a magazine that persistently objectifies black and brown women. oh, now you got values?
it’s black women’s objectification that makes too $hort’s advice to young boys typical and predictable. as the dollar sign in his name connotes, too $hort has based his career on glorifying pimp culture, disrespecting women, and promoting sexual deviance. when researching his lyrics, i realized they were so explicit until they can’t be posted. i’m ashamed to know this type of hyper-misogyny is present in the black community.
only a people grappling with self-hatred could ever justify possessing a culture that includes the type of vulgarity and disrespect too $hort’s songs spew. i’m not absolved from this criticism, as i remember many late nights dancing in clubs to “shake that monkey.” however, as i write this post, i can’t think of one popular white artist who speaks about women in a similar fashion. i’m not implying that white men aren’t sexist, but i believe slavery and structural racism have created a type of acute sexism in the black community that is both pervasive and parasitic. the cruelest part is that we don’t deal with it. it’s neatly swept under the rug, right beside oj’s murder of nicole brown simpson and r. kelly’s child molestation.
rappers like too $hort have grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts, wives, daughters–women in their lives who they love and admire enough to protect from misogynistic rhetoric. why am i so different?
