Rapper T.I. faces backlash over daughter's 'virginity tests'

For decades now, women have been fighting for gaining ownership over their own bodies. Although we've come pretty far since then, stories like these remind us that we still have a long way to go: On the podcast Ladies Like Us, rapper T.I. revealed that he takes his 18-year-old daughter to the gynaecologist every year after her birthday to "check her hymen" to ascertain whether she's still a virgin.

"Usually like the day after the (birthday) party, she's enjoying her gifts, I put a sticky note on the door: 'Gyno. Tomorrow. 9:30'", he told the female hosts Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham.

The controlling ritual apparently started after her 16th birthday. According to the rapper, he lets his daughter sign a waiver that confirms that she's okay with the doctor sharing the results with him.

The fact that a woman's hymen can be broken outside of sexual activity doesn't seem to bother him. "So then they come and say, 'Well, I just want you to know that there are other ways besides sex that the hymen can be broken like bike riding, athletics, horseback riding and just other forms of athletic physical activity'. So 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.'"

Hosts Mandi and Moham laughed T.I.'s comments off, jokingly calling his daughter a "prisoner". The episode has since been deleted from the podcast.

Naturally, social media blew up with comments about T.I.'s controlling behaviour towards his daughter, most of them condemning the father of six. The hashtag #shes18 quickly became a trending topic.

On Twitter, the rapper's behaviour was called "grotesque", "patriarchal" and "abusive". According to media reports, T.I.'s daughter herself liked a tweet that described her father's treatment of her "disgusting, possessive and controlling".

Check out some of the reactions below:

This is fucking grotesque. It is also abusive as hell. How can his daughter be expected to know what to expect from a healthy relationship if she is being treated like this by her own dad? https://t.co/qvJL4j9EF5

— Kirsty Strickland (@KirstyStricklan) November 6, 2019

Virginity tests are a form of gender based violence condemned by the World Health Organisation. Yet T.I is carrying them out on his own daughter with his private gynaecologist.

Money just lets people do anything. https://t.co/Ligty6sjT4

— Dr Annabel (@SoSowemimo) November 7, 2019