Categories: Celebs

#TSRConversations: Does Hyper-Masculinity Perpetuate Homophobia In The Black Community?

<p class&equals;"p1">Rappers Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert&&num;8217&semi;s unconventional style is a controversial topic in Hip Hop today and has attracted widespread criticism&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">Recently&comma; a photo surfaced online of Uzi wearing a &dollar;2&comma;400 Faith Connexion women&&num;8217&semi;s T-shirt and&comma; on Thursday night &lpar;May 18&rpar;&comma; Thugger hit the stage in New Jersey rocking a &dollar;9&comma;000 Chanel SS17 Led Boy Bag&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">This has led many fans to question the artists&&num;8217&semi; sexuality&period; A lot of the comments online were homophobic in nature and seemed to be unaccepting of the idea that a straight man can wear female clothing&period; But the real question is&colon; Does clothing dictate a man&&num;8217&semi;s sexual orientation&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">In an Instagram post&comma; user Kira J&period; also brought to light the fact that Black men get shamed as feminine for wearing the same things and acting the same way as men in other cultures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">&&num;8220&semi;Due to the extreme homophobia in the black community&comma; black people are constantly on the lookout for signs of &&num;8220&semi;feminine&&num;8221&semi; behavior in black men to bash them&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she wrote&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">&&num;8220&semi;Being accused of being gay is the go to slander for a black man&period; His heterosexuality is the test of his manhood in the eyes of society&period; Which is rather foolish because I definitely know a lot of openly gay men who display more masculinity than some metrosexual men I know&period; So this idea that masculinity equates to whether you&&num;8217&semi;re gay or not is bullsh&ast;t&period; In any case&comma; black men aren&&num;8217&semi;t allowed to be creative&period; Black men aren&&num;8217&semi;t allowed to listen to pop&period; Black men aren&&num;8217&semi;t allowed to experiment with their hair&period; Black men aren&&num;8217&semi;t allowed to explore a fashion sense&period; Black men aren&&num;8217&semi;t allowed to display ANY signs of emotion unless it is anger&period; Anger is the only publicly accepted norm&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re a black man and you get caught crying you will be told you&&num;8217&semi;re showing signs of weakness&period; You will probably be made fun of and called sensitive&period; The plight of the brother&period; Y&&num;8217&semi;all expect all of this from the black man&period; Y&&num;8217&semi;all condition all of this cold behavior and this unable to penetrate exterior then turn around and complain when you can&&num;8217&semi;t get a black man to show you honest raw affection&period; Some of y&&num;8217&semi;all will never know what the inside of a black man&&num;8217&semi;s heart looks like because you&&num;8217&semi;ve spent so many years helping him close it off&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8230&semi;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">Odell Beckham Jr&period; responded to her post saying&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Amen &excl;&excl;&excl; U speaking the facts on this one&comma; and we&&num;8217&semi;ll continue to go backward if we keep the same mindset we have now&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll get backlash for even commenting&excl;&quest;&quest; &num;LetEmLive<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">Odell has been another man who has been under scrutiny over his sexuality because he is a football player who also happens to love dancing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">These attitudes seem to perpetuate the culture of hypermasculinity among black men&comma; which also contributes to other harmful behaviors such as domestic violence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">Hypermasculinity has been blamed for why black women are more likely to suffer at the hands of domestic violence and least likely to speak up&period; The statistics from a 2011 report by the Violence Policy Center showed that black women were 2&period;5 times more likely to be killed by their partner than white women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">Domestic violence does not exclusively affect the Black community and hypermasculinity is a problem among all races&period; Better education and conversation about domestic violence and gender expression can help combat the negative stigma our Black men face today&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">Let&&num;8217&semi;s chat below&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1">TSR Staff&colon; &commat;avah&lowbar;taylor on IG and &commat;avahtaylor on Twitter&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; center&semi;&semi;"> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-container" data-ver&equals;"1&period;3&period;10" data-post&lowbar;id&equals;"28574" data-show&lowbar;count&equals;"true" data-enable&lowbar;share&equals;"onclick" data-behavior&equals;"regular" data-animation&equals;"true" data-share&lowbar;url&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;tsr-conversations-does-homophobia-in-hip-hop-perpetuate-hyper-masculinity-in-the-black-community&sol;" data-secure&equals;"9b1f9de0e1"> <div class&equals;"wpra-call-to-action" style&equals;"color&colon; 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Jade Whiteside

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