Deyjah Harris, the daughter of rapper T.I., has taken a stand against her dad in the wake of the news he gets a doctor to check her hymen is still intact every year.
18-year-old Deyjah has unfollowed her famous father on social media after ‘liking’ a series of tweets branding him ‘disgusting’, ‘possessive’ and ‘controlling’.
It comes after T.I. admitted he does yearly ‘virginity checks’ on her daughter by getting her to waive her right to doctor-patient confidentiality so he can access her results – although I don’t suppose the waiver includes broadcasting it on a huge public platform.
He also confessed to ignoring the doctor’s information that the hymen can be broken in many other ways than sexual penetration.
During the Life Hacks episode of the Ladies Like Us podcast, the rapper said:
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.’
I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact.
While Deyjah has remained tight lipped about her dad’s privacy invasion since the (now edited) podcast was released, the 18-year-old’s social media activity has been more than telling.
After being inundated with messages of support, encouraging her to tell her side of the story, Deyjah told her followers: ‘i loveeeeeee yalllllll’, before liking three tweets which called out her dad for his actions.
While one tweet read simply: ‘That is just beyond possessive,’ another read: ‘This is disgusting, possessive and controlling *whew*,’ and the latter said: ‘”give me my results” first of all mf, those are HER results!! Like WTF.’
Now, Deyjah has stood against the 39-year-old once more by unfollowing him on Twitter and Instagram, and her followers have been quick to praise her for taking a stance.
‘I’m happy that Deyjah unfollowed her dad and her family,’ one follower wrote. ‘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.’
T.I. rubbed salt into the wounds of his horrifying approach to parenting when he revealed he was more than happy to know his son, who is just 15, is already sexually active.
Good to know sexism (among many, many darker issues afoot here) is still alive and well in the entertainment industry.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.