I nearly choked to death at the Game’s grand display of hypocrisy on Instagram.
The rapper-turned-reality-star and virtual dick tease posted a graphic of an exceptionally large black man placing a crown on the mane of a rather demure-looking black woman. The image reminded me of one of those pictures I see for sale on 125th Street alongside images of the Obamas having dinner with Jesus, Malcolm X, and Tupac Shakur. The gender politics in that JJ Evans School of Art piece are astoundingly stupid.
The Game’s caption reminded me of typical dumb shit I read from men on social media, making it even worse.
He wrote: “In a world full of insta-famous, 1/2 clothed, airbrush your skin app using, duck lip doing, poke my but out, find the right angle, selfie taking for attention, club hosting for scraps, 500k followers with no morals having women, you're lucky if you find her.... & if you do, crown her... for she is YOUR QUEEN. One time for the working class women, the single mothers grinding that 9-5 as well as the future, doctors, lawyers, teachers etc... who value their self worth & just finished finals & are glad to finally be on Christmas break cause they worked so hard this semester to get closer to achieving their dreams..... This ones for you”
Then there was the exceptionally long hashtag that took shots at women who sell waist trainers, “detox” tea, and teeth whiteners.
This is hilarious for numerous reasons. One, he upholds a certain type of woman over another in this post, but in his music, it’s very clear his misogyny reduces women majorly to sexual objects. Two, when he talks about women who shill products like waist trainers, he’s talking about a very specific segment of the population: reality stars, or if you’re the Game, co-workers. Three, and most important, this man has been showing his dick print via Instagram i.e. the male equivalent of the poke-my-butt-out girls he’s trying to condemn on Instagram.
He did this for the same reason other people put up suggestive pictures: attention. Such is everyone’s right, but the problem is no one who puts their erect dick on the Internet has room to talk about anyone else doing the same thing. It’s why black women who saw the Game’s clear intent leveled the same sort of regal-theme criticism at him after the first picture surfaced.
Unfortunately, the Game is not the only famous man who has engaged in similar antics. Equally regrettable is each of those men also escaped the sort of criticism their female counterparts are met with upon any display of sexuality.
There was B.o.B, who this time last year began the “#EggplantFriday” craze. Not long after did Cash Out follow suit. And Chris Brown. And Trey Songz, though he’s been on that wave for quite some time. And more recently, Usher.
💪🏾 workin hard so I can eat this 🦃 pic.twitter.com/dGnTxqwDaq
By definition, they are the very kind of “Instagram hoes” routinely roasted on social media by male and female cheerleaders of patriarchy alike.
And yet, it’s their dicks that allow them to deflect from such a tag. I don’t personally take issue with the notion of rocking out with your cock out, or at least, the teasing of such antics. Problem is, each of these men is guilty of sexualizing women yet condemning those as freaks, hoes, and bitches whenever the moment suits them. Never do they ever admit their role in helping popularize the kind of woman they claim to hate after the fact. Nor do any of them acknowledge that by engaging in these sorts of antics, they’re no different than them.
Likewise, while other famous women may net headlines for whatever sexual imagery they present to the world, it immediately is followed with “debate” over whether or not it’s acceptable. Usher is married and a father of two, but he will never get the kind of shit Kim Kardashian gets. The Game might’ve been threatened with the removal of certain pictures, but let it be known that the most infamous shot is still very much online. Meanwhile, women can’t have their breasts displayed on Instagram, even if there’s absolutely no sexual connotation.
In a perfect world, people would be far less judgmental of how we view other individuals’ expression of sexuality—notably more even-handed in allowing women to do so without ridicule while men majorly do so with immediate celebration. Until that day comes, though, if nothing else, call these male rappers and singers the hoes some are so quick to call women. And if you’re a man and guilty of doing the exact same behavior you find appalling in a woman, just fuck off.
