Rapper T.I. proudly admitted on a podcast this week that he takes his daughter to the gynaecologist every year to ensure she’s still a virgin.
The father of six told “Ladies Like Us” podcast hosts Nazanin Mandi and Nadia Moham that he takes his 18-year-old daughter Deyjah Harris to the gynaecologist after her birthday every year to check that her hymen is still intact. T.I. told Mandi and Moham that he does this to protect his daughter.
“I think that most kids, man, in hindsight, looking back, they always thank their parents for not allowing them to damage themselves as much as they could have,” he said.
T.I., whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., shares Harris with his wife, Tameka “Tiny” Cottle, who stars alongside T.I. in their reality TV show “T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle.” The couple have three children together, in addition to four other children from past relationships.
When Mandi and Moham asked if T.I. has had the sex talk with any of his daughters, he said he’s done way more than just talk.
“This is the thing. Deyjah’s 18, just graduated high school now and she’s attending her first year of college, figuring it out for herself,” the rapper said. “And yes, not only have we had the [sex] conversation, we have yearly trips to the gynaecologist to check her hymen.”
Mandi and Moham both began laughing, with one jokingly crying out: “Somebody check on Deyjah, she’s a prisoner!”
The hymen has long been used as a symbol of virginity, but many medical professionals have disproven the idea that an intact hymen means a woman is a virgin. The hymen is a thin membrane of tissues ― similar to tissue paper ― rather than one intact piece of tissue. Hymens come in all shapes and sizes, and some girls aren’t even born with hymens. The membrane can tear for a variety of reasons including sexual activity, physical activity, menstruation, general bathing and, often, it simply deteriorates as a girl gets older. Additionally, pointing to an intact hymen furthers the heteronormative assumption that the only definition of sex is penetrative sex between a penis and vagina.
T.I. went on to explain how he makes an appointment with the gynaecologist for his daughter each year and accompanies her to the doctor’s office. Since Harris is 18, the doctor has to have her sign a consent form to share medical information with her father:
This is what we do. Right after the birthday we celebrate. Usually like the day after the party she’s enjoying her gifts. I put a sticky note on the door: “Gyno. Tomorrow. 9:30.” So we’ll go and sit down and the doctor will come and talk and, you know, the doctor’s maintaining a high level of professionalism. He’s like, “You know sir, I have to, in order for me to share information” ― I’m like, “Deyjah they want you to sign this… so we can share information. Is there anything you would not want me to know? See, doc? Ain’t no problem.” And so then [the doctor] 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. Man, just check the hymen please and give me back my results expeditiously.”
The rapper proudly added that as of his daughter’s 18th birthday, “Her hymen is still intact.”