Same script, different cast; women on social media under pressure
On June 13th, rapper and reality tv personality, Sukihana was sexually assaulted by fellow rapper YK Osiris. After a Crew League basketball tournament in Atlanta, he forcefully kissed her once and after she recoiled, he repeated the action. The room was full of their peers and while those around her looked visibly uncomfortable, none of them stepped in or offered her support.
This incident went viral on social media, lighting the flames of an explosive debate on the line between performance and violation.
While many swarmed to her defence, others speculated on whether her sexual persona; ‘Suki WITH THE GOOD COOCHIE’, OnlyFans and explicit song lyrics could be partly blamed for her public violation. The entertainer later deleted her social media accounts.
“Too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will.”
Megan Thee Stallion
This idea that women can only be pure or debased is what Freud first identified as the Madonna-Whore complex. In the past wearing a corset or exposing your shoulders was deemed scandalous. So, what is deemed pure or provocative is more of a statement on societal expectations than objective morality. But even as time passes women are presented as objects of that morality.
Sukihanagoat@instagram
I am hurt and I am scared to stand up for myself
Sukihana
Consent, like most things, is situational. Sukihana consenting to perform sex acts for paid subscribers means she granted consent to be sexualised in a context which she designed. She can decide the price, select her partners and set her own boundaries. That doesn’t mean she has consented to sexualisation in other contexts, a basketball game for example.
If you worked at McDonald’s during the holidays, it would be very weird if your professor asked you to make them a McChicken Sandwich Meal in the middle of a Wednesday lecture.
Still, black women are no strangers to the societal expectation of their sexual availability, a cultural hold over from colonisation and slavery
According to the National Centre on Violence Against Women in the Black Community, one in four black girls will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18 and one in five black women are survivors of rape.
Black women also experience significantly higher rates of psychological abuse — including humiliation, insults, name-calling and coercive control — than do women over all.’
Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
These statistics show that what happened to Sukihana, while disgusting, is sadly not an anomaly. Regardless of reputation or sexual expression, black women are at a higher risk of such attacks.
Want another example? Look no further than ‘Pretty Home Depot Girl’.
Ariiijosephine@instagram
Home Depot worker Ariana posted a selfie during her break and instantly went viral on Twitter, amassing over 35 million views and 100,000 likes. Many praised the Madonna for not making an OnlyFans and ‘getting a real job’. Despite the fact mixing paint at Home Depot was only a college job, commenters were hellbent on using her go-getter attitude as a verbal-weapon against sex work.
Initially, it seemed like Ariana appreciated the shaky pedestal, playing to the crowd in a since deleted post that: her not making an OnlyFans and working a regular job was:
‘getting money the RIGHT way’.
And in an earlier post that her father had warned her
‘ALL money ain’t good Money’.
However, after a brief backlash, Ariana stepped out of the conversation, encouraging sex workers to
“Take it from here.”
in the comment section.
This is where it should’ve ended; a story, an important conversation, possibly a teachable moment.
Unfortunately, in a June 12th TikTok update, Ariana revealed that she was concerned for her safety and had to quit her job after her location was discovered. As a result of this horrific news she will probably have to ‘relocate and start fresh’, leaving her town and school behind.
Regardless of where they are situated on the spectrum of respectability, black women have always come-of-age in hostile territory. In the Madonna-Whore dichotomy, where can black women be free?
Maybe somewhere between icon and object.
