Tyrese has caught flack from many critics for his varying opinions of women and their behavior. His most recent opinion of what women do with their bodies caught him the most backlash as of late.
Now a black man who happens to write for Ebony believes opinions like Tyrese’s cause domestic abuse incidents including the situation that occurred in San Bernardino, California. In San Bernardino, a black man shot his wife and himself at an elementary school over a domestic dispute.
Ebony writes:
Once upon a time, I was a young man who parroted Tyrese’s ideology almost word for word. I believed women should keep their legs shut, stop wearing weave, stop getting plastic surgery and even limit the amount of times they go out every week. Somewhere in my mind, I really believed I had women’s best interests at heart.
It wasn’t until I had a particularly contentious debate with my homegirl that the truth came out. I remember espousing my viewpoints to her in the middle of our tense conversation and her firing one question back at me that turned me into a stuttering mess:
“To what end?”
“To what end do women need to keep their legs shut, especially when y’all don’t? To what end do women need to stop wearing weave? To what end do women need to jump through these hoops y’all men created?” she asked.
I began stuttering, not because I didn’t know what to say, but rather because every answer I had at that moment embarrassed me. Every answer I attempted to formulate boiled down to some pathetic version of “…because that’s what we demand y’all to do.”
I’m not telling Tyrese to shut up because I disagree with him. I’m telling him to shut the hell up because we truly do not need pseudo-relationship experts running their untrained, anti-intellectual mouths propagating the dangerous dogma of intrinsic inequality. Girls weren’t made for boys, as women don’t exist for men. We are equals and if we don’t begin to push that narrative, we will continue to see many more instances of abject violence by men who feel compelled to dominate women’s sovereignty.
UPDATE: Tyrese has taken to Instagram to write an apology. In a series of Instagram posts, he claims he knew he had to apologize after his mentor checked him.
He writes:
Ladies……. My most sincere apology is coming in ny next post……. Likely no one will see it but it’s coming anyway…….. I just got off with my mentor and she just came down on me in a major way, checked me caved my chest in with reality and made it plane….. Damn I’ve said some super stupid sh*t….. See my next post….. read my full message on my Facebook.com/Tyrese live love and embrace growth
…My mother taught me better than this….. lesson learned in life you will learn that It’s not always “what” you say, it’s the “how” we choose to say it. For the record I’m far from a misogynist, a male chauvinist or flat out mean….. My intentions were there but my delivery f*cking horrible…. And clearly all the way off…. And for that I sincerely apologize to all of the ladies… Even after this apology…. Some may likely decide to NOT forgive me…. Time and consistency heals all wounds…. Although I’ve been consistently for years speaking on these topics and some of the same words in my message, I have never experienced what I am experiencing right now. – I’ve been getting dragged and feel the heat from my poor choice of words and approach to my messages, trust me….. Please accept this as my sincere apology for my poor choice of words – Sh*t gets real when it goes from a social media dragging to my own wife giving me the side eye and coming at me, even she’s not happy with the way I’ve conducted myself…. it’s crazy how non-public figures can say and do some really dumb sh*t and it will stay amongst your family and friends or local in your hood…. When you have been an entertainer for 15+ years the whole WORLD is literally watching you grow up & learn, bump your head, make mistakes and evolve as the world watches…. This is a real lesson learned… This is not just a regular IG post for me. I want to truly say that I’m sorry, I’m not APOLOGIZING in an effort to be politically correct, I apologize as a man first for the things that I’ve recently said about choices women have the right to make, for the terms that I’ve used and the way I’ve come across. I was raised to think and feel certain ways, and I’m learning new things that combat those messages. I am not perfect or all knowing, nor am I the one to claim to be. I’ve learned things through experience which I share, and through these last couple of weeks, I’ve learned a lot through this well deserved internet dragging…… This is about a man owning up to his actions, taking responsibility, recognizing how to do better, and actually doing better. Ladies you deserve better…
Now if more black men did the same, we could get somewhere.
Well said.
So we’re supposed to believe his wife now all of a sudden gives a damn about his dumb views on women when she didn’t have a problem before and married him anyway knowing full well he ain’t sh-t? This ain’t nothing but damage control serving two purposes: 1. ending the noise so Fast & The Furious won’t flop 2. Making the general public like his wife…something he’s really been pressed about. This apology is bullsh-t.
I see the Fast & Furious producers told him to apologize even though this wasn’t a real apology.