Saturday, December 5, 2009

Lil Wayne and Childhood Sexual Abuse

Full on trigger warning by the way. Please warned. And I say that not just for the topic and the disclosure...but the reaction in the room.

Hmmph on this and how it connects to BET Awards show and the 12 year olds gyrating to "F** Every Girl in the World"

Hmmph on this and how it connects to his whole discography.

Hmmph on how do we friggin deal with this in our community as though he is not an anomaly (although I did just call him out a bit). I.E. in every one of our families there is a Lil Wayne. Whether you know it or not.

Toma--from Freedom Fighter:

"...he was 1. forced/pressured/coerced by older men to have sex when he may not have been ready, 2. by a somewhat older (we presume) woman, who should also have known better but perhaps also was in danger (gang rape, men pressuring her to perform sexual acts). that is abuse. if it had been the other way around, for most, it would be very clear that it was abusive.

I can’t even imagine how that affects interactions with women. the message that this experience gives is: if you want something, you can have it. even if you take it without permission. 2. it’s ok to force/pressure someone into sex. 3. to never let a woman be more powerful than me again, I may have to use violence. he even equated the feelings he had about the experience to killing five people. it was violent. whether he explicitly says that or not..."

Vid here.

p.s. If you have read Push and seen Precious, hope you toss it into the Common Room

2 comments:

middlesister said...

ugh. the tears that formed in my eyes while watching "precious" and the knot in my stomach that formed and quickly turned itself into nausea, are present after watching that video.

there are no words. disgust. shame, maybe. sympathy. fear. but no words. it continues to break my heart while reminding me why i fight for those who are not as fortunate as i.

we are so damaged as a people, yet we continue the fight. we gotta know better to do better...yet, we've learned to get by with what we have.

lil' wayne knows a life filled with misogyny, violence, drugs, abuse, etc. and therefore promotes those same themes in his interactions with me, women and children.

i don't know if weezy knows that what we saw in that video is itself, child abuse. i don't know that he DOESN'T know that or even worry that his words and actions may be wrong. however, listening to him romanticize the account (which i fully acknowledge could be a coping mechanism), i am not convinced he knows better.

grrr...

this all felt a little disconnected, even as i re-read it; but, it's what i am feeling.

identitycrisis said...

I don't know what to say about this. I'm glad that this video is out there (even with the disturbing content and reaction and risk of perpetuating the cycle) because it can then be discussed, blogged, and debated by people who would otherwise ignore the issue. Silence around sexual abuse is deadly. Let's continue to talk about it and check our baggage and reactions so it doesn't silence the discussion.

I wonder what Wayne really thinks/feels about the event when he is alone. In the room on the video and the room where the event occurred only one story/reaction would have been acceptable. I assume he knew that and played the role as he was on the video. But I wonder what the scared little boy in him still feels about it and if he sees any connection between the rape, him being a parent at 15 (and the 3 babies in the last year) and his substance abuse. I can also understand that it's probably safer to glorify the trauma than call his mentor a rapist.

I also shudder to think about the tension in the room and how the young man felt after hearing that story in a room full of older men.