Rapper, producer, and videographer Harmon Warhol’s latest album Stockton Renegade recently released to all major music platforms. I took some time with this Californian ball of chill energy to learn more about Stockton Renegade, its influences, and what’s next for Harmon and his company, Rebel Activity.
You can purchase a copy of Harmon Warhol’s Stockton Renegade on iTunes today!
A: First of all, congratulations on the new album! Stockton Renegade is the follow-up to 2018’s Infinity Stones. What did you aim to accomplish with Stockton Renegade that differs from Infinity Stones? H: Thank you. I just want the new one to sound better than the last one. I made some of the songs while I made Infinity Stones. Its called Stockton Renegade because I moved back to STOCKTON about 4 years ago and I drive a Jeep RENEGADE.
A: Let’s give our readers a chance to learn more about Harmon Warhol. Tell me a little about yourself and what helped to birth your love of music and creation. H: I am Harmon Warhol, Rapper, Podcaster, and Master of Energy. I’ve always expressed myself in different art forms. It’s actually not until graduating college that I realized I want to take music and video seriously. I’d rather invest in my own products and ideas.
A: The album opens up with “Menace 2 Sobriety”, which has a great 90s rap feel to it. I take it–being a fellow 90s kid–that this genre of music had a large impact on you growing up? H: Menace 2 Sobriety is paying homage to 90’s pop culture in general. From the references of “Friday” or the Suge & 2pac, Steve Spiffler & I painted what we thought that was. Kriss Liss gave me a west coast vibe because I’m from the west coast. The song was also made 6 years ago.
A: What is your creative process normally like for a new song, or even a new album? Like your start-to-finish route? H: I used to write rhymes before the beat, but now the beat dictates the feeling and the concept of the song usually. Then I write whatever words come to mind for that particular topic and then cut out all the fat. As for a project, I will make songs for a certain amount of months until I start looking back and seeing if I have something for a project. For my next project on the sneak tip, Yuck Nasty sent me a pack of beats, and that pack is the next project.
A: There are many great collaborations on Stockton Renegade‘s tracks. Who were some of the artists that you planned to collaborate with, and who turned out to be a surprise? H: Everyone is honestly a surprise. I made songs without a second verse and just showed them to my friends I rap with.
A: Which collaboration on the album is your favourite? H: To make it easy on myself, I will say the one with Dialect 🙂
A: Fellow artist D0mino-a-g0-g0–who just released an album of her own in January 2019–produced many of the tracks on Stockton Renegade. This isn’t the first time you two have worked together. How did you meet D0min0, and what is it like working with her? H: I met D0min0 in the dorms at college. She helped me record some of my first songs. We always kept in touch and our creative chemistry & friendship grew from there. D0min0 & I are blessed to be working with each other because we can fail in front of each other. We are super encouraging and supportive in each other’s ambitions.
A: You made the wise decision to place Stockton Renegade on multiple music websites, so a wide range of listeners could enjoy your album. Which platform seems to be performing the best in terms of listens? H: iTunes slash Apple. People who support me usually buy the album from there.
A: A lot of your current energy is focused around your label, Rebel Activity. What are your plans for Rebel Activity at this time? H: Rebel Activity is about pushing the next guy up when they have a product for the table. Yuck Nasty just released his project, and that’s what we are promoting now. I believe I am next up again with an EP, and then Dialect comes out with an album.
A: There’s a little something called the “Harmon Warhol Show”, with episodes featuring great artists and even your mom! Tell me a little bit about the show. H: THA HARMON WARHOL SHOW is my podcast that I produce and release every Sunday on YouTube. THA HARMON WARHOL SHOW was just an idea, and now it has gotten bigger than I thought. I can’t wait until I have the same guests on more than twice so, so we can talk about life instead of more of themselves. I want to introduce a bunch of people to the world, as well as to myself. I wanted to create a platform and product for me, my guests, and my viewers to enjoy.
A: Whenever I find an album that I love, I can’t wait to see it performed live. There’s just something special about live music… Any hopes for a Harmon Warhol tour in the future? H: Once Dialect and I finish our next projects, there will be talks of a tour. Besides Northern California, I would want to hit up Los Angeles and Louisville.
A: What does the rest of 2019 look like for Harmon Warhol? H: I really don’t know. I’m just getting better and look forward to what I create in music or videos. Building the brands of Rebel Activity and Harmon Warhol are my only concerns. I always looked at success in entertainment as STRICTLY God-given, but then I realized a lot of people work hard. That thought alone keeps me creating because you can get better by fucking up and giving a fuck about it to fix it.
A: Where are the best places for our readers to learn more about you and about Rebel Activity? H: All you need to do is type in Harmon Warhol on google and all my content pops up. The link on my Instagram is updated with the newest content.
VERDICT: Much better at 29 than at 15 STARS: 5 out of 5
I first read Candy Girl back when it was first released, around 2005 or 2006. I was a sophomore/junior in high school, and I was intrigued by the book. I enjoyed it, but obviously a lot of it went over my head. I remember my best friend and I having to Google a lot of the terms in the book to get through it because we were so young and naive.
Rereading it as someone a month shy of 29-years-old made the book so much better. I’ve lived more, experienced more, and shed my naiveness. I have friends that are or have been sex workers, and “Candy Girl” gives a great look into WHY people start stripping (moneyyyy) and why they continue despite learning to hate the industry (again, moneyyy).
Diablo’s writing is honest, witty, and easy to consume. Her descriptions allowed me to visualize her, the other strippers, and each club where she worked. Johnny and Peanut really made the book whole, as two people who loved Diablo no matter her job description and who just wanted her to be happy.
Whether you value your purity or are a former sex worker yourself, I feel like Diablo Cody’s Candy Girl is a great read for people everywhere, and a great look into a world that many never experience.
You can purchase your own copy of Candy Girl or the audiobook HERE:
The holidays are fast-approaching, and with them are all of the juicy holiday sales that we await all year. BOGOs out the wazoo. The “lowest price of the year”. Stores are trying to shove stuff out the door so that there is less for them to inventory in January, and they are willing to give you a mega discount in order to do it.
I can’t be the only person who’s had a private Amazon list going for the past few months, just waiting for the right moment to hit the trigger. Black Friday is coming, folks…
I worked in retail from the ages of 16-to-24. I was a manager from ages 20-to-24. And while a lot of customers are nice, respectful individuals…holidays bring out the WORST in human indecency and entitlement.
Below are several tips to remember when perusing the sales shelves this year, not only for holiday season, but while shopping in general. Follow these, and be the person that Santa always knew that you could be 🙂
Employees do not set the sales prices. Like…at all. That’s not their job. They just work there. Do you feel like an item is priced too high for its value? Either buy it from another store or write a polite letter to the company’s customer service department. Yelling at an employee that “Your shit costs too much!!!!” is not going to magically make them say, “Like OMG it does! Let me just go ahead and lower that for you!” They’re going to roll their eyes, repeat the price to you, and you can either pay the cost or leave the store.
“yOuR sHiT cOsTs ToO mUcH!!1111!!!1!!” — anonymous customers
Please keep in mind that it’s not a matter of the employee WON’T change the price for me. It’s a matter of the employee CAN’T change the price for me. Giving a customer an unauthorized discount can result in that employee being fired. Giving you a discount illegally costs the company money. An employee’s ability to put food on the table for their family is not a good sacrifice to save you $5 on Little Suzy’s new doll.
Local businesses are pricier than chain businesses. Keep this in mind before shopping there. The quality of the products at locally-owned businesses is higher than the quality of the mass-produced items soaked in the blood of cheap child labour at an overseas warehouse. Most locally-owned businesses also pay their employees a livable wage and not that minimum wage crap that so many chains offer. Better items and higher pay mean…gasp…higher prices.
This fruit costs more than the fruit at Wal-Mart. It is home-grown and helps to support a local family. But it also costs more. Keep this in mind before you arrive.
You get what you pay for, and by shopping local, you are helping to build your community’s economy. If you don’t care about this and just want to save money, then stick with a chain. Even though the owner of a local business could lower their price for you, gentle screamer, they won’t, and they can also tell you to leave without getting fired because your discount is literally taking the money out of their pocket and your let-me-speak-to-the-manager haircut is scaring away all of their other customers.
The “that means it’s free” joke isn’t funny. At all. The first time you hear it as a retail employee, you’ll laugh along with the customer. The second time, it’s a half-hearted chuckle. Any time after that, and you’ll just get glared at.Price tags fall off sometimes. People handle merchandise, and it just happens. That doesn’t mean you get to skip out of the store with our merchandise. And the fact that every customer thinks this is the appropriate joke to make means that we have to hear it multiple times a day.
Even worse are the customers who aren’t joking. “Well, if there’s not a tag, then I should be able to just take it!” No, Karen, it doesn’t.
There is a wonderful thing called INVENTORY. It is where we get to count EVERY ITEM IN THE STORE after Christmas to see how many items have gone missing thanks to sticky teenage fingers. If you “just take” our tagless sweater, it is the same as if you “stole” it. It hurts our business. It hurts our raises. And it hurts your wrists when our loss-prevention department handcuffs you.
Was that sweater really worth it, Karen? Was it? WAS IT???
Want a problem fixed? Be NICE to the employees trying to fix it. As a manager (and even as an associate), if something went wrong and a customer was polite, I would bend over backwards to fix the issue. I authorized discounts. I called other locations to have merch shipped to the customer. I gave the customer coupons. I did everything I could to make sure this customer would know that I was genuinely apologetic and to make things right.
If someone marched up and was rude, my primary concern became, “What can I say to get this jerk out of my face the quickest?” It’s human nature.
Look at the face of the cashier. Look at the faces of the patrons still in line. Look at the face of the small child. No one is applauding this woman for raising hell at the checkout line. They are looking at her like she’s being a twat. Don’t be this woman.
Think of someone being nice to you versus someone being rude to you. Who are you going to talk to the longest? Who are you going to help the most? The nice person, right? Of course! Even if the situation is ridiculous, keeping your calm and being a reasonable human being will get you the best results. Holding an air of I’m better than you and acting like a lunatic is just going to make the employee hurry you out the door with or without fixing your problem. Even if it gets fixed, it could have been fixed better.
Trust me.
Check the return policy BEFORE you check out. Most stores have special return policies for the holidays. Sometimes, the length of time to return an item is extended further out than normal. Sometimes, it is reduced. If you feel like you may need to make a return, ask what the return policy is. It’s normal. The employee will explain it to you, and they may even write it on your receipt or circle it on the receipt’s printing.
“No, you cannot return your McNuggets box for a refund, so stop yelling at me!”
If the return deadline has passed, again, don’t turn into a twat. A lot of times, the registers will not be able to process the return if it’s past the deadline. If the register cannot process the return, then you don’t get a return. Yelling at the poor cashier doesn’t solve that or get your money back.
Don’t cut in line. This one should be self-explanatory, y’all. Lines are long during the holidays. Everyone is trying to purchase their goodies at once, so you will be standing a lot while holiday shopping. Saying this, don’t just shove someone aside to take an earlier spot in the line.
Sometimes, a visual example is needed, gentle reader. Here is what I mean by “cutting in line”.
I actually called people out on this and made them move to the back of the line, but I know many stores do not allow their cashiers to do this. Don’t take advantage of stores with lame policies. Follow the rules you learned in elementary school. Wait your turn. If you don’t, I hope everyone in the line makes a stink and embarrasses the hell out of you until you slink away in shame ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you’re willing to harm someone over a physical item, you need a therapist, not a shopping spree. When I was nine-years-old, there was an incident at the Wal-Mart in my neighbourhood. While early morning Black Friday shopping, a pregnant woman and a non-pregnant woman began to fight over a doll. The women both insisted that they saw the doll first, and neither was backing down. The non-pregnant woman then rammed her bloody shopping cart into the pregnant woman’s stomach, sending her into premature labour.
The pregnant woman was rushed to the hospital. The non-pregnant woman was rushed to jail. Someone else bought that doll.
It ain’t that serious, y’all. It’s really not. Y’all need Jesus.
What the hell is wrong with you people? A doll is not that serious. If it was, you would either have bought it in advance, or you’d go home and buy it online. A doll is not worth potentially killing a baby, and anyone who thinks that it is deserves a very long psychiatric hold.
Would Santa want you to be a twat at the checkout counter? No, he would not. Santa doesn’t give gifts to twats. That’s how you get coal.
I guess you shouldn’t have pushed that lady down in the store, Cindy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Be a good person. Get some gifts from Santa this year 🙂
I’ll admit it: “Cash Me Ousside” was funny for the first two weeks of its memehood. People made all sorts of holiday-themed poems in honour of Danielle Bregoli, the foul-mouthed, 13-year-old brat from a recent episode of the Dr. Phil show.
As someone who doesn’t agree with spanking children, I felt that Danielle Bregoli needed several spankings to knock her loose of her high horse, and I loved watching her throw a tantrum at the end of the episode when she was forced to go to a behavioural camp.
Roses are red. Emos are black. Cash me ousside. Howbow dah?
But then: tragedy struck. As a now-famous Danielle continued to steal cars, do drugs, and get kicked off airplanes for fighting, someone decided to give her a record deal. And thus, “Bhad Bhabie” was born and became a millionaire for her terrible behaviour.
The act left a sour taste in my mouth. Many people blamed the spread of the memes for Danielle’s success; however, many people are featured in memes every year. Few of these people are ever rewarded. The rise of Bhad Bhabie was not the meme’s fault. It was the fault of a record executive in an office somewhere.
I avoided any Bhad Bhabie products and videos for the next year to avoid giving her any sort of support. Views equal money. Sales equal money. I didn’t want to give Danielle Bregoli any money. I wanted her to go to rehab and re-enroll in school. Then, in February 2018, TMZ posted an article and a video of Bhad Bhabie fighting another girl named “Woah Vicky” at a Mall.
Danielle “Bhad Bhabie” Bregoli is the one who looks like she’s wearing a shower cap as a hoodie. Woah Vicky is the one who looks normal. These are screenshots from their fight.
Woah Vicky makes Bhad Bhabie look like a saint. She talks in an almost incoherent mumble, which she claims is cause she’s from the streets. People from the streets don’t talk like that, Vicky. They have their own dialect, but they still sound intelligent. Vicky also claims to be black, and a proud member of the African American community. Vicky needs glasses.
But as I watched Trash and Trashier spar on TMZ’s video, I noticed another challenger enter the arena. It was a small, Asian girl with blonde hair and a foul mouth who appeared to be glued to Woah Vicky’s hip throughout the altercation. Once the majority of the commotion was finished, the little girl began screaming in support of Woah Vicky and swearing at Bhad Bhabie and her fans. Overall, she seemed very out of place, and I was very confused.
What was a child doing in this hullabaloo??
This little girl should have been in class, not watching Bhad Bhabie and Woah Vicky commit misdemeanors at a mall meet-n-greet.
That little girl turned out to be Lil Tay, the world’s youngest flexer. She may be only nine-years-old, but she has clothes that cost more than your momma’s rent! How do I know? Well, she has said so numerous times in her videos.
Lil Tay was everything that I’d come to despise from Bhad Bhabie, Woah Vicky, and their crew of faux-street Internet rappers, yet something drew me closer to her. Whereas I could barely get through more than two Bhad Bhabie or Woah Vicky videos, I found myself entranced at Lil Tay’s Instagram page. I watched video after video, until there were no more. Then, I went to her YouTube channel, and I watched some more. There was something different about this pipsqueak, and I was intrigued to learn more.
Lil Tay’s videos were simple, yet entertaining. She’d loudly introduce herself, show off her latest car to visit Beaver Creek or house, remind us that she’s only 9-years-old yet her belongings cost more than your momma’s rent, and make it rain dollar bills for the camera. Profanity was often featured in Lil Tay’s videos, and sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder if she was another Andy Milonakis-esque adult, suffering from a growth-hormone deficiency that made her appear as a child. But no, Lil Tay was actually a child. A “flexer”. A source of controversy.
Stacks on stacks on stacks on stacks on stacks on stacks on…
Lil Tay was received differently than her counterparts, primarily due to her age and her content. None of Lil Tay’s videos featured illegal or harmful acts; they were simply vlogs of a young girl with a foul mouth and stacks of cash. Instead of comments that she should be in jail or calling her a slut, people were either amused by Lil Tay or wondering where her parents were while she was producing these videos.
It turns out, they were close by. Lil Tay’s mother, Angela Tian, was a leading realtor from Vancouver, Canada. All of the designer homes in which Lil Tay shot her videos were actually those of Angela Tian’s clients, people looking to sell their homes. The fancy cars in the videos were clients’ cars parked in their garages.
One of Angela Tian’s clients–who ironically watched the Lil Tay videos routinely–soon noticed their home on display in one of the videos. Not wanting to be associated with a foul-mouthed pipsqueak, the client squealed to Tian’s boss, and Tian was subsequently let go from her company.
Hopefully, Lil Tay can flex enough to pay her own momma’s rent now…
The Internet exploded. Lil Tay was a fake?? She didn’t really purchase her own electronics that cost more than your momma’s rent at 9-years-old?? Oh. Em. Gee.
The media published story after story about Angela Tian’s firing and the true nature of the Lil Tay videos. Morning outlets like Good Morning, America invited the Tians as guests. Despite being exposed as a “poser”, Lil Tay’s star was rising higher than that of her counterparts.
A new video was leaked, which featured Lil Tay sitting before a green screen and playing with her phone with a bored expression on her face. Behind the camera was a teenaged male’s voice, one that was later to be her 16-year-old brother’s, Jason Tian. Jason hyperactively gave Tay suggestions on what to say, while she looked on with annoyance. At one point, their mother interrupts, and Tay complains that she was filming.
Tay clearly is not amused at her family’s antics. She wants to go out and flex in those houses, not sit in front of a green screen making promos.
With Jason exposed as the mastermind behind the character of “Lil Tay”, I expected the little girl to crash and burn; yet, she continued gaining more followers, appearing on more shows, and producing more videos. How?
What separates Lil Tay from the rest of her pack is that…Lil Tay actually has talent. She took Jason’s poorly-fed lines and ideas and delivered them with such a powerful energy that it sucked in her viewers. She wasn’t sitting on a balcony with a grille in her mouth and a lit joint spouting off about “N-word this, and n-word that”. She was delivering actual monologues, and she was delivering them well.
Once Lil Tay was busted and began her media tour, her Instagram Stories began to show behind-the-scenes footage. One such Instagram Story featured news anchor Julie Chen. A bubbly, calm, and articulate Lil Tay asked Chen a few questions, then turned to the camera and announced that she was ready. As soon as the cameraman (presumably Jason) said that it was rolling, Lil Tay instantly transformed into her role, announcing that she was here “flexing with Juju” and making it rain dollar bills from her puffy jacket pocket. When the monologue was complete, Lil Tay paused and giggled at Chen, proud of her performance.
The GMA interview was hard to watch. Lil Tay tried so hard to keep up her image, although the evidence and questions against her were damning.
Unfortunately, Lil Tay’s media tour also irreparably damaged her social media career. She experienced what I call “the Jackass effect”.
Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, and crew from the hit Jackass series have frequently mentioned that filming the Jackass television show and the first movie were a lot easier and a lot more effective. Why? No one knew who any of the actors were. They were just ordinary guys doing unordinary things and garnering reactions.
By the time the second Jackass movie rolled around, many stunts were ruined by people spotting and recognizing the cast. The reactions were no longer genuine, and the guys began to focus more on pranking each other than pranking the public.
In a similar fashion, people began to recognize Lil Tay while she and her family were out on shoots. Someone would yell, “Hey, it’s Lil Tay!” from the window. People would wander into the background and wave. Many passersby would antagonize the entire Tian family, upsetting Tay greatly and ruining the shoot.
So many of these videos popped up on social media, of people catching the Tian crowd out in public.
Lil Tay quickly realized that her act was up. A talented ballerina, she also longed to show off her actual talents instead of simply her monologues. By early June, Lil Tay deleted all of her videos from Instagram and YouTube, promising a comeback within a few weeks with “all new material”. The Internet–myself included–began to wonder what was coming our way.
And then…as quickly as she’d gone silent…she was back. On June 18th, 2018, troubled rapper XXXTentacion was shot and killed at a motorcycle dealership in Miami, Florida. Lil Tay flooded her Instagram page with tributes to the slain rapper, including screenshots of their conversations together and recordings of their video chats. The heavily-advertised charity event that XXXTentacion had been promoting for the following weekend was to be a surprise joint-effort with Lil Tay, something she confirmed via her screenshots.
Lil Tay posted a tearful video mourning the rapper, in which she repeatedly said that he was “like a father” to her. And this is where my realization that all was not well in Lil Tay’s life hit the roof.
For those unaware, XXXTentacion racked up a long list of crimes and atrocities in his short 20 years of life, beginning with a stint in juvie at age 12. He was perhaps most known for beating his pregnant girlfriend, Geneva Ayala, nearly to death in 2017. More on him can be found here.
If there was anyone acting as a “father-figure” in Lil Tay’s life, it shouldn’t have been a mostly-unapologetic abuser.
Footage from Li Tay’s dedication video to XXXTentacion on the day after his death.
On top of this, Jason’s Tweets were beginning to seem hostile and manic, and Woah Vicky posted a video of her talking in a mostly normal voice, exposing Jason as a controlling mastermind. From her interviews, Angela Tian seemed constantly aloof. It became clear that Lil Tay was not getting the support or the upbringing that she needed at her age.
And I think that’s one of the most troubling things of all. It’s not a little girl using vulgarity or throwing money around on a camera. It’s that a little girl is seemingly either all alone, or surrounded by negative influences (her brother, XXXTentacion, Bhad Bhabie, Woah Vicky). It’s the cryptic Stories she’ll occasionally post on her Instagram for a matter of hours that say, “Help.” It’s her failed reality television show on an unknown network.
I worry about Lil Tay because she’s not a “thuggin’ bad girl” like her allies and rivals. She is legitimately a little girl who started out making videos for fun with her brother, and now has been thrust into the harsh world of Internet bullying and criticism. Lil Tay does need a remarkable comeback, and she’s only going to get one chance to do it.
October 2017 saw the rise of the #MeToo movement, a hashtag spread across social media to demonstrate the widespread frequency of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Started by Tarana Burke and popularized by Alyssa Milano, the hashtag and accompanying stories were primarily shared by women and more effeminate men.
So, what about masculine-presenting men?
It is easy to hear sexual assault victim and picture a woman, a more effeminate-presenting man, or a child. People heap pity on the survivors, seeing them as “poor things” and inherently “weak” individuals that need protection to prevent further assault. The stereotypes are strong. However, approximately 1 in 6 men are victims of sexual assault. In a room of 100 men, approximately 16-to-17 of them have experienced sexual assault to some degree.
Surely, that statistic does not only apply to effeminate men or men assaulted as children. What about larger men? Stronger men?
Men like Terry Crews?
I mean, seriously. I can’t be the only one who goes “YES!” any time Terry Crews pops up unexpectedly in a movie.
You see, during the wave of #MeToo revelations that set the stages of Hollywood ablaze and tossed chaos into the impending awards season, Terry Crews announced that he, too, is a victim of sexual assault. Despite his size and stature, Crews’s assailant—William Morris Endeavor agent Adam Venit—held power over him. As a high-power agent that producers were protecting, Crews was limited to what he could do.
“The producer of [the Expendables] called my manager and asked him to drop my case in order for me to be in the fourth installment of the movie,” Crews shared in his courtroom testimony on June 26th, 2018. “If I didn’t, there would be trouble.”
Crews ultimately chose to leave the movie installment and pursue his case.
Terry Crews testifying on June 26th, 2018, where he explained in detail the atrocities that befell him by someone he trusted.
“The assault lasted only minutes, but what he was effectively telling me while he held my genitals in his hand was that he held the power,” reported Crews. “That he was in control.”
Sure sounds like sexual assault to me.
Why didn’t you fight back? People often ask victims of sexual assault, including rape. As someone who unfortunately has close friends that are victims, their responses mirror those shared in news stories and crime shows:
I was afraid he’d kill me. I figured if I laid there and took it, he’d get done and leave me alone.
I didn’t want to lose my job/scholarship. My assailant had power over me.
I couldn’t risk making a scene and losing everything for my family.
In response to these claims, many sexual assault victims are told that they deserved it, that they are weak, or that they are lying. Their assaults are trivialized unless they legitimately mauled their assailant, regardless of the repercussions that would have caused.
While fighting back is the ideal thing to do when being assaulted, it is not always possible. If faced with death as a consequence, would you still fight back?
Crews has another issue on his hands: ridicule. His assault has not only been trivialized, but he is being ridiculed for his admissions.
Celebrities like shot-many-times rapper 50 Cent and accused rapist Russell Simmons have responded to Crews’s allegations with laughing emojis and memes on their social media pages. Despite Crews’s typical Herculean display of strength, admitting to assault without striking his victim has rendered him as “weak” and “emasculated” in the eyes of other men.
Crews has spoken of the shame he suffered post-assault, and how it tormented his thoughts. He has spoken on how the mistreatment of his case is why more men do not come forward when they are assaulted. He has even spoken up and revealed that the reason for not beating the shit out of his assailant was to avoid being labeled as a “big, black thug” and getting blacklisted from an industry that was already protecting his and other sexual predators over their victims.
50 Cent’s insensitive and cruel Instagram post “roasting” Terry Crews. 50 Cent got so much hate on this picture that he deleted the post…but he can’t delete the screenshots…
Let us recall what happened during Crews’s assault: another man held and fondled his genitals for several minutes while reminding Crews of his lack of power.
Now, let’s look at what Crews’s Expendables producer, Avi Lerner, told Crews in regards to his assault:
“I was told over and over that this was not abuse. That this was just a joke. That this was just horseplay. But I can say that one man’s horseplay is another man’s humiliation.”
A joke?
Horseplay?
I am all for innocent fun. I think a lot of people in society overreact to many things nowadays. But what Crews is describing is neither a joke nor horseplay.
Jokes are funny phrases or pranks played Jackass style on friends and family.
Horseplay is what adolescent boys do in high school when they chase each other through the school hallways, tackling one another to the ground, and wrestling.
This is horseplay. This is fun. This is not assault. No genitals are being touched.
Fondling someone’s private parts against their will and reminding them of the repercussions of revealing their assault is sexual assault plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if the victim was male or female, young or old, or punched you in your rapist face or not. It is assault.
And while Crews shouldn’t need to explain his reasonings at all, the frequent discrimination against black men, the words of Venit and Lerner, and the blacklisting of Chloe Dykstra by her own assailant are more than enough proof to illustrate that Crews’s concerns were indeed valid.
While we need to be there for all assault victims, male assault victims hold a dear place in my heart. Ever since I was old enough to understand the concept of rape, I have heard people laugh at men who are raped and assaulted. These victims are told that they clearly wanted it, that a woman can’t rape a man, that they’re gay if they let a man rape them, or that they’re gay for not enjoying “good sex”.
For starters: Being gay is not a bad thing. Let’s go ahead and clear up that misconception. It’s 2018; what the hell is wrong with y’all?
Secondly: Anytime someone touches you when you don’t want them to touch you…it’s assault. Regardless of gender.
These are not hard concepts, y’all.
I am pleased to see that many people on my Twitter timeline have sent Terry Crews tweets of encouragement in recent days, assuring him that he is strong, he is a victim, and that he is doing the right thing for himself and for all other victims of assault…especially men.
Take a moment and send Crews kind words to combat the trolls and perpetuators. Support his shows (Brooklyn 99 is excellent!) and his projects. I can only imagine what sort of inner turmoil this poor man is going through, but even one tweet of support can make his day a little bit brighter and help other victims watching to see that they, too, have support.
