Sexual health charities hit back at TI over belief an intact hymen means a woman is a virgin

Rapper admitted taking daughter to see gynaecologist every year to 'check her hymen'

Rapper TI is facing backlash from sexual health charities over his controversial approach to monitoring his daughter’s sex life.

On Tuesday, the 39-year-old revealed he takes his 18-year-old daughter, Deyjah Harris, to see a gynaecologist every year to “check her hymen” and ensure that she is still a virgin.

The father-of-six’s “disturbing” comments, which came during an episode of the podcast Ladies Like Us, also sparked criticism on social media where he has been accused of being “coercive” and “creepy”.

Brook - a UK sexual health charity for young people - told The Independent why TI was wrong to assume an unbroken hymen is indicative of virginity.

Isabel Inman, head of communications, said: "Firstly, hymens do not break but stretch and this can happen for many different reasons, often before any penetrative sex occurs. Some people are also born without hymens.

"Secondly, Brook advocates that virginity is something unique to every person – for instance, it could be someone’s first significant sexual experience and is not necessarily penetrative sex. Therefore there is no way to ‘check’ whether a person is a virgin.

"We know from our education work with young people that harmful myths around virginity are still rife.”

American charity Planned Parenthood – which provides sexual and reproductive healthcare – also pointed out the idea of a hymen always tearing for the first time because of sex is a myth.

“A virgin is someone who’s never had sex. But 'sex' means different things to different people, so 'virginity' does too,” the organisation said.

“The hymen is a thin, fleshy tissue that’s located at the opening of your vagina. Like other parts of our bodies, hymens are a little different for everyone.

In a Twitter thread that’s been retweeted over 17,000 times and received more than 49,000 likes, Planned Parenthood referred to virginity as a “social construct”, adding that it has “absolutely nothing to do with your hymen".

“Many people think the hymen totally covers the opening of your vagina until it’s stretched open, but that’s not usually the case. Most hymens naturally have a hole big enough for period blood to come out and for you to use tampons comfortably.”

Planned Parenthood continued by explaining that activities other than sex, including riding a bike and doing sports, can stretch the hymen.

“Some people think you can tell if someone’s had sex before if their hymen is stretched open. But that’s not the case,” it added.

“Say it with us: YOU CAN’T TELL IF SOMEONE’S HAD SEX BY THE WAY THEIR HYMEN LOOKS OR FEELS.”

Planned Parenthood’s thread has since been bolstered by others, including gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter who tweeted that TI’s statement was “horrible on so many levels”, before attempting to educate her followers on the hymen.

“The hymen is no virginity indicator, 50 per cent of sexually active teens do not have a disrupted hymen. The hymen is often very flexible,” Gunter wrote.

“The hymen means nothing physically and hymen exams are medically not a thing and are unnecessary. And support a disgusting patriarchal trope.”

During the controversial interview, the “Blurred Lines” rapper said: “So we’ll go and sit down and the doctor will come and talk and the doctor’s maintaining a high level of professionalism. He’s like, ‘You know sir, I have to, in order to share information’ — I’m like, ‘Deyjah they want you to sign this so we can share information. Is there anything you wouldn’t want me to know? Oh, ok. See doc, no problem’.”

TI went on to say that despite being informed that the hymen can be broken through numerous activities, not just sexual penetration, he told the doctor: “She don’t ride no horses, she don’t ride no bike, she don’t play no sports. Just check the hymen, please, and give me back my results expeditiously.”