Keke Palmer and her boyfriend Darius Jackson welcomed their first child in February 2023. The 29-year-old award-winning actress acquired main backlash throughout her being pregnant, and now evidently her personal companion has joined within the misogynist dialog surrounding what she will and may’t do as a mother.
Darius Jackson criticized Keke Palmer’s Usher live performance outfit.
Palmer attended Usher’s efficiency in Las Vegas on July 5, 2023. She wore a sheer black gown with a black bodysuit beneath. On his since-deleted Twitter account, Jackson commented on a video of Usher serenading Palmer, writing, “It’s the outfit tho… you a mother.”
Photograph: Philip Lewis / Twitter
Jackson then doubled down on publicly shaming his girlfriend, tweeting, “We reside in a technology the place a person of the household doesn’t need the spouse & mom to his children to showcase booty cheeks to please others & will get instructed how a lot of a hater he’s. That is my household & my illustration. I’ve requirements & morals to what I imagine. I relaxation my case.”
Jackson’s commentary on Palmer’s outfit highlights an alarmingly frequent narrative that denies ladies company and bodily autonomy.
The problematic nature of Jackson’s assertion is multifaceted. Palmer is a grown lady, the proprietor of her physique, and she will put on no matter she desires. To say in any other case is to exhibit a want to management how ladies current themselves on the earth.
One other main situation at play is the way in which Jackson’s remark showcases the false narrative of girls’s morality being linked to what we put on. Jackson’s public shaming of Palmer’s outfit additionally exemplifies the supremely misogynist perception that girls who’re mothers should gown and act a sure method, to be able to uphold some imagined ethical customary.
The thought of motherhood as an all-encompassing identification causes hurt to all ladies, not simply mothers. It holds ladies to an not possible customary, whereas additionally sustaining that after a girl turns into a father or mother, that’s all she is. To demand {that a} lady gown a sure method as soon as she turns into a mother is misguided and overtly controlling.
Jackson’s declare that the way in which Palmer dressed pertains to his “illustration” is a harmful perception, for it holds her accountable for one thing past her management — her companions’ existence. It additionally implies that girls are accountable for males’s actions and their reputations, one other completely harmful mind-set.
Folks have known as Jackson out as hypocritical for framing his points with Palmer’s outfit as one primarily based on morality, as he himself took and posted a semi-nude picture of Palmer on-line.
Palmer’s Usher live performance outfit was proudly posted on Instagram.
Whereas Palmer has but to make an official assertion about Jackson’s feedback, she did put up images of her outfit on Instagram, writing, “I want I had taken extra footage however we have been operating late!”
Palmer’s followers have proven their outright assist for her and her style selections. As one particular person stated to Palmer immediately, “You ate the lookup and down. It’s giving mom, icon, free lady and we love you, AND assist you.”
That remark will get to the problem at hand. Palmer is free to put on no matter she desires, as a mother and simply as an individual on the earth. A sheer outfit doesn’t in any respect translate into her being a “dangerous” mother— to say in any other case is to twist morality politics to be able to maintain ladies down.
Alexandra Blogier is a author on YourTango’s information and leisure workforce. She covers celeb gossip, popular culture evaluation and all issues to do with the leisure business.
