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Raffy ErmacAtlanta-raised rapper Young Thug's highly-anticipated album No, My Name Is Jeffery finally dropped on Thursday night, and while fans were excited about all of the new material they would be hearing, they were also abuzz about something else: the fact that he was wearing what appears to be a dress on the record's cover.
Rightfully so, the internet took notice of Young Thug's awesome (and fabulous) stand against typical, hypermasculine gender norms and tweeted out their support for the 25-year-old hip-hop artist.
My GOAT is an awesome GOAT @youngthugpic.twitter.com/7roOXXPL7R
— Justin Davis (@OGJOHNNY5) August 26, 2016
Young Thug on gender roles : "you can be a gangster w a dress"
I love him pic.twitter.com/9hItALS0i9— gabs (@XANAXDREAMS) August 26, 2016
young thug is a walking legend. that is all
— j (@younggwhite) August 26, 2016
Apparently people can separate art from the artist when a guy rapes a woman but not for Young Thug when he wears a dress on his album cover
— Nigel Zeff (@nigelandrewzeff) August 26, 2016
If you still hating on Young Thug in 2016 you ain't nothing but an L
— Frank's stan (@kris_karti) August 26, 2016
y'all mad cuz young thug look better in that dress than u would
— alli fitz (@allicatttx) August 26, 2016
MEN ARE MAD THAT YOUNG THUG IS WEARING A DRESS BECAUSE HE STILL LOOKS BETTER THAN THEM
— No, My Name Is Ro (@rolandaakouavi) August 26, 2016
While this isn't the first time that Young Thug has explored with gender fluidity, and while there was plenty of love from fans for breaking the perception that rappers should always present a manly image, it's worth noting that he did receive some very valid criticism from people who think he was, in a way, co-opting what Twitter user Myles E. Johnson calls queer aesthetics. Aesthetics that often marginalize queer men and put them in very real danger (which can be problematic considering Young Thug says he isn't gay or straight).
the praise and admiration he gets for the queer aesthetics so many of us get brutalized, ridiculed, and even killed for.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
his marketing strategy and branding being mistaken for innovation and bravery. kevin, the faggot down the street, is doing the same thing.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
it feels violent for someone to profit and recreate stardom from aesthetics that if you wore/when you wear it, would endanger your life.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
it also solidifies my belief that queerness is hated so much that everything can be exploited about it as long as you don't practice/ID it.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
I am thinking about artists like @devhynes& @MykkiBlanco that transgress straight aesthetics AND ID as and support queer culture.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
I think both artists will continue having amazing legacies, but their arrival at stardom will be DESPITE these things that thug exploits.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
and I don't find that iconic, brave, inventive, interesting, innovative, or artist. I find it very white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
— Myles E. Johnson (@hausmuva) August 26, 2016
However you feel about the way Young Thug dresses on the cover of No, My Name Is Jeffery, we can all agree that, at the very least, his act of defying the norm is sparking a much needed conversation in which we start to question the expectations society puts on young men, especially young men of color.
Listen to No, My Name Is Jeffery below, and let us know what you think of the album cover in the comments and on Twitter.
0Young Thug's New Album Cover Is Sparking Much-Needed Conversation About Gender Norms
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