Tyler, The Creator Speaks on Masculinity Stereotypes

Near the end of his first fashion show, Tyler, The Creator said a motivating factor behind putting the event together was because he was once seen as uncool for being “an inner city black kid [who] wasn’t the most masculine and liked pink.” In a recent interview with The FADER, the Odd Future head honcho provided some elaboration on the sentiment:

“The black community is very fixated on that hard masculinity, they always gotta be hard and f*cking tough. I was never really a tough guy, I don’t like sports, I have some feminine mannerisms. The reason why I was just saying that is because society always tries to box everything up, and you always have to be one way or another. You don’t have to be the tough guy all the time. [...] [In] the black community, everything is sus or gay or that’s not f*cking hard, and we like face tats and gangbanging. No, not everyone is like that. It’s kids who’s probably growing up and don’t know themselves yet or have the strongest self esteem so they’re trying to fit, and hopefully they can see people who are successful and not following the ‘always have to be masculine, threatening, and hard’ way of life.”

Watch the full stream of his fashion show below and read the full article here.