Rapper Young Thug recently released a new mixtape, called My Name Is Jeffery. But what people are really talking about is the mixtape cover (pictured below). It’s drawn various reactions, many of which include people regarding it as brave, progressive and daring. Me, on the other hand? Not so much. There’s just a few things to consider.

First, he’s ultimately a cishet man, and publicly displaying themselves in a dress or other attire that’s considered feminine isn’t exactly new territory for them. As long as you go out of your way to ensure that you are, in fact, cisgender and heterosexual, you can safely throw on that dress and keep it pushing. As Myles E. Johnson, a Black Queer Femme who I drew some inspiration from for this essay pointed out, in this existing environment, cishet men will always have more autonomy than Queer men to explore gender expression, and still maintain their safety. This is, of course, as long as they, in addition to going out of their way to assert their straightness, be sure to throw LGBTQ people under the bus, in the process (which even the beloved, late and great Prince is guilty of…just Google “Prince Homophobia”).

…which segues into the next point. [Read more…]