Tinashe is hard at work on the next era of her budding music career. This week, the R&B singer-songwriter announced the release of her new single, ‘Flames,’ set to drop on Thursday, March 16. The record will head her long-awaited sophomore album, Joyride.
Along with new music, Tinashe is beginning to make her press rounds, the latest being a featured spread in the upcoming issue of British GQ Style Spring/Summer 2017. For the spread (which also hits digital and physical newsstands on March 16th) was shot by famed photographer Terry Richardson and she collaborates with rapper Travis Scott.
In a preview photo of the feature, Tinashe is captured with her hand over Scott’s crotch as the two show off upper body skin. Richardson is known to push the limits with his photography, and although this shot is not tasteless, Tinashe’s hand placement does draw attention to sexism.
Let’s be real here: if Scott’s hand were grabbing Tinashe’s crotch, it would create more uproar because women don’t want to be sexualized. In fact, it would be seen as sexist, but because of the social stigma behind men’s (especially black men’s) sexual prowess, this isn’t seen as offensive (to many people).
Not to use Trump as an example, but his “grab her by the p*ssy” comments created quite the controversy. In a time where women are demanding more respect, grabbing a guy by the crotch should be deemed just as insulting.
Another example is when Katy Perry grabbed Shawn Mendes’ butt while he was being interviewed on the iHeartRadio red carpet a week ago. “Someone was just touching my butt, Sorry,” he apologetically told the interviewers. “What if you grabbed her butt back?” one of the interviewers jokingly suggested to Shawn to which he responded, “No, I cannot do that. That’s not good. That’s not a game.” Shawn clearly understood the double standard and knew if he had touched Katy’s butt, his behavior would have come under fire.
We should even the playing field and make both sexes accountable. Let’s not take the easy way out and call images like this “art” or being “edgy.”
With that said, here are a few snippets from Tinashe’s upcoming spread with GQ:
On the diversity of her music:
“I will do a collaboration with Britney Spears, and fucking die over it, and then at the same time I’ll be working with someone like Metro Boomin. Or I’ll be over here in the studio working with KDA. Recently I have done even more out-of-the-box stuff, like I collaborated with Enrique Iglesias. So, I don’t think I really need to bend to any of the ideas that people have about me.”
On her next album, Joyride:
“The good thing that fans should be excited about is that the album is just getting better and better. It’s not sitting in limbo, it’s being improved upon and growing all the time. Even since a year ago, I feel like I’ve changed a lot. I’m a 24-year-old woman, and when you’re my age, you can grow a lot in a year. Even musically and creatively, I’m inspired by new things. The energy shifts. It’s an evolution, but it’s continuing to get more exciting, more relevant, and just better. I hope everyone is patient with me, but when it does drop, it’s going to be fucking worth it.”
Founder and Creator of Singersroom.com and IncredibleWork.com. Follow me on Instagram at @gary.gentles.
