Niccijade Reeves-Alhark
Editor-in-Chief
On Thursday, August 30th, Lil Nas X announced his pregnancy with his upcoming debut album, Montero on Instagram and Twitter with the caption, “SURPRISE I can’t believe I’m finally announcing this. My little bundle of joy ‘MONTERO’ is due September 17, 2021” The posts contained photos of a pregnancy photoshoot Lil Nas X did with a fake baby bump taken by Adrien Per. This announcement caused a riot throughout social media, some offended, some celebrating, and some confused.
Lil Nas’s fake pregnancy has stirred up many groups of people, including people in the transgender community. The stunt caused debate among those in the community on whether he was being insensitive towards masculine-presenting transgender individuals. A trans advocate and athlete, Schuyler Bailar, posted on Instagram claiming that the fake pregnancy was insensitive and transphobic. In his 7 slide post, he explains that Lil Nas X using his fake pregnancy for shock factor only works because people generally do not think that men can get pregnant. Transgender men, nonbinary, genderqueer, and transgender masculine people can all get pregnant, Bailar claims that the “joke/sensationalism ONLY WORKS at the expense of trans masculine people.”
Days later Bailar came back with an apology towards Lil Nas X and the black community for only calling him out despite the several other white individuals who have done similarly, James Charles being a prime example.
The maternity photoshoot also gained lots of praise and excitement from his fans. User JockinRonB posted to Twitter “Lil Nas X is lowkey a genius when it comes to social media.” Another user posted “I love @LilNasX so much”
The posts also got responses from other celebrities, Skai Jackson, an actress, commented under his Instagram post, “Can I babysit?” and the CEO of Columbia Records, Ron Perry, commented, “I can’t wait to be an uncle.”
Lastly, the confusion within it all, some people actually thought that Lil Nas X was pregnant, lots of question marks were raised by his fans and outsiders taking a glance in. Someone on Twitter posted, “wait i’m confused.. is lil nas x really pregnant??” Others contemplated on who the “baby daddy” could be, no one really coming towards a conclusion on how it happened.
From selling 666 pairs of Satan-themed shoes to maternity photoshoots, Lil Nas X never fails to shock the Internet with his creativity. With eyes on him, he turns his popularity to charities, encouraging fans on his Twitter to donate to a list of charities he and his team have set up as a “baby registry”, a charity linked for each track on the upcoming album.
Image Credit: Adrien Per
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