Melyssa : "Right now Essence has on the cover, three of the most gorgeous black men ever created on the face of this fucking Earth. They have Blair Underwood who has always done it for me, Boris Kodjoe whose definition in the dictionary is fine, and then they got Lance Gross—chocolatey loveliness. And you know what they fucking have the nerve to have as the fucking title of the cover story? “How To Keep Black Men Happy and Faithful.” And faithful! How dare you?! It makes me fucking sick. [It’s like saying] ‘Women take note—how to keep your black men healthy and keep from straying from you ‘cause it’s your fault.’ And black women wrote this to their fucking counterparts. As if to say, ‘If he strays, it’s your fucking fault. You didn’t cook enough. You didn’t blow him enough. You didn’t fuck him enough. You didn’t do enough to keep your fucking man healthy or faithful.’ O-M-fucking-G! "
Melyssa: "There are times where I’m surprised at the audacity that they fucking have to put something like that on the cover, but they’re regarded as the soul sista’s bible. They accept a fucking elitist attitude on who they’ll have on the cover and who they won’t? Please. Who was on the cover last month? They were toasting to women above the age of 40, and how beautiful they look, but Naomi’s on the cover? Okay, yes. Granted, Miss Naomi walks a catwalk, and she’s still killing 16-year-old and 20-year-old girls. Yes, but she has serious anger management issues and an overwhelming sense of entitlement, and she is engaged in fucking illegal activity that’s directly related to the blood diamond industry in Africa. And you’re putting her on a pedestal? Is that what you’re doing? But you won’t cover somebody like me because I based the earlier part of my career on my sexuality? My moral compass hasn’t been shifted off too much. My values are pretty good considering the causes that I believe in and places I’ve volunteered my time and given my money to, but you don’t feel the need to ever cover any single part of my career. You don’t even acknowledge that I even fucking exist. But this is what you cover and this is the thing you say? I think it’s hypocrisy."
***Honestly whether or not she's on the cover as a "morally" right thing to do is neither here nor there. Because i'm humored that she'd think she was even a cover option especially with all the cursing. I do agree with some of her points. The same eight to ten faces grace Essence every year, the articles are usually recycled and there is always at least one subliminally written article from a woman telling "Women" (not just black women read Essence) where we're messing up at as girlfriends and wives and what we need to do to fix it. 9 outta 10 times the reason are so common sense, generalized or based on minimum hard research. Most of the readers in essence are mature I'd say 30ish and above. Many of which are single career women or married and living the lifestyle that Essence magazine perpetuates. Now at the same time, i also understand that Essence fell off years ago. I don't know if that has anything to do with the magazine NOT being black owned but now a product of Time Inc. All i know is she's not the only one feeling funny.
You can read the full interview with Vibe by clicking here
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