Is Chris Brown Just Trolling Us With Sexism At The BET Awards?

Chris Brown knows the world at large considers him a misogynist. We’ve all seen the photos of what he did to Rihanna during their very toxic relationship. Most of us have heard Karrueche Tran’s stories of their allegedly abusive relationship. And everyone has heard him call women "hoes" over some club’s loudspeaker. Brown has done very little to try to change our perspective on him, and his 2017 BET Awards performance has only proven just how little the "Loyal" singer seemingly respects women. This time Breezy literally reduced very talented women to just the curves of their butts.

Brown entered the BET Awards for his much-hyped performance from the bottom of the stage, with two women posing in the sexiest possible version of a dab on both sides of him. As the hip hop star went into a rendition of his 2017 single "Privacy," the skilled ladies began to dance to the beat in whatever ways most played to the male gaze. As the performance went on, it became clear the dancer’s jumpsuits were flesh-toned, leaving the women basically looking naked. So, Brown was singing lyrics like, "Stop runnin' from this dick, I ain't about to let you slide this time," as two nearly-nude women dipped their butts to the ground and back up again next to him.

To add insult to injury, viewers never even get to see the truly gifted women’s faces for even a split second, since they were aggressively back lit. Instead, we’ll only ever be able to identity them by their nude-colored behinds and the profiles of their cleavage. Considering how these dancers gave this performance their all, that’s heartbreaking. But, apparently for Brown, women can be reduced to a sexy silhouette and a pair of legs waving in the air. He’s not even trying to pretend he thinks any higher of us. And if you would like to believe BET Awards producers came up with this sexist scheme, please know Brown could have brought up any concerns during rehearsals for the show.

But, it's clear Brown doesn’t think everyone needs to be boiled down to their width of their booty, since the second half of his performance was very well lit. The "Party" portion of the evening also happened to have many, many more men involved, including Gucci Mane, who has a feature on the track. Surprisingly, no one forced Gucci to throw on a naked bodysuit and slow wine in front of a flood light. If Chris Brown returns for the 2018 BET Awards, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sings in front of a giant disembodied butt next year.