Before this morning, I’d never heard of artist Tanerélle Stephens. But apparently, she’s one to look out for. According to a Rolling Out profile on Stephens last year, her music has garnered 3 million streams on Spotfiy. And her song, “In Women We Trust,” has been played in H&M stores and on MTV’s hit show, “Teen Mom.”
The Atlanta native identifies as a feminist, the themes of which can be heard in her art. She told Rolling Out: “My feminism is every woman having the right to herself. That encompasses everything itself. Society has made all the decisions about me and has given that decision to men, and I don’t like that. Everyone is making decisions for us about us. I don’t have to answer to anybody. And I‘m passionate about my Black. We don’t matter within certain realms of femininity. All of those women who were at the women’s march should’ve been at the Black Lives Matter march. A huge part of my art is uniting women and uniting Black people, and the basis of my music is to heal, feel and celebrate.”
Apparently, art isn’t the only place where Stephens expresses and lives by this credo. Her outfit at the BET awards– a dress with a plunging neckline designed by Batani-Khalfani, a fellow Black woman– was a celebration of a woman’s natural body.
This is how she showed up on the blue carpet:
Source: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty
People took issue with the way her breasts looked in the Batani-Khalfani dress. We’re not accustomed to seeing women without bras, especially at formal events. And folks wanted to let Tanerélle that they did not approve of the way her breasts appeared.
In response, she sent this tweet.
Even after Tanerélle explained herself and what she wanted to do with her own body, people still had something to say.
