Akon is being condemned for recent comments he made about gender equality during an interview on The Joe Budden Podcast. Besides saying women need to understand “their roles” as men are superior, the Senegalese-American singer also claimed men are the gender that creates life – not women, Independent reported.
But the Lonely singer did stop there as he started the discussion by saying he preferred African women to American women. “The women [in Africa] treat you like a king,” the 49-year-old said in the December interview. “They’re not competing with you, they’re not fighting for equality because they understand that men and women could never be equal.”
“They understand their roles. The roles there are very defined, it’s very clean,” he added before saying, “Here [America], even if you say the word role to a woman here, they get offended.”
The singer, born Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, then went ahead to explain why it is impossible for women and men to have the same role. “Everybody has a role, that is infrastructure to life and if a woman doesn’t understand her position that she plays in life, everybody is confused,” he said.
“How can a man and women play the exact same role, where’s the balance?” he asked. “In Africa it’s very clear – the woman plays the role of the woman.”
“God installed love, emotions and compassion in a woman because as a motherly figure, those things have to be instilled,” he continued. “This is why women catch feelings so quick, this is why they can endure so much pain and still be there, that loyalty comes naturally.”
The singer then added that a woman’s role “is to support the man.” “The men, we are the kings and the divine of this universe, a woman can never compare to the man,” he claimed. “They have to understand that here in America.”
Akon also went ahead to claim that “the women don’t create life, they support the creation of life.” “Men, we’re Gods we’re the one that create life,” he added before buttressing his sentiments with an example.
“A man right now can create life without a woman, but a woman can’t create life without a man,” he claimed. “If I wanted to create life right now without a woman, I would shoot my sperm, put it in an incubator and give it nine months, even maybe less with today’s science, and a baby will be born.”
“A woman can’t do that. So men, we are the creators of life in actuality,” he said. But the singer’s sentiments did not go down well with listeners. And they made their feelings known in the comments section. “I got dumber hearing Akon say a man can create life without a woman… I’ve never heard something so scientifically stupid,” a listener wrote.
Other people also took to social media to condemn the singer. “It is shocking how many people believe that babies come from sperm and a womb. As if your grandmother didn’t carry half of your DNA months before your mother was born. Sir!” a user wrote, per Mail Online.
“Technically all men could die off and women could repopulate the world with the dead mens frozen sperm. He had it backwards, but his ego is apparently blinding him from understanding how things actually work,” another person wrote.
A different person also said: “Podcasts have furthered the age old idea that you can get anyone to believe whatever garbage that comes out of your mouth if you say it confidently.”
“Ever since Akon got that lace front, he been saying some wild s**t,” another person said in reference to the hair transplant he recently got.