Teyana Taylor has been voted lad’s mag Maxim’s ‘sexist woman Alive’ for 2021 and in doing so becomes the first Black woman to jag the title in its 21-year history.
The 30-year-old Taylor is an American singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, choreographer, director and model. She’s also a reality TV star in the US, starring in Teyana And Iman alongside her husband, basketball player Iman Shumpert. She is also the mother to two kids, Iman Junior and Rue Rose.
Other names on the 2021 list include Megan Thee Stallion, Jennifer Lopez and model Cindy Kimberly
Taylor announced her achievement via her Instagram account with the tag “Somebody pinch me!”
However, others questioned why it had taken the magazine over two decades to finally award the title to a woman of colour.
British commentator Alicia Adejobi said, “In 2021, it’s exhausting that Black people are still experiencing firsts”.
Writing in the UK’s Metro, Adejobi said: “With other prominent beautiful and successful stars like Naomi Campbell, Beyonce, Rihanna, Halle Berry, Kelly Rowland, Lupita Nyong’o, Gabrielle Union and Nia Long to name just a few, it’s crazy to think that these women have been overlooked in the past two decades.”
Adejobi also cited a 2017 study by The Guardian that researched 214 covers of 19 top-selling UK magazines. It found two months of the year where every single one of those covers were exclusively white – that meant not a single woman of colour was made a cover star. Of the whole year, only 20 covers featured a person of colour.
