Listeners of the ShxtsNGigs podcast feel hurt and betrayed. Given our general skepticism towards male podcasters due to the prevalence of toxic masculinity in the genre, we had trusted James and Fuhad’s seemingly harmless and jovial cheeky charm. Unlike prominent male podcasters such as Joe Budden, Amrou and Myron from Fresh and Fit, and Brian Atlas from Whatever, shows that frequently surface online with problematic clips disparaging women, the duo are often considered some of the few men with microphones women happily engage with. Black women are often the targets of harmful vitriol from Black, male podcasters who use barefaced misogyny in an attempt to appeal to incels, self-proclaimed “alphas” and legions of Andrew Tate stans. When the hosts of Fresh and Fit insisted they were not “night riders” and don’t date “Sheniquas”—derogatory terms for dark-skinned Black women— they doubled down after receiving backlash. Following the incident, Amrou and Myron appeared on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant, and Schulz encouraged them to stand by their controversial remarks rather than dismiss them as jokes. Such comments are emblematic of the toxic masculinity and misogynoir that we’ve become accustomed to from the genre.
