Anyone, including J Balvin, would love to get away from bad publicity. But he keeps finding himself in the wrong kind of spotlight. First, there was his beef with Residente. Then there was the controversy surrounding the music video for his song with Tokischa, titled “Perra,” which was removed from Youtube.
Just as that seemed to be dying down, and the focus of the music industry was turned on the Grammys, however, Balvin offhandedly decided to leave a very unfortunate comment on Valentina Ferrer’s Instagram, his girlfriend.
“Alguna foto con ropa? Por casualidad…” read the comment, which was promptly deleted by Balvin. He later tried to backtrack by posting a nice comment about his girlfriend, but the damage was already done, as the screenshot was already circulating online.
The comment feels particularly ironic considering Balvin previously collaborated on a campaign with Guess where he posed alongside a lot of women in bikinis, suggesting it’s okay when strangers do it, just not his girlfriend. But even without that particular detail to point out, it’s important to note that, whether you’re dating someone or not, nothing gives you the right to dictate what they wear or where they wear it to.
Maybe for Balvin, it was a joke. Maybe it was meant to be taken in jest. But he’s a public figure, and so is his girlfriend, so at the very least he should know better than to make comments that could be misinterpreted. And, at worst, he should know that neither he – nor anyone – gets to make decisions about someone else’s body.