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The Derrick Jaxn Effect: Deconstructing Internalised Romantic Misogynoir

At some unknown and unspecified moment in my life – that for the purposes of this piece we’ll label my ‘early twenties’ – Derrick “Jaxn” first entered my consciousness. Yes, Derrick Jaxn, self-proclaimed relationship expert, who this week was exposed on social media for having a series of not-so-secret affairs on his somewhat-secret wife. 

The exact moment I first encountered Jaxn escapes me, but then again the ‘where, what, when’ of it all isn’t central to this story, only the ‘why’. In fact, Derrick Jaxn himself isn’t even central to this story, but rather what his platform, and others like it, are symptomatic of: “romantic misogynoir”. For the purposes of this piece, we’ll call this black social media phenomenon the “Jaxn effect”. (OK, I realise that referring to a man who persistently refers to himself in the third person as invoking a “Jaxn effect” may have the opposite desired effect on his ego, but bear with me...)