Megan Thee Stallion Weighs In on Double Standard in Rap Industry
Megan Thee Stallion has taken the rap industry by storm over the past couple of years. She came from strong women and had a father that showed her that she doesn’t have to apologize for who she is, and she never will. Stallion is fun in some songs and raw in others but either way, her music is superb. After a recent cover story with Marie Claire, her popularity has grown even more and she is here to tell everyone that she will not back down.
Megan Thee Stallion talks work ethic and the adversity she faces as a woman
People reported on Stallion’s cover story with Marie Claire earlier this April about the work ethic she gained from her mother and the unfair way her music is often critiqued. She said, “A man can be as mediocre as he wants to be but still be praised.”
Stallion’s music has become increasingly popular in recent months. TikTok has a trend going for the dance from her song “Savage” that has the song stuck in everyone’s head. Even if there are male rappers that can say the same, they are able to talk about raunchier topics and use more curse words, talk about violence and other taboo topics and people praise them. Stallion, on the other hand, gets dragged through the mud about everything from her GPA to her lyrics, and the dances everyone is picking up on her videos.
Stallion empathizes with her male counterparts
While male rappers may hold Stallion to a double standard and critics might throw her down on social media, Stallion remains graceful. “Sometimes it’s overwhelming to some men. They can’t handle it, they get a little shook, they get a little scared,” she added. “But I’m not going nowhere, so get used to it,” she added in her interview with Marie Claire. In addition to her rap career, Stallion is also pursuing her bachelor’s degree in health administration via online classes.
Stallion loves to twerk and she’s not sorry about it
According to BET, Stallion loves to twerk and she gets a lot of judgment. In fact, it was Jermaine Dupri’s label of her work as “stripper rap” because of her twerking that sparked up the age-old debate about double standards. Her EP “Suga” dropped earlier this year and the tiny spark turned to a quickly spreading flame.
Stallion’s response to the remarks about her twerking show that she isn’t sorry and she isn’t stopping. Stallion told BET: “I be like, Damn. Actually, I go to school and I rap and sometimes I be cooking. I’m a dog mom. I’m an awesome friend. [Twerking is] not all I be doing … I can rap and twerk.”
Changing the narrative on what femininity means to her
Male rappers have been using explicit lyrics since the dawn of the genre. They talk about objectifying women, sex, violence, drugs, and all kinds of taboo concepts. They put out award-winning records with millions of fans singing their praises. Stallion talks with Rolling Stone about the criticism she endures when she introduces the same concepts into her own work. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Stallion says, “‘Well, we should be able to go equally as hard. I don’t want to hear none of that ‘That’s offensive!”” She is calling out the double standard and demanding that everyone else help change the narrative.
She is adamant that the criticism is undeserved, especially when male rappers have been putting out tracks about the same things for decades. If they’re allowed to talk about sex and make it fun, then she should be able to do the same. Rolling Stone goes on to say “She [Stallion] and her peers are redefining what femininity means to them, asserting their sexuality on their own terms.” As for the “occasional hate comment from male listeners,” Stallion said to Rolling Stone, “‘I know I’m striking a nerve that’s pissing that one specific man off.'” Clearly, she’s willing to break down the walls of double standards, even if she has to do it one comment at a time.
