Megan Thee Stallion says there are “crazy double standards” for women in rap

Megan Thee Stallion has spoken out about the “crazy double standards” that women face in rap culture.

The ‘Good News’ rapper was speaking to Dua Lipa on the latest episode of the latter’s new podcast At Your Service after the pair teamed up for a joint single, ‘Sweetest Pie’, which came out yesterday (March 11).

At one point in the conversation, Lipa brought up Megan’s previous comments in regards to “rap being a male-dominated ecosystem”, agreeing: “I feel like that about the music industry in general.”

Lipa referenced Megan’s 2020 op-ed in The New York Times in which she wrote that the music industry “can handle only one female rapper at a time”, recalling the “countless times” she’d been “pitted against” the likes of Nicki Minaj and Cardi B.

The ‘Future Nostalgia’ pop star continued: “There’s this beautiful moment coming into music – as a whole – where female musicians are seen to lift each other up. And I think that’s really beautiful and important.”

Lipa then asked Megan whether she thinks this “reflects the different standards men and women are held to in this industry”.

The rapper responded: “I feel like when you think about women doing anything – in general – you think about ‘catty’. [If] it’s five girls in a room, what is the ‘catty’ factor of it all? But that’s what we’ve been taught for so long…

“I feel like boys definitely play a big part in that… in the industry, too.”

After Lipa pointed out the “disparities” between how male and female artists are seen when performing live, Megan agreed by saying it is a “crazy double standard”.

“But I feel like we are girls, right, and sometimes I just have to take it as everybody knows that we are superior,” Megan continued.

“So they expect us to arrive as the superior beings that we are. I feel like we get critiqued so heavy because everybody just knows that women are the shit. So they are looking for us to be the shit all the time.”

Speaking in terms of the rap genre specifically, Lipa touched on the controversy surrounding Megan and Cardi B’s sexually explicit joint single ‘WAP’, which was released in 2020.

 

“A boy could start rapping about popping pills and enjoying four women at one time, and nobody would have a problem with that,” Megan explained.

“But if Megan Thee Stallion says, ‘Eat my pussy’ one time, there’s uproar. Like, ‘You better not ever say that word again in your life’. I feel like if the pleasure is not all about them [men] then [they think], ‘This is just absurd’.”

She continued: “If you get offended by a woman talking about how she likes to be pleased, then I think you need to take a step back and re-evaluate what you’re into.”

You can listen to the full conversation above.

Back in 2020, Megan said that the criticism surrounding ‘WAP’ came from a place of “fear and insecurity”.

Written by Jessie Williams