Megan Pete, professionally known as Megan Thee Stallion, is a grammy award winning
rapper and songwriter, who gained notoriety after the popularity of her 2018 single “Big Ole
Freak”. In the rapper’s 2024 documentary called “In Her Words”, we see all the events that
conspire after her new gained fame, as well as how she’s been vilified by her industry peers,
and by people online.
In the documentary, we see that Megan’s vilification most notably started when she had
gotten shot in July 2020 by Canadian rapper and singer Tory Lanez. She reveals that in her
documentary that she was arguing drunkenly in the car with Tory and her best friend at the
time, Kelsey. Megan gets out the car deciding to walk away from the situation, which is
when Tory then shoots at Megan’s foot. When the state had charged Tory Lanez for
shooting Megan and possessing an unregistered firearm, Megan was subject to the court of
public opinion, where fans of Tory Lanez were speaking out against Megan, and saying that
she was a liar. American YouTuber and presenter Joe Budden said regarding the shooting
“You can’t tell me who shot you if you weren’t facing the shooter”. Megan had also shown
in her documentary a plethora of TikTok videos of people accusing her of lying about getting
shot. Her best friend at the time, Kelsey, had also decided not to publicly speak up in
support of Megan either.
During a Gayle King interview discussing the shooting, Megan was asked if she had a sexual
relationship with Tory, to which Megan replied that they didn’t have a sexual relationship
but were rather just really close. Despite Megan’s reply in the interview, she testified in
court during Tory’s trial that she had previously slept with him. It’s very understandable
about why she lied about sleeping with Tory, as it seemed that Gayle was trying to make a
story out of Megan getting shot, when the focus of the interview should’ve been on the fact
that Megan is a victim of a shooting. Megan makes a really good point that in her
documentary that because she’s a woman that embraces her sexuality, it’s easy for the
public to dismiss her assault. We have often seen how women are blamed for being
physically or sexually assaulted because they decide not to leave or because they embrace
their sexuality, which is dangerous especially when the blame should be on the attacker
rather than the victim.
Megan was then harassed by Tory Lanez, both in real life and online. In 2022, he had
violated the restraining order Megan had made against him, by showing up to perform at
the Rolling Loud music festival just minutes after Megan had left the stage. As well as this, in
March of 2022 Tory had released a music video for his song “CAP” where he’s seen using a
knife to cut into a butchered horse leg, obviously a jab to the “stallion” part of Megan’s
stage name.
Megan was also scrutinised by Drake, who has also expressed his support for Tory Lanez
since his conviction. In his song “Circo Loco” with 21 Savage, Drake raps “This bitch lie ’bout
gettin’ shots, but she still a stallion” — a double entendre referencing Megan Thee Stallion
being shot and how he thinks she’s lying, as well as saying talking about a woman with a
nice physique lying about getting plastic surgery to achieve said physique. These lyrics are
not only harmful and misogynistic, but it reinforced the idea to Drake fans that Megan’s a
liar, and that she’d locked up a friend of Drake’s for no reason, when in reality she was
assaulted by Tory and he had a very valid reason to be convicted. Megan has further been
vilified by her industry peers, as other celebrities like Meek Mill, Chris Brown, Jack Harlow,
Iggy Azalea have all shown support for Tory Lanez.
It’s through all these events that I learnt about the term “misogynoir”, coined by the
sociologist Moya Bailey, which specifically describes misogynistic acts directed towards
black women. Megan had been a victim of misogynoir even before she got shot, as she’s
had speculations around her gender. At the time of Tory’s trial, this rumour started to
speculate again, as an Instagram post by rapper Cam’ron garnered tens of thousands of like
that said “Tory Lanez saw that d*ck and started shootn..IDC what no one say” with the
caption “Ayoooo… Da net wins again,” alluding to the internet being a totally reliable and
truthful source rather than Megan herself, who has said that she’s a cis woman. Something
that misogynoir often covers is that black women are often masculinised because of their
features. We have also seen how Megan’s mistreatment within the hip hop community and
by individuals on social media is the result of her sharing on her story, and breaking “the
cycle of silence”, professor Melvin L. Williams from Pace University claims, that prevents
black women from sharing their experiences with assault.
When in a male dominated space, it’s easy to become topic of conversation. It’s important
that celebrities show support for those that are being scrutinised when they’re victims of
attacks and online harassment. The founder of the #MeToo movement Tarana Burke signed
an open letter supporting Megan, commending her for sharing her story. Megan has also
been shown support by other women such as Cardi B, Ethel Cain, Kehlani and Halle Berry.
It’s important to create spaces for women, especially women that have been victims of
misogyny, racism, or violence, to let them know that they have support and that they’re not
wrong in sharing their stories.