Ed Sheeran is a great example of this, actually. Stormzy raps about ejaculating on a woman’s face and it’s automatically perceived as something degrading and offensive, despite the fact that this is something some women do enjoy and willingly participate in.
Ed Sheeran on the other hand, king of the Nice Guy persona, gets a free pass despite multiple instances of toxic masculinity in his music.
“What’s your history? Do you have a tendency to lead some people on?”
That’s a bit problematic, isn’t it? Slut shaming a girl and suggesting that if she behaves in a certain way and then doesn’t follow through with sex, she’s deceptively misleading people.
Now how about this gem?
"Tell me that you'll turn down the man
Who asks for your hand
Cause you're waiting for me
And I know, you're gonna be away a while
But I've got no plans at all to leave
And would you take away my hopes and dreams?
Just stay with me"
This is a perfect example of the ‘Nice guys finish last’ trope, in which women are blamed for being too shallow and stupid to pick the good guy. See also:
"Now I don't wanna hate you
Just wish you'd never gone for the man
And waited two weeks at least
Before you let him take you
I stayed true, I kind of knew
You liked the dude from private school."
More slut shaming (‘just wish you’d waited two weeks’), more blaming women for picking men with perceived status (‘private school’) over Nice Guys who would love them and treat them right, more objectifying (‘let him take you’).
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that these are tropes which are rife in incel / red pill circles, where deluded and women-hating men convince themselves that women owe them relationships and are unfairly withholding sex and affection. That is the community which spawned Elliot Rodgers, the man who cited women’s refusals to date him as his motivation for murder. Ed Sheeran is clearly nowhere near that extreme, but the same ideas clearly permeate his love songs.
I’m not trying to give Stormzy a free pass here. I think some of what he says is misogynistic. But it is perfectly valid to make the point that he is being held to a higher standard than other (usually white) artists whose work evidences misogyny, just in an apparently more palatable way. Misogyny in contemporary music is a widespread problem and a lot of artists are guilty of it. But three threads on mumsnet about Stormzy’s misogyny and none about other artists suggests that it’s not just concern for women’s rights at play here; it’s also an illustration that some artists are protected by white privilege, and we aren’t doing enough to recognise our own bias in respect of that.