Megan Thee Stallion

[Ispini]

OK I’m showing my age but I have just seen some videos of this ‘musician/singer’, I’m completely stunned. How on earth are our kids supposed to have standards when this crap is being peddled as music.

In the olden days Madonna was a rebel, I feel so sorry for our girls as they see these ‘role models’ daily! Dreadful!

Tbh I grew up knowing all the words to What’s your fantasy by Ludacris and my neck my back by Khia in the late 90s early 2000s so I’m not really fazed.

Erm, the Ying Yang Twins?

Funny how it’s always ‘too much’ and ‘going too far’ when it’s women doing it, and particularly when it’s black women doing it.

There are plenty of artists, white and people of colour, men and women, who manage to make music but don't trade on presenting themselves either as sexist and objectifying,
As is their right to do so @foxgoosefinch same way Cardi B or Meghan can be overtly sexual
It's not a one size fit all.

I said if they feel empowered

Again it’s not up to me to tell an adult women they are wrong to feel empowered or they are not and somewhat confused by this

She may have clever witty lyrics, but she and others in the music industry regardless of skin colour are contributing to the culture of pornografication of girls and women. Where is the empowerment in using the misogynistic terms that men hsve used to objectify and demean women. She is not solely responsible but is part of the problem.

The problem is not her specifically but the whole genre and the message it sends to young women. They are role models whether you like it or not

But that is where you are wrong. Surely, as a human being, you get some say in who is your role model.

Back in the day, Madonna was not a role model, because I could not relate to her. And I doubt MTS would have been one, either.

My daughters would not see her as a role model as they do not aspire to that.

Other prominent female artists, back in the day, were also not role models. So all this "whether you like is or not" is absolute bollocks.

People do have agency regarding who they look up to and who they admire. Except when it comes to your parents, as you have no choice, as a child.

I still have plenty of people who I look up to/admire. They are obviously based on my internal belief system...

She's a naturally beautiful woman. One of few women who actually looks better without makeup.

And she's choosing to use her body in the way she sees fit, and is making a fuck ton of $

Maybe go boycott one of her shows, standing outside with a placard? Or start a petition online?

I have a theory on here as to why a lot of you are chomping at the bit; nothing to do with racism, either..

This is blatantly just apologism for men, men’s misogyny and sexism, male domination, male violence and the whole history of white male power. We can always avoid confronting the real power if we shout “Karen!” and blame everything on another woman over there, no?

White women don't commit acts of racism or use their whiteness to gain advantage over black women?

Sorry that is the best laugh I've had all week.

Do share your tips on handling misogynoir from white women because plainly Vladmir, I and many other here have much to learn from your expertise. I mean you must be an expert in this to live in a world where it isn't a real and daily problem.

I am definitely eye rolling. They’re wearing swimwear you’d see on love island/too hot too handle.

Dancing is dancing - different culturally and generationally. I love getting my grind on!

When I grew up I loved dancing to Christina and Dirty or, I can’t remember heir name, but the song “my neck, my back, my pussy and my crack”.

WAP got nothing on that.

So who are the famous women rappers/singers who are successful without exploiting their bodies and sex?

Missy Elliott? Anyone in the last 2 years?

Billie Eillish has changed her look recently and spoken out about watching porn at 11 damaging her.

@Hospedia

I feel so sorry for our girls as they see these ‘role models’ daily

She completed her education before launching her career, she does a lot of charitable work and makes a lot of donations particularly to charities that benefit/support women and/or those in poverty, and her personal mission is to open and fund assisted living facilities in her home town/state (her training was in health administration). Yes she dances in teeny tiny clothes and her lyrics are sexual but so what? Male rappers have been singing about their dicks for decade now, it's about time women felt free to rap about their WAPs if they want to. Her music is clearly labelled as explicit so if you don't want your kids listening to it, well, don't let them.

This is all true, but she also raps about getting men to pay for her college tuition in exchange for sex. This sends the message that women can only succeed in education if they prostitute themselves to do so.

I have followed the female rap world closely for decades and have seen a gradual and heartbreaking change from the empowered, politic, feminist rappers of the 80s and 90s through to the pornified, pro prostitution rappers of today. OK there are still some female rappers who don't engage in that aesthetic such as Kamaiyah, bbymutha and Maimouna Youssef but there are many more that do. And worse there are some really gifted women like Princess Nokia and Nico Nasty who didn't start out that way but are now going down that route as it's the only way to get commercial success.

I fully see your POV and I still love Megan, have done ever since her first mixtapes. It doesn't take anything away from her ability, same with other women I love such as Queen Key and LightSkinKeisha. But I think it reflects the pronification of pop culture in general, and I think it links into the rise in ROGD among teenage girls. Who the hell would want to be a woman when this is the standard of womanhood held up to you? Back in the 90s TLC and Salt n Pepa wore dunagrees and no makeup and rapped about empowerment and safe sex. Now, You have to be a skilled, high class prostitute who likes it 'raw', and wealthy, and smart, and slimthicc. It's impossible.

@MondayYogurt

So who are the famous women rappers/singers who are successful without exploiting their bodies and sex?

Missy Elliott? Anyone in the last 2 years?

Billie Eillish has changed her look recently and spoken out about watching porn at 11 damaging her.

I would recommend Maimouna Youssef, bbymutha, Young MA (one of the very few out and proud lesbian rappers), Kemaiyah, Rico Nasty, Princess Nokia. However the last two have recently pivoted to a more Megan type approach in order to avoid being dropped for lack of commercial success.

@DolphinFC

This is how teenage boys expect your 14 year old daughter to dress and act.

They really don't.

It's not the outfits or the words to their songs. I don't even think WAP is that bad.

I find MTS equally as cringy as Madonna or Katie Price. But maybe I've just older, in my teens and twenties I would have had a different view point. Now I think it's a bit pathetic to try to be a sex object for men. Bum implants, scissoring on stage, only fans ect and I cringe at the things I did in my late teens and twenties when out dancing. It's not empowering, it's the opposite. It's garnering male attention for validation.

@JingsMahBucket it’s Queens of Rap on All4, it was pretty good

DCs listen to lots of rap. At a glance: male rappers can rap/sing on a range of topics, and wear pretty much anything. Female rappers rap about their bodies, videos are borderline porn. If they want to be successful, that is.
I guess a large proportion of the male audience would only listen to or watch a female rapper if they offer that type of thing, so that is what sells. Which makes the opportunities for creative expression for women much smaller than those for men. Sad.

Pretty sure people would have said similar about Madonna back in the day OP.

Madonna always had a huge amount of praise for push boundaries

Particularly from a lot of women who decided for others what empowerment and feminism was really about

And MTS also has a huge amount of praise. I think she seems pretty amazing tbh.

@OhWhyNot

Madonna always had a huge amount of praise for push boundaries

Particularly from a lot of women who decided for others what empowerment and feminism was really about

Madonna also got a lot of stick for it too. And it’s not like anything she released was ever high art - it’s just pop music to make money!

Do you think porn culture is “empowering” to women then, @OhWhyNot?

Has it enabled women to achieve actual power, you know like men have, in politics and society and the judicial and police systems and so on? Or is it just a fake idea of power that being the object of sexual attention produces?

It’s not so empowered if a woman doesn’t have much choice but to go along with it if she wants to sell enough records, is it?

Heavy metal music makes your kids worship the devil or kill themselves

Video games are going to turn all children violent

Sorry which moral panic are we on again?

Back in the day, Madonna was not a role model, because I could not relate to her. And I doubt MTS would have been one, either. @Blackisblackisblack I have to disagree.
Madonna is a huge role model.
She done things her way,she wasn't a puppet.
She made it ok for women to be sexual and not to be afraid of your fantasy.
That was a huge undertaking at the time.

The greatest achievement of the patriarchy in modern times is convincing huge swathes of feminists that objectivation, porn, prostitution, and the like are "empowering" and feminist choices. Men must be laughing like drains at us.

I don't think MTS would be commercially successful if she didn't sell her body image. That's it. And I don't think black women in particular are allowed to not be sexually commodified in the music (rap/hiphop) industry.

Again it’s up to women to decide if she feels empowered if she feels she is a feminist if she feels she is in control. I am not deciding that for them

I don’t expect women to feel they need to think for every other female and the impact they may or may not have