Defending Megan Thee Stallion's political views was certainly not on my 2024 bingo card, yet here we are.
I'd like to prerequisite this by reasserting my political atheist status. To be clear, I'm not saying I don't believe in politics or have political opinions.
However, I do not believe in subscribing and giving your undying loyalty to any given party. This is especially true in this age, where politics is at one of the most crucial points of this country's history.
Nevertheless, Megan Thee Stallion performed for Kamala's first official rally, and the backlash has triggered me onto my "leave Black women alone" soapbox.
Did you miss the performance?! Well, here it is:
The Baddie Backlash
Firstly, I have to address the fact that everyone called this performance inappropriate. Why?! Presidential candidates routinely turn to the hip-hop community to help them secure the Black vote, and they all have massive teams who are well aware of the types of music and performances these stars exhibit.
Everyone from Jay-Z and Beyonce to Big Sean, Queen Latifah, Wale, Kendrick Lamar, The Migos, Pusha-T, and countless others have performed and attended events at the White House and other political arenas.
Do you really think Kamala didn't know about Megan's music and performance style?! Gimme a break! She called her for a reason, and in my humble opinion, Megan more than rose to the occasion.
Also, even if Kamala didn't know enough about Megan, you guys sure do! Everyone who is complaining about the so-called "inappropriateness" of this performance needs to cut it out.
If you've ever seen any MTS performance, you know that this performance was very tame. Everything from her outfit to her language and even the dancing was given a commercial, democratic campaign make-under. Kamala didn't call her to sing church hymns; she called her to hype up the crowd!
More importantly, her message was of body positivity, which is crucial to Harris' campaign message. So, I believe she was right on the money.
Either way, the misogyny/misogynoir with this is thicker than a stallion, and I, dot one, can no longer ignore it. With that said, let's get into the double standards when it comes to female artists and politics.
Yes, all sides get backlash for their political views, but unfortunately, one side gets a slap on the wrist while the other gets the electric chair.
For instance, remember the Dixie Chicks? (Young Ivy had their rendition of Landslide on repeat.) Honestly, I was far less politically aware back then, but I vividly remember them facing tons of backlash over their criticism of former President Bush.
Of course, they're not the only ones, but this is one of the first such scandals I remember that ended up negatively impacting the artist's careers in a major way.
Let's fast forward to Chrisette Michele. Remember her?! Maybe not. But she is an insanely talented singer who was literally canceled for performing at former President Trump's inauguration.
This was dumb to me from the start. No matter how anyone feels about Trump, he was still our new president at the time, and someone had to perform. Why not her?!
At any rate, the backlash for her was swift and unrelenting, and her career never recovered.
She recently did a Ted Talk on the topic, which you probably haven't heard of. Here it is:
Why is this relevant? Well, because other celebrities such as Steve Harvey, Kanye West, Ice Cube, and many others actually took meetings with Trump and were not at all canceled for it.
In fact, the closest thing to a cancellation was with Ice Cube and the whole platinum plan fiasco, and he simply resumed his other projects and moved away from the political realm to save face.
At any rate, here we go again. Plenty of artists have endorsed both sides for good and bad reasons. But the reigning poster girl for political backlash is still presently Megan Thee Stallion.
Is it not OK for her to have views and support her candidate of choice? Why is this being made to be such a big deal?! If the performance was so inappropriate, I need you guys to realize that she didn't hire herself.
Nevertheless, Megan is bold enough to put her booty where her heart is and shake it up to help further the causes she believes in. How is that not commendable?
The way people are acting, you would think she showed up scantily clad, dropping it low and spreading it wide. Also, I want to say that I find it especially disheartening for so many women to be dismissing her as "ratchet and ghetto" when part of Harris' campaign goal is to connect with her exact demographic.
Either way, women chiming in on the hate train are only helping perpetuate the "seen and not heard" rule they force on women. So, crooked kudos to you, I guess.
The Bottom Line
As tensions continue to rise in what could turn out to be one of the most important elections in history, I just want to go on record to say that women, especially Black women, are not your political fodder.
We are not here to do anyone's dirty work, and we deserve the right to support and perform for whoever we choose. Megan Thee Stallion has gone through enough in her short time in the industry, and this is not the time to try to ruin her career over Tory Lanez while pretending to be outraged over her performance.
That is all.
Show's Over.
Go Home!
Do you really think Megan's performance deserves all this backlash?
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