(ThySistas.com) Ah…the Hot Girl Summer. Megan Thee Stallion has declared that the heat we are experiencing is due to the fact that beautiful girls are enjoying their summer by any means necessary. This could be twerking. It could be hustling. It could be wearing a thong swimsuit everywhere including church. If there is skin and booty shaking involved over a bounce beat, it is definitely popular regardless of the words.
Rappers like Megan are not new; Nicki Minaj, Lil’ Kim, Trina, and Foxy Brown were her predecessors. Before them, Millie Jackson had no problem with rapping and singing sexually explicit lyrics. These women have all been criticized for using their body more than their brain to become popular music artists. However, are they the only ones to do this? Are they the only ones being criticized because of their appearance? To be honest, what these females are doing to maintain a career is no different from what male rappers do boasting about drugs, money, and sex.
So why? Why not let talent speak louder than lies and indecent exposure? Whether or not we want to believe it, it is because we desire to hear about taboo and dangerous topics.
I had a friend who worked for a TV station. Her job was to research and create the script spoken by news anchors. I asked her one day why news channels usually report about killings, kidnappings, and other depressing topics. She said something that truly did shock me: “People like to hear about those types of events to forget their own personal travesties.” Wow. She was right. Listening to Megan Thee Stallion and others like her helps us to forget about our worries, even if it is for a short period of time. If we want to forget more, we listen more. It helps us to desensitize to our actual problems and issues occurring in the world and in our lives that are negative and sad.
Those of us with brothers and sisters can remember a time when we were faulted for something that our little brother or sister did. Guilty by association. With this type of music, it is not necessarily guilt but instead a weird euphoria of riskiness. The second reason we enjoy hearing music like this is for this feeling; it makes us feel like we embody those attributes without experiencing the pain. Will we ever get on a pole and strip? Probably not. Will we pull up on something and complete a drive by shooting? Not likely. However, their stories and tales of sexual encounters and gang activity makes us feel “stripperish” and “thuggish” by association. So, we listen more. Support more. We encourage songs and music like this selfishly to feed our own fantasies.
Are there amazing artists who use none of these gimmicks to succeed? Absolutely. I completely empathize, however, with those female artists who choose to go through the process of becoming these sex symbols just to make it to the Billboard charts. I know that part of the reason they feel the need to do so lies in our desire to live through them. They fulfill a fantasy that most of us will never experience in our lives. I know it is much easier to criticize these women for their choices, but is it the best thing to do? Does it help us as a sisterhood progress forward? Consider supporting these women and helping them understand that we do not need their boobs, their thongs, or details about their sex life. We just need whoever they truly are to shine through.
Staff Writer; J. W. Bella
May also follow this talented sister online over at; JWB Writes.