Vic Mensa Defends Janet and Megan From Rigged Double Standards

Rapper and activist Vic Mensa isn’t here for what he sees as the internet’s recurring pastime: putting Black women on trial. Now, he’s causing quite the stir on social media after defending some of music’s favorite Black women, who often face consistent scrutiny from society.

Mensa came to the defense of Megan Thee Stallion and others, pushing back against what he described as the disproportionate criticism Black women face online. He focused specifically on male rappers, who, he said, get away with way too much.

“Male artists are celebrated for having as much sex as humanly possible,” Mensa said in a video posted to social media. “For a woman, relationships you’ve had are used as justification for you to die.”

Let’s take Megan Thee Stallion, for example. She can dominate charts, graduate from college and headline festivals, yet after Tory Lanez was sentenced to prison for shooting her in 2020, the world remains split on whether the court ruled correctly or if Meg was ever telling the truth.

RELATED: How Megan Thee Stallion Makes Her Money

“Someone recently told me she can’t keep trying to ruin people’s lives… By getting shot?” Mensa asked. “How you ruin somebody’s life by them shooting you? ‘How could you do this to me? You ran your body directly into my bullets,’” he joked.

For Mensa, Megan is “a good barometer for what you think about Black women.” His comments quickly found an audience, with supporters arguing that the rapper said out loud what many have been thinking for years.

“Thank you for this because I keep saying on here that people always stereotyping Megan and changing the Goal post,” @Kitkat19872 said on X.

Others praised him for being one of the few Black male rappers to come to Megan’s defense. “Ooo, the incels not gon like Vic Mensa’s new post,” @Areyoudvmb2 wrote. “Finally, a straight man calling out the misogyny Megan faces.”

Still, many Black people– notably men– called Mensa out for “pandering” to Black women while ignoring scrutiny that many Black artists face, regardless of gender.

“Matteroffact men were criticized harshly for rap for decades now. If we being honest. I can’t think of any black genre that wasn’t harshly criticized,” @Redacted925 pointed out.

Another user, @Order__Rejected, agreed, naming several male acts, who “paid a price for their lyrics or comments” like “2 Live Crew, NWA, Eminem, Rick Ross, Da Baby, Larussell, Kanye.”

But while many online were stuck on Mensa’s take on Megan Thee Stallion, the “U Mad” rapper also called out double standards against Young Miami, who is facing criticism over her “Spend Dat” song rising on the Billboard charts, and Janet Jackson, who spent decades apologizing after the whole Justin Timberlake-Super Bowl fiasco of 2004.

“[Janet’s] t*tty gets pulled out, [and] she gets canceled. Meg gets shot, [and] it’s her fault,” Mensa continued. The point was simple: the names may change, but the script against Black women rarely does.

Social media often describes itself as a place for accountability. Too often, however, accountability looks suspiciously like a full-time job reserved for Black women, Mensa argued.

“Because women are expected to be role models whereas men aren’t,” user @darkromantic_ said on X. “It’s the same way we expect Black celebrities to advance the black cause. Flaws aren’t accepted from marginalized groups.”

In the end, the issue is less about whether Megan, Young Miami or Jackson deserve criticism at times. The question remains why that criticism seems to arrive louder, longer and more personal when the subject is a Black woman. And whose job is it to call out these double standards in the first place?