“She Said She a Savage, Right?” Examining Victim Blaming & Misogynoir in Discourse on Megan Thee Stallion

• In Event: Exploring the Intersection of Music and Violence

Abstract

In 2020, rapper Megan Thee Stallion was seriously injured during a shooting committed by rapper Tory Lanez, a then-intimate partner. Despite the extensiveness of her injuries, online discourse surrounding the incident was rife with racist and sexist memes and other vitriolic comments doubting Megan’s victimization experience and attacking her character. Although Lanez was prosecuted for the assault, and ultimately sentenced to prison, negative commentary toward Megan continued throughout the trial and has persisted since the conclusion of the criminal case. While existing literature discusses the ways in which misogynoir and victim blaming surface following reports of intimate partner violence, few empirical studies use a longitudinal approach to assess the evolving dynamics of racialized and gendered attacks on Black women victims. To fill this gap in the research, the current study uses qualitative methods to examine social media commentary at four key points in the discourse about the incident: (1) immediately after the shooting in 2020; (2) during the trial coverage in 2022; (3) after the sentencing in 2023; and (4) shortly after the release of Megan’s documentary "In Her Words" in 2024. Findings of the content analyses, as well as implications for research and theory, will be discussed.

Authors

• Sarah Louise Franklin, University of South Carolina

• Miltonette Olivia Craig, Sam Houston State University