The Rhetoric Of Megan Thee Stallion
“The pandemic won’t slow this shift.”
-Laura Snapes, deputy music editor at The Guardian
In the year 2020, we’ve all found ourselves in a unique position of solitude. A global pandemic on top of a national political crisis has proven to test our relationships with one another and with language. Rhetoric is everywhere. A part of everything right now, and only getting louder. Every decision ever made, no matter how big or small, is rhetoric. The choice we make about what sweater to wear on any given day is characterised as rhetoric the same way political choices in government and creative choices by artists are defined as such. This is the way it’s always been, but a shift is occurring in the way we consume it. What’s new about rhetoric in 2020 is our inability to look at an event or artifact without the terms of context.
The word itself has been rethought and redefined by scholars throughout history so much that it’s hard to pin-point a concrete meaning for. Our realities have changed alongside the definition of rhetoric, which in current circumstances is impossible to not see as situational.
Strongly opposing political rhetorics have colored almost everyday this year to be significant in terms of power and social normalities, and we’ve been reminded of two things by this. One, the reality we face- both individually and culturally- is mapped out by the very language we use. Two, in times of distress it is artists who we turn to for hope and instruction. Not because they offer answers, but rhetoric to latch onto for the time being.
A lot has been asked of us in terms of redefining our relationship with both politics and art, and in the center of those relationships is rhetoric. This is the year of intertextuality, where one’s understanding of a situation is often the result of a variety of sources not necessarily tied to the same intention. A surge in online social activism isn’t particularly unusual in an election year, but the extent to which we’ve seen it in the past seven months since quarantine began exceeds that usual surge by a long shot. The rise of instagram info-graphics has put information, mostly surrounding political issues, in an even more accessible position than before. The ripple of information in the faces of young people makes living in 2020 a unique experience. No other humans will be affected by the infographics, articles, music, poetry, and images that came from 2020 the way that we have been and are being. Almost every bit of media taken in by individuals in 2020 alludes to a different event or topic, making the context and situation a pivotal part it’s understanding.
The unspoken meaning added to works made during the past year by the context and situation they were born into means that rhetoric truly isn’t as still as previously thought. If removing a rhetorical piece from its situation can also remove its characteristic as rhetorical, then there are questions to be asked about how art made during quarantine should be analysed. To avoid getting any muddier than I already have I’ll introduce Bitzer, the rhetorician responsible for the theory of the rhetorical situation.
His methodology lays out the three details that define every rhetorical situation: exigence, constraints, and audience. The same way someone choking would feel the need to ask for water, a rhetor needs to have a reason for feeling the need to speak-this is their exigence. If someone was screaming “water” over and over again, you’d probably pay more attention than you would to someone quietly coughing. The way they do their communicating defines their constraints, or the means by which they share their message. A room full of grown, capable adults would be far more equipped to handle a situation where someone might be choking than a room full of children, and depending on who is in the room the rhetor would have to adjust their constraints to make their voice most effective. The audience must be capable and willing to engage in the discourse invited by the speaker if a situation is to earn its label as rhetorical.
Creatives haven't necessarily all lost out this year. While the hum of public bustle is a staple part of the creative process for a lot of artists, isolation has forced more emphasis on the private aspects of art. For others who work best in solitude, the situation came together, and many have taken advantage of the time to focus on creating without the previous pressure of deadlines.
Megan Thee Stallion, rapper known for her Houston roots and forceful flow, is an artist in particular who’s done their job as a rhetor in 2020. A rhetoric of agency, choice, and power has been building up behind Stallion since stepping onto the music scene in 2016, and has exploded this year in light of publicity opportunities being used by Stallion to initiate conversation on the treatment of Black women in America.
Her artistic choices in the past year have constituted a meaning and an audience capable of the proper discourse to characterize a situation as rhetorical. The fact that this happened as a direct result of the situation she herself was already a part of gives Bitzer’s theory relevance here. Her exigence, constraints, and audience come together to define her presence in the year 2020 as rhetorical.
I: Exigence
“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”
—Malcolm X, 1962
The oddities of our present reality haven’t affected Stallion’s artistic style, which has remained just as unreserved as it’s always been. Neither have they silenced reactionary critics, who have remained just as harsh. Her lyrics are explicit, and not by mistake. The choices she’s continuously made as a writer reflect her personal ideas on female sexuality and its relation to agency.
For those who don’t view sexuality as expressive or empowering though, the ideas so bluntly stated in Stallion’s music can cause moments of moral panic. Mariah M. Johnson, of the ODU Undergraduite Research Journal describes,“The consistent condemning of Black sexuality anything related to the Black identity comes from a long history of moral panic, racism, and demonization of Black people”(2). It’s these feelings of panic when confronted with opposing methods of expression that can often lead to condenment before consideration. Claims like “Megan Thee Stallion just set the entire female gender back by 100 years, I feel sorry for future girls if this is their role model” by DeAnna Lorraine, conservative political commentator, and
“This is what the feminist movement was all about” by Ben Shapiro are not uncommon, and stem from a place of misunderstanding resorted to panic.
The point is being missed. While the feminist movement includes sexual agency, it does not exclude moedesty as capable of acting in the same way. It’s not about how Stallion defines her autonomy, it’s about that autonomy getting attacked as a result of not being respected. Sexual agency gets dismissed as immorality when respectability politics characterize it as such.
Stallion’s title as a role model has been consistently attacked on account of her uncensored lyrics, but it was never asked for in the first place. Too often are responsabilites like this title of “role model” assigned to black women who never asked to be seen as such. Megan Thee Stallion’s targeted audience is not children. It’s adult women, capable of thinking at an adult level. She’s a college student exploring feminism through sexual agency in a genre of music specific to her upbringing, and while she doesn’t owe an explanation for her artistic choices to anyone, the unfair backlash she’s experienced since stepping foot in the music industry has proven to be a motivating factor in her recent rhetorical decisions.
Stallion faced harsh judgement by the public this year not only for the lyrics that stirred controversy for conservative thought, but also for her position as a victim in a shooting incident with rapper Tory Lanez. Initially, Stallion chose to remain silent out of fear for law enforcement involvement in light of recent events. In that time, demeaning jokes related to transphobia and questions surrounding Stallion's fault in her own shooting arose from media outlets. Lanez’s actions seemed to have almost received a stamp of approval from the public, and Stallion was once again being demanded an explanation from. Megan Thee Stallion, loved public figure and talented artist, was not taken seriously as a victim. That fact can only leave me to imagine the reality faced by women who aren’t in the position to defend themselves. African American
women experience intimate partner violence at a rate 35% higher than that of white females, and about 2.5 times the rate of women of other races (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2001). There was a far bigger picture being painted in these contexts, and Stallion had her own demands to be addressed.
The ruling in the case of Breona Taylor that let two officers involved walk free (Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove), and one be only indicted for wanton (Brett Hankison), was further proof that doing injustice unto black women is far too easy, common, and overlooked in our culture. All of these details created the exigence that served as the foundation to Stallion’s rhetorical situation in 2020.
II: Constraints
Theorist Bitzer asks us to keep an open mind when we hear the word “constraint”. Connotatianally, this word makes an easy link to obstacles and hardships in the way of communication. In terms of Bitzer and the definition being used here though, constraints are the means by which the rhetor chooses to convey their message.
Not unlike most entertainers today, Megan Thee Stallion’s main constraint lies in the public platform she’s built for herself. A platform that’s grown to include big names like Times Magazine, Saturday Night Live (SNL), and The New York Times all just in this year. What’s unique about Stallion isn’t her Houston roots, but how she’s so closely kept to them even as she exceeds new levels of fame, and headliner opportunities arise.
These opportunities are not taken lightly by Stallion, who used her time on the SNL Stage on the night of October 3rd to publicly address Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, special prosecutor in the case of Breonna Taylor: Megan Thee Stallion: Savage (Live) - SNL .
The performance is brimming with rhetoric, and there’s far more to be explored here in terms of visual and bodily rhetoric than I’ll get to. What I’ll say is that it has a job in the world, “it performs some tasks”(Bitzer). It directed attention away from screens and into the present reality: bullet wounds, blood, shattered glass, red, white, and black. No detail here is unimportant or unintentional. “Protect Black Women” displays behind her for most of the full four minutes, and it’s a phrase given urgency and a sense of demand from the context in which it lives. This performance would not have had the same effect it did if done five years ago outside the context of our current exigence for political reform.
An op-ed in The New York Times, penned by Stallion 10 days after the SNL performance, reflects on the meaning constituted by her choices made as an artist, and goes further to say that, “The issue is even more intense for Black women, who struggle against stereotypes and are seen as angry or threatening when we try to stand up for ourselves and our sisters. There’s not much room for passionate advocacy if you are a Black woman.”
III: Audience
“Trying to capture the voice of all that is young black female was impossible. My goal, instead, was to tell my truth as best I could from my vantage point on the spectrum. And then get you to talk about it”
-Gwendolyn D. Pough
Turning back to methodology for the last time, Stallion’s audience fits Bitzer’s definition and further proves her creation of a rhetorical situation. Well respected platforms like The New York Times helped to constitute Stallion’s audience as adults who were willing and capable of engaging in discourse.
Stallion’s rhetoric has gone far beyond her usual musical audience. Since being published, quotations from her op-ed are being used in scholarly discussion of systemic betrayal against black women. “For every Megan Thee Stallion who tries and fails to prove she’s a victim to the public, there’s another Black woman who tries and fails to prove it to the courts. And then those women disproportionately end up in prison.” (Erika D Smith). She has become a part of a conversation that ultimately is pushing for action- that is rhetoric, and how she ended up there is her rhetorical situation, created on her own terms.
Sources
Berman, Hannah. “Should We Trust Instagram Infographics?” Medium, Age of Awareness, 28 July 2020,
medium.com/age-of-awareness/should-we-trust-instagram-infographics-f80f04e1549e. Black Women, Gender, and Families Fall 2007, Vol. 1, No. 2 pp. 78–99
Carter, Micaiah. “Photographers Micaiah Carter Overview.” Giant Artists, www.giantartists.com/photographers-micaiah-carter-overview.
Johnson, Mariah M. (2020) "Wait ‘Til You See it From the Back: Twerking as an Expression of Sexual Agency," OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 5 , Article 3.
Available at: Wait ‘Til You See it From the Back: Twerking as an Expression of Sexual Agency
Lloyd F. Bitzer, “The Rhetorical Situation”, Philosophy & Rhetoric, Jan.,1968, Vol. 1, No. 1, Penn State University Press, pp 1-14
“Malcolm X – Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?” Genius,
genius.com/Malcolm-x-who-taught-you-to-hate-yourself-annotated.
“Musical Notes: How Is Pop Music Changing during the Pandemic?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Apr. 2020,
www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/14/musical-notes-how-is-pop-music-changing-during-the -pandemic.
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Rennison, Callie Marie. “ Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report.” U.S. Department of Justice, www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ipv.pdf.
“Saturday Night Live.” YouTube, YouTube,
www.youtube.com/channel/UCqFzWxSCi39LnW1JKFR3efg.
Stallion, Megan Thee. “Megan Thee Stallion: Why I Speak Up for Black Women.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 13 Oct. 2020,
www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/opinion/megan-thee-stallion-black-women.html.
“Statement by Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in Response to Grand Jury Verdict in the Breonna Taylor Case.” Black Lives Matter, 23 Sept. 2020, blacklivesmatter.com/statement-by-black-lives-matter-global-network-foundation-in-response-to -grand-jury-verdict-in-the-breonna-taylor-case/.
Time Magazine 12 October 2020: Cover
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