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The same day Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa released their juicy new single, "Sweetest Pie," the two sat down and discussed the issues facing women in the music industry today that aren't so sweet.
On Lipa's "At Your Service" podcast released Friday, the duo discussed "disparities" between men and women in rap and the music industry in general. One major topic was the need for women to be "pitted against each other," when they should be "lifting each other up." Megan has previously opened up about how she was always put in the same box as Nicki Minaj and Cardi B, but it doesn't need to be that way.
"There's this beautiful moment coming into music, as a whole, where female musicians are seen to lift each other up. And I think that's really beautiful and important," Dua said. She then asked the "Body" rapper if she thinks that reflects the different standards men and women are held to in the music industry, to which she replied:
"I feel like when you think about women doing anything in general, you just think about 'catty.' It's five girls in a room, what is the 'catty' factor of it all? ... That's what we've been taught for so long. When you look at TV, you see a woman being in a competition with another woman, you just always see a woman is slighting another woman. But that's just because that's what been beaten into your head for so long. I feel like boys definitely play a big part in that in the industry, too ..."
The "Levitating" singer then told Megan, "The one thing that I feel like that women and men that I find a large disparity is when we perform live, for example. And I've seen this a lot with reviews or whatever for concerts ... I think we're used to working double as hard in some ways. I feel like it's instilled in us that we have to work really hard to be taken seriously."
Dua brought up an example of a show where a female performer is expected to put on a full performance, while a male counterpart might just appear on stage and sing.
"It definitely is a crazy double standard," Megan said. 'But I feel like — we're girls, right? — and sometimes I just have to take it as everybody knows that we are superior, so they expect us to arrive as the superior beings that we are. I feel like we just get critiqued so heavy because everybody just knows that women are the s*** so you just look at us to be the s*** all the time."
Dua continued to discuss double standards, saying male rappers are typically praised for being so "upfront about their sexual desires." But when Megan and Cardi B released "WAP" in 2020, "there was a lot of outrage about how explicit the lyrics where as others seemed to see it as a feminist anthem and a celebration of female sexuality," Dua said.
Feminism is the solution to this problem, Megan said. "(Men) should be supportive of the female movement, (men) should be aware of the struggles we have to go through," she said.
You can listen to the full "At Your Service" podcast episode with Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion below: