Megan Thee Stallion, three-time Grammy winner and recent Broadway star, announced the end of her relationship with four-time NBA champion Klay Thompson last week in a statement that accused him of cheating. “Trust, fidelity and respect are non-negotiable for me in a relationship, and when those values are compromised, there’s no real path forward,” she said via her representative. “I’m taking this time to prioritize myself and move ahead with peace and clarity.” Thompson doesn’t appear to have made a statement about the end of their relationship.
Although her allegation is that he was unfaithful, it’s Megan who’s being raked over the coals by a Black manosphere that acts out of the misbegotten belief that demeaning Black women is a solution for their feelings of loneliness and marginalization.
The memes have alternated between attacking her for being a sexual being and absurdly accusing her, a highly successful businesswoman, of being a gold-digger.
The internet memes have alternated between viciously attacking her for being a sexual being and absurdly accusing her, a highly successful businesswoman, of being a gold digger. And though her statement implies that she dumped Thompson because he was unfaithful, this manosphere is pinning the failure of the relationship on her.
On their show, “It Is What It Is,” rappers-turned-podcasters Mase and Cam’ron detailed a list of the men Megan has been romantically involved with. “This whole idea with Megan Thee Stallion, I think her reputation precedes her,” Mase said. “And because her reputation precedes her, when things go a certain way, you don’t get the good fortune of it.”
But what is this alleged reputation? Megan is being shamed for daring to be an openly sexual woman in her early 30s who has dated, fallen in and out of love, and been honest about her pain. “Black women are still constantly disrespected and disregarded in so many areas of life,” she wrote in a 2020 op-ed for The New York Times. Black women, she wrote, “struggle against stereotypes and are seen as angry or threatening when we try to stand up for ourselves and our sisters.”
Saying she won’t tolerate infidelity would count as standing up for herself. But Stephen A. Smith treated it as some kind of offense. “I don’t know what happened in their relationship. Don’t wanna know, ain’t none of my damn business and none of y’all’s either,” he said on his “Straight Shooter” YouTube show. “But Megan Thee Stallion made it so … Why? How come you just couldn’t break up and go on your merry way?”
But what would it have looked like if she hadn’t announced it? Megan had been dating Thompson since at least July 2025, and she detailed some of their happier moments to her tens of millions of followers on Instagram. Her followers watched the former couple cruise on the boat Thompson named after her, purchase a home in California, eat and rate dinners together, and even spend Thanksgiving with Thompson’s family.
I was among those people who was rooting for Megan to finally get her happily ever after.
I was among the people who were rooting for their relationship and for Megan to finally get her happily ever after, especially knowing that she’s been open about the emotional turmoil she experienced as an only child who lost both of her parents and her great-grandmother, an influential figure in her life. It’s disappointing to see her relationship crumble in such a public fashion, but it’s even more disappointing to witness the lack of empathy being extended her way, especially by Black men.
Celebrity relationships end all the time, but for some reason, Megan is being rebuked for doing what so many other famous people have done: process the end of her seemingly loving partnership in public view. Instead of being treated with the light touch afforded to Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck as they navigate an endless will-they-won’t-they dynamic, she’s being derided and shamed for even daring to desire a romantic love that meets her needs and her standards.
But the man she says cheated on her is given a pass. Mase said Thompson doesn’t need Megan: “He didn’t need Megan. If you 6’7” and you’re light-skinned with good hair, you could have anybody. I think we all know that.” This suggests that Thompson is a prize, but the gorgeous and singularly talented Megan is not. Misogynoir, or gendered racism, is leveled at Black women to shame us, silence us and blame us for the actions of others, including our partners.
Misogynoir denies Black women our dignity, strips us of our humanity and reduces us to negative stereotypes. Megan is nothing more than a “Jezebel” in this view, a hypersexual, lascivious siren who has no right to be heartbroken or have standards because she hasn’t shied away from her sexiness or her sexuality.
Megan has been a target of this Black manosphere at least since rapper Tory Lanez was convicted of three felonies related to shooting her in 2020. Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2022. The jury that heard the case accepted the facts that Lanez shot her, that she had bullet fragments removed from her foot, that there was gun residue on Lanez’s hands. But this manosphere still acts as if those facts are contested, and it includes people taking glee in Megan’s sadness.
Recent reporting suggests that there is an epidemic of loneliness among boys and men that’s causing a growing mental health crisis. In their search for connection, some of these men have fallen into the clutches of the manosphere, an online subculture where conversations are facilitated by and for primarily cisgender, heterosexual men.
Algorithms are indoctrinating these men into a harmful belief system that straight men are marginalized and need to regress to their “traditional” roles.
On the surface, the manosphere serves an important purpose: People of all genders deserve spaces where their existence is recognized, affirmed, validated and supported. But, as The Manosphere Index, a report released by Precision Strategies, notes, algorithms are indoctrinating these men into a harmful belief system that straight men are marginalized and need to regress to their “traditional” roles as protectors and providers to restore the natural order.
Controversial manosphere actors, including the late Kevin Samuels, Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, are preying on these men’s genuine need for connection. That influences how these men show up in relationships and how they treat women, including Megan, who have been wronged by their male partners. Excoriating women isn’t a solution for alleviating loneliness; it just fuels misogyny and, in the case of Black women, misogynoir, which makes women even less willing to form bonds, romantic or otherwise, with men. It’s literally unsafe to do so.
So, where does that leave Megan Thee Stallion? As unprotected as she has ever been, being criticized in public by men with platforms who have likely never met her and are only getting their information from other men who share a similar view of her and other women. But, as is always the case, Black women have Megan’s back. We’ll keep affirming her, supporting her and rooting for her happiness, because if we don’t stand in the gap for each other, who will?
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