Megan Thee Stallion Spoke About Feeling Pressure to “Be Strong” After Being Shot

• Megan Thee Stallion said she felt pressure to "be tough" after she was shot in both feet in July.
• "I feel like I have to be strong for everybody," Megan told GQ.
• "I want Black women to be louder," she told the magazine. "I want us to be sassier. I want us to demand more, be more outspoken, keep speaking and just keep demanding what you deserve."

Megan Thee Stallion reflected on the traumatic aftermath of being shot in both feet in July, speaking about the pressure Black women face to be "strong" and protect others despite their own pain. In her cover interview with GQ, she spoke about the shooting, as well as the cruel disbelief and mockery she faced on social media.

Megan said Tory Lanez, who she named as her attacker the following month, attempted to bribe her and her friend into silence directly after the shooting. "[At this point] I'm really scared,” she told GQ, "because this is like right in the middle of all the protesting. Police are just killing everybody for no reason, and I'm thinking, ‘I can't believe you even think I want to take some money. Like, you just shot me.'" She spoke about telling police, "I got cut," fearing officers would brutalize them if they discovered the gun. (Lanez' lawyer denied he offered Megan or her friend money to GQ.)

Megan also spoke about feeling unprotected in the wake of the shooting, as many on social media denied her trauma or made memes out of it, and the expectation of strength she felt. "Like damn," she said, "I have to be tough through all this? All the time? It was like, who really checks on us or who protected us? You just go your whole life with that mentality. And then when something actually happens to you, when you properly should have protected yourself, your first instinct was not to protect yourself, it was protecting other people.… So it was like, 'What do I do?' 'What do I say?' Like, 'Is anybody going to believe what I'm saying?'"

"I saw something that said, 'Check on your strong friends.' And, like, a lot of people, they don't do that because they think, Oh, this person is just so strong, so I know they got their stuff together," Megan continued. "I feel like I have to be strong for everybody, and I don't want my friends or anybody around me to feel like it's a pressure on me, 'cause I feel like they all start freaking out." She told GQ she asked her friends, "Why didn't you call me?" adding, "Now they're like calling me every five minutes." 

Asked about the message she hoped to impart to her fans, Megan said, "I want Black women to be louder." She continued, "I want us to be sassier. I want us to demand more, be more outspoken, keep speaking and just keep demanding what you deserve."