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| Feminism and Hip Hop |
Intro ...
This month's topic is "Hip Hop and Feminism". Is our response to sexism in hip hop music part of our own racism? Or has the sexism in hip hop hidden behind racism?
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Quotes ...
"Yeah, sistas are hurt...But the real crime isn't the name-calling, it's their failure to love us---to be our brothers in the way that we commit ourselves to being their sistas. We [went] from fly girls to bitches and hos in our brothers' eyes." - Joan Morgan
"Sexism is in hip-hop but hip-hop is not sexism. Artists like 50 Cent, Lil' Jon, and Wu-Tang are young, sexualized, black men. Knowing that, they would be horrible feminists. Should the reality of their sexism be silenced or even reversed? Is the problem that sexism is in the art? Or is the problem in the saturation of sexist art? Perhaps there's a problem that there's a bunch of counter-sexist/feminist art that doesn't get play/heard/consumed" - Mark - blogger.
"Some of the language in "Can You Control Yo Hoe" mirrors exactly the language abusers use to justify their violence. You made me do it. That part, Snoop repeats thrice. A friend shared a sad quote with me recently, about violence in hip-hop: "We treat our women like America treats us." I am desensitized. I am a feminist who picks nits and splits hairs. But I also give passes. I throw my hands in air in the club to the crunk. I shake my ass like tomorrow's not gonna come, to songs written by men who wouldn't respect me. I rap along to murder-threat verse. I say to myself: sexual expression is complex and that's how I like it. I am an adult. I justify: I live in America, contradiction is my burden to bear. But how much am I really deaf to, that it takes something so extreme to provoke my rage, that it's not just business as usual. How much does it break down my subconscious? How did Calvin Broadus, not super-persona Snoop Dogg but the human Calvin Broadus, get this track past his wife, his crew, management, producers, label people onto an album? OH, because we'll buy it. $14.99 at Virgin times platinum numbers. I'll multiply it next time I 'm out, dancing "yes" and thinking "no." The language of the abused. " - Julianne Shephard "You see, as a black woman, ...I got a love/hate affair with hip-hop. I live this duality when it comes to hip-hop music. The lyrics are often not women friendly. The videos are often not women friendly. And these things do a lot toward the degradation of the black female identity in a popular cultural context, as well as in a transglobal commodified world." - Lynne D. Johnson
"Since then I've wanted to ask you...how do you reconcile your love for the music and your feminist values? Are you allowing too much as a Black woman?" - Response on Lynne D. Johnson's blog.
"I also believe that much of what passes itself off as tackling sexism in Hip Hop culture is nothing more than a sly form of public relations to ensure that nobody's money, power or respect is ever really challenged within the circles that benefit from Hip Hop's commercial appeal. I have yet to see any of these enlightened interpreters of Black culture call for specific boycotts of cultural productions that degrade Black people especially if anyone Black benefits from these productions. Instead we are asked to dialogue about, forgive and ultimately celebrate our progress always predicated on a few rappers and moguls getting rich. Angry young Black women like myself are expected to be satisfied with a mere mention that some Hip Hop music is sexist" - Jennifer McClune
"Though Jay-Z never steps out of character-he does the dancefloor ditty, the narco-nostalgia, the ego trip-he no longer seems entirely comfortable playing his role. When during a listening session, he played the track "99 Problems" for a group of journalists, he took great pains to explain that the word bitch as used in the song doesn't refer to women, and therefore isn't misogynistic. Either he thought we were a very gullible bunch or he felt conflicted about his use of the term, embarrassed even. " - Elizabeth Mendez Berry
"This is a very sexist industry. They'll never throw the genius title to a sister. They'll just call her a 'diva' and think it's a compliment. It's like our flair and vanity are put before our musical and intellectual contributions." - Lauryn Hill
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Articles ...
Dismissing the sexism in Hip Hop as being predicated on socioeconomic factors is part of a plan to silence any feminist critique of the culture: make an understanding of the misogynistic objectification and eraser of Black women in Hip Hop so elusive that we can't grasp it long enough to wring the neck of its power over us. This argument completely ignores the fact that women too are raised in this environment of poverty and violence but have yet to produce the same negative and hateful representation of Black men that male rappers are capable of making against women. Powell's understanding also lends itself to the elitist assumption that somehow poverty breeds sexism or at least should excuse it. White boys can create the same hateful and violent music as Black boys. As long as they can agree that their common enemy is the female and their power is in their penises we must not hesitate to name the war they have declared on women.
http://www.urbanthinktank.org/hiphopbetrays.cfm
The study, conducted by Motivational Educational Entertainment (MEE), a Philadelphia communications firm that researches and markets to urban and low-income groups, refers to these teens as "the hip-hop generation." In reality, the teens interviewed-between 16 and 20 years old-are probably children of the first hip-hop generation (usually considered people born between 1965 and 1980). The subjects of this study, then, have been raised during the rise of this influential culture and may reflect the long-term effects of the devastation of black communities following the civil rights and black-power movements.
The most telling attitudinal change from the "movement" years is the absence of any influence of feminism and the open disdain for black women. As the authors put it, "Black females are valued by no one." The study's glossary includes six nouns used to describe males: Dog, homeboy, playa, lame, sugar daddy, and payload, another word for sugar daddy. For women, there are at least 15, none good: Block bender, woo-wop, flip-flop, skeezer, 'hood rat, 'ho, and trick all mean promiscuous female. In addition, there are freak, bitch, gold digger, hoochie mama, runner, flipper, shorty, and the more ambiguous wifey. Young women in the interviews also use some of these terms.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0411/davis.php
The one comment that's spun its way through all of these threads is that if women stood up and said someting/stopped dancing to/stopped their tacit approval of hip-hop that all of the foolishness would stop. Well, that's a nice (and naive, and not terribly nuanced) thought, but I'm reminded of what Malcolm X said about teaching white people about racism. I'm paraphrasing here, but essentially he said that black people shouldn't bear the responsibility of teaching white folks about racism, because as long as the teaching came from those who were most victimized by it, white folks would continue to tune it out. Feminism is similar. As long as complaints only come from women, men -- and sadly, many women -- will continue to tune it out. So yes, while it is sad and notable that women's voices have been largely silent on this issue, it's time for some brothers to step forward and say that this has to end, to talk openly and honestly about the role (myth) of macho and hyper-sexuality in hip hop, and their active (and passive) participation in the continued degradation of (mostly) black women.
http://www.lynnedjohnson.com/diary/000312.html
What kind of images of themselves do my daughters see in the songs and videos they love? Do they feel like they have to either bare their curves completely or hide them in baggy clothes? Do they perform psychological gymnastics and distance themselves from hate speech, assuming rappers couldn't possibly be talking about them -- even adopting the misogyny, rationalizing, ''Those girls are bitches and hoes?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/7510131.htm?1c
Exploitation of women in hip-hop culture has become an accepted part of it for both the artists and audiences alike, and many critics blame the music without looking any deeper. When going to any hip-hop related event, my friends and I normally expect that we will be disrespected verbally and physically, and have to prepare ourselves accordingly. We have to be careful in choosing what clothes to wear, how we carry ourselves and what we say. I have often wondered why it is so acceptable (for men and women) and what the roots of the values expressed in the culture are.
http://www.mysistahs.org/features/hiphop.htm
The Women of Hip Hop Videos "They're popular for the very reason many of us dislike them, because they are half naked, flashing their chunky backsides and plenty of cleavage, and serve no other purpose," he said. "Maybe it gives some black women some kind of pride. Accentuating their 'beauty'. They like that response. They like to be noticed."
Chantelle Young, a poet and a political science student, said if she looked hard and was a little creative, she could see the beauty in video women. "There is a beauty in a woman dancing, when you look at it in a nonsexual way," she said. "I mean, sometimes I sit and wonder how they can move like that. That's when it is an art form. But when is it ever looked at that way?"
http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/index_20000825.asp
The misogyny in hip hop is no different or extreme than the misogyny of 80s hair bands or jock rock, but we rarely discuss that music scene anymore, presumably because we think that these are white boys on rock n roll entitlement kicks and are thus beyond help.
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/000813.php
The lyrics alone don't distinguish "Girlfriend," a track on the new album by the rapper Queen Pen, from other rap songs. After all, bragging about luring a woman away from her boyfriend is practically de rigueur on a hip-hop album. "If that's your girlfriend, she wasn't last night," Queen Pen taunts a cuckolded beau. What makes this rap song different is that the girlfriend stealer in it is a woman. Queen Pen, a.k.a. Lynise Walters, who in conversation remains coy about her sexual orientation, is perhaps the first recording artist to use rap, a genre known for the misogyny and homophobia of its lyrics, to depict lesbian life. "Girlfriend" is a milestone for rap, says Michael Eric Dyson, author of the book "Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture." He calls the genre "notoriously homophobic." But he said it was not surprising that the first to address homosexuality in rap was a woman. "This is still going to be a bomb she's dropping," he said. "But the real thing is going to be when you get some brother coming out." "I think she's chosen that route because she thinks it will get her over with the urban audience," said Sheena Lester, music editor at Vibe magazine. "But I also think the hard language and all that is real to her. I don't think she's just putting it on."
http://www.io.com/~larrybob/queenpen.html
The recent controversy over Nelly's music video "Tip Drill" has highlighted what we've all known for some time: hip hop has a gender problem. And for most of hip hop's 30-something years, folk have been compelled to point out the sexism, misogyny and homophobia that finds a forum in the lyrics of the young black and brown men who have primarily influenced the genre, and the lack of a womanist perspective that could directly counter those lyrics. In this regard, the recent decision of the Spelman College Student Government Association and others at the Atlanta University Center to try to hold Nelly accountable, was part of a larger tradition, one honed by journalists like Joan Morgan, Raquel Cepeda, Karen Good and Elizabeth Mendez-Berry and scholars such as Tricia Rose, Cheryl Keyes and Gwendolyn Pough, whose new book Check It While I Wreck: Black Womanhood, Hip-Hop Culture and the Public Sphere drops in June. But in recognizing this larger tradition, we should also acknowledge that we may be asking hip hop to do something that it's fundamentally incapable of.
Let me be clear - I'm on the front lines of any effort to get the men in hip hop to rethink their pornographic uses of women's bodies and performance of lyrics that more often than not express, at best, a deep ambivalence about and fear of women (perfectly captured 14 years ago with the Bell Biv Devoe quip "never trust a big butt and a smile") and, at worst, outright hatred. But as we make demands of these artists, it's important that we understand the demands of the peculiar space they occupy within pop culture. Without doubt, the performance of black masculinity continues to be hip hop's dominant creative force. Yet over the last decade or so sales figures have consistently shown that young white men are the primary consumers of the various performances of black masculinity and the pornographic images of black and brown women found in mainstream hip hop.
http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/mu20040526hipgender.asp
Nelly was to appear on the Spelman campus on April 2nd in support of a bone marrow drive sponsored by his foundation 4Sho4Kids. Nelly began to raise consciousness about the need for more blood stem cell and bone marrow donors after his sister was diagnosed with leukemia last year. But for some of the women at Spelman College, no amount of good will by the rapper excused his role in circulating misogynistic images of black women. As Asha Jennings, the head of the college's Student Government Organization told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "We care about the cause, and we understand the need for bone marrow is so great within the minority community," but "We can't continue to support artists and images that exploit our women and put us out there as over-sexed, nonintelligent human beings." In response to the planned protest, Nelly and his foundation pulled out of the event. According to reports, the Student Government Organization at Spelman only agreed to host the event if Nelly agreed to also appear at a forum where he could address the implications of his "Tip-Drill" video.
http://africana.com/articles/daily/mu20040414tipdrill.asp
The problem is the business of rap music which helps promote not just sexist attitudes, but homophobia, violence, and other ignorant ills. First off, the people who own and control the music have no respect for it. No, I'm not talking about Dame Dash or Dr. Dre. I'm talking about the guy who's two levels above them both, running Universal Music and pushing the green or red button on what gets produced and promoted in hip-hop. If Universal wants to push ant i -women type music this year millions of dollars will pumped into the budget of whatever rapper is ignorant enough to write the lyrics. Sure the artists can choose to make something different. They just won't have the backing that others do who agree to play the game.
http://dieselnation.blogs.com/hiphop/2004/03/hiphop_hates_wo.html
"I hear what you're saying, but scantily clad women are fun to look at!" True. However, so are scantily clad men; D'Angelo's "Untitled" video proved that too well. I say that if it's about showing skin then show skin. All of it. Male and female. But the preponderance of women's exposed flesh in Rap media is about more than showing skin and selling sex. It's about power. There is something unbalanced and disturbing when men are fully clothed and surrounded by women who all are naked ass-out.
http://rap.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm
In a more celebrated example, performance artist Sarah Jones stepped to the mic to hold mainstream hip hop accountable with her track "Your Revolution" (on DJ Vadim's USSR: Life from the Other Side). "Your Revolution" is a riff off of Gil Scot-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," and on the track Jones takes shots at the sexist lyrics of artists like Biggie ("Big Poppa"), LL ("Doin' It"), and Shaggy ("Boombastic"). But in an ironic twist, that perfectly captures the struggles of those who try to hold hip hop accountable, Jones' lyrics were cited as "vulgar" by the FCC and a complaint was filed after the song was played on Portland, Oregon's WBOO in 1999.
Your revolution will not happen between these thighs The real revolution ain't about bootie size The Versaces you buys Or the Lexus you drives Your revolution will not be you smacking it up, flipping it or rubbing it down Nor will it take you downtown, or humping around Because that revolution will not happen between these thighs
http://www.africana.com/articles/daily/index_20010830_1.asp
When the mainstream portrays Hip-hop, it typically focuses on male-dominated Rap music. At this page you can: scope interviews with famous female rap stars; peep knowledge on the state of women professionals and artists in the business; read about new female Rap/Hip-hop artists and big-up the sistas in general.
http://rap.about.com/cs/womeninrap/index.htm
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