Black Women’s Role in Popular Culture: An Analysis of The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto

After concluding my remaining readings of chapters 7 through 10 from Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, I found my core understanding of the overall theoretical ideas posed by author, John Storey, had become clearer in the rounding up of the semester. Within chapter 7 of the book, popular culture is discussed in relation to issues connected to feminism, gender and sexuality. According to Storey, “Popular culture has been the object a great deal of feminist analysis” (pg. 136), and, as previously discussed in chapter 5, feminist psychoanalyst, Laura Mulvey shared her theory on the ‘male gaze’, which has been acknowledged and studied by many critics and other feminists. Presented in cinema, music, magazines, and other media outlets, it has been well documented how “popular culture plays a role in patriarchal society and that theoretical analysis of this role warrants a major position in ongoing discussions” (Storey, pg. 136), and, in many cases, “the male viewer’s regard for the publicized female body is often objectified and sexualized” (Inquiry 2). With my knowledge and understanding of hip-hop, the misogyny and sexism that culture glorifies is very noticeable. Misogyny has become a sign of authenticity for many rappers who exploit and sexually objectify women in their rap lyrics and videos to assert and prove their own masculinity. Derogatory words such as ‘bitches’ and ‘hoes’ in rap have become common references for women. I was mindful of how one of my favourite songs,

In Joan Morgan’s article “Fly-Girls, Bitches and Hoes: Notes of a Hip Hop Feminist”, she shows the way rap music has changed through it popularity. The widespread appreciation of rap had negative impacts upon the black community. Morgan talks about this through her Feminist point of view. She focuses the topic on what rap music says about the African American culture in Hip Hop. Rap music and Hip Hop were invented through the pain of African Americans. Hip Hop and the Rap industry use sexism and machoism to express the long years of oppressive pain they went through by the hands of the white people. Especially for the black brothers who continue that oppression by using provocative words that degrade the black sisters. Morgan states that blame isn’t only on the brothers

Through a multiperspectval lens the ladies in the hip-hop industry have to work extra hard to be seen as artist instead of just their sex. People that are involved in Hip-hop feminism in the industry draw on the strengths of both the feminist legacy and of the contemporary movement hip-hop. Hip-hop and black feminism have intertwined and evolved together to create its own self-identification and political sphere, that emphasizes the personal is the political, however, there is still a divide between women who embrace feminism, yet try to keep a distance from hip-hop and vice versa. The themes in the films and readings show the U.S. contemporary audiences need to accept the new representation of the female roles as successful and

Beyoncé. She’s one of the world’s most beloved pop stars, idolized and respected by millions of women and men around the world. What is it that makes Beyoncé Knowles “Queen B” among the young people of today’s society? To state it simply, it is her role as a mediated symbol. She is an idol of women empowerment and beauty. Beyoncé, as a powerful and renowned black woman, alters the pre-existing hegemonic ideology of “white male” equaling power and success in American society. In doing so, she also reinforces the more modern concepts of this Post-Fordist society by “keeping different from the Jones’”. Though some sources disagree, this essay will argue that because of society’s hegemonic ideology surrounding what constitutes power and the “ideal woman”, Beyoncé has become a revolutionary symbol representing minority and women empowerment through the use of media. As an symbol she has and is continuing to demonstrate more modern ideological structures, which in turn demonstrates continuously changing societal ideologies.

The idea “sex sells” is largely influential for celebrities like Beyoncé to deem it necessary to objectify their bodies for they're so called image. The repercussions of this behavior, however, are the lasting affects it will have on both female and male children and young adults of this generation. Behaving in a sexualized and objectified manner has the potential to corrupt young minds and manipulate their views on sex, body image and their role in society. Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is a powerful and influential woman in today’s generation. Her audience ranges from boys and girls

This research paper will examine the difference in how women’s sexuality is portrayed in hip-hop music videos. Are women empowered, or are they objectified when they express their sexuality? The public image of how women move, speak, sound, look, dance, talk, dress, and act is controlled by corporate networks who present these societal-norms to people through many mediums. Dominating how women are portrayed in music videos, men are introducing audiences to certain tropes and ideals women are expected to live up to. This heteronormative, White male fantasy, is unrealistic for women and creates an unhealthy obsession and expectation that females of all sizes and races are supposed to embody. In Women in Popular Music Media Empowered or Exploited? (p.9), Jamie Glantz asks “Are women represented as the subjects of their own desires, or do they seem to be preforming as the objects of someone else’s?” Men and women alike intend for women to follow these societal rules. Audiences do not realize the messages they are being fed through hip-hop music videos. The popular, male vocalized, music video for the summer hit of 2013 “Blurred Lines,” which appeared to be a lighthearted video of Robin Thicke and Pharell dancing with women wearing swimsuits. The male performers make faces at the camera and one another, while the women wear clunky shoes and nothing else. The men attempt to grind on the ladies legs, but the models just look distracted by the lamb featured in the video or a

Throughout this semester, we’ve looked at different artists and their music. Much of hip hop and rap isn’t exactly woman friendly, and some could be called misogynist. This summer, a new rapper called Fetty Wap came onto the scene with his unexpected hit song “Trap Queen”, an ode to his significant other, who he pledges allegiance to, going on to say that she’s the love of his life and will get rich along with him by being his partner in the drug business. MC Lyte even calls him a “hip hop feminist”, saying that "He may have a very unique way of presenting his ideas, but he does love women". While Fetty Wap is part of a tradition of a select few hip hop artists who pen romantic odes (think Ja Rule, LL Cool J, and the Cash Money Millionaires),

Hip Hop or Rap music is often related to themes of misogyny and objectification towards women (Weitzer and Kubrin 2009 ; Gourdine and Lemmons 2011).

Hip hop and rap music have always been a magnet for controversy, both within the music and the actions of hip hop artists themselves. Although there are a wide variety of hip hop and rap music, it is important to note that despite this, the messages used have been identified as homogenous. Hip hop has also been a medium for messages, such as cultural, political, and social. This essay will focus on the scope of hip hop from its roots, cultural significance, reproduction of gender and racial constructs, misogynistic themes towards women and African American women in particular, claiming of power within academic literature in two songs, ‘Famous’ by Kanye West and ‘Back Home’ by Zeds Dead and Freddie Gibbs.

In sum, African American women’s stories about the self are not new in fostering Black feminist thought. My goal was to investigate how Black feminist theory assertions influenced my identity, what I taught as an art educator and what I created as an artist. In order to do this, it was important to contextualize how womanism, critical race theories, and critical race feminism influenced each other through the feminist and the Civil Right movements from the 1970s to contemporary Black feminism. In recognizing the impact of the feminist movement on Black women, there is no one monolithic Black feminism (James, 2013) whether you identified as feminist or womanist, did not make a major different in the lived experience of the oppressed. Exploring critical race feminism as a framework allows focus on double jeopardy, making it is very difficult to separate race and gender when looking at Black women lives.

This study was motivated by the lyrics rapped in hip-hop songs and the connection they have with how these artists conceptualize women. The researchers looked for a connection between the hip hop genre and how certain artist promote feminism throughout their songs. They defined a hip hop feminist as “women and men who step up and speak out against gender exploitation in hip hop,” (Tyree & Jones, 2015, pp.62). Rap throughout the decades went from speaking out against inequality and negatively shifted toward materialism, sexuality, and misogynistic language. There are four distinct types of identification of women throughout the lyrics of the hip hop songs which are, “mammy, matriarch, sexual siren, and welfare mother or queen,” (Tyree et al., 2015, pp. 59). Each of these identifications contribute to the type of song being sang, such as mammy’s which are respectable and loyal women and matriarchs are women who are independent and hold a family together. These two types of women bring homage to women in rap lyrics whereas sexual sirens and welfare mother/queen are identifications that degrade women in rap lyrics.

In various occasions, critics have called out Beyoncé’s lack of female empowerment through her clothes and actions. Critics have questioned B’s identification as a feminist due to her sexual approach in the media through her appearance and dependence on tour names. “Turns out booty shaking and stamping your husband’s last name on a product of your own creativity make a lot of folks question your feminist values” (Harris 2). Her seductive dancing, exotic pictures, and love for her husband have made people rethink of Beyoncé’s feminist aspects. As a matter of fact, Beyoncé posed for GQ’s February 2014 issue in various photos wearing minimal clothing, which required many people into questioning her feminist attributes. Her cropped shirt, which showed under boob, and her short shorts did not stop people from directing their attention into this feminist pop queen. As a third wave feminist, a woman’s body is not to be put in display for the attraction of others. In Beyoncé’s case, it seems as if she went against this belief by posing for a well known magazine in few clothing items. Beyoncé later explains that it is her body, and her actions do not define the level of maturity or the level of musical talent she holds. She explains how dramatic and nearly impossible social media has made her actions to become by constantly being judged. Not only is Beyoncé criticised for her sexulization body images, but for her tour being named after her husband’s last name. For someone who wished

The media has placed unfortunate stereotypes on many races, ethnicities, and cultures. This playlist that is being analyzed through a multiperspectival lens has an overall theme that women are objectified and mistreated in the music industry, especially in the hip-hop genre. In the readings and documentaries we have watched from class, there has been a common theme of mistreating women through music and this is important because it is becoming more and more acceptable in today’s society of accepting misogyny in music lyrics. The music industry and mass media confirms that being a woman in contemporary society means one needs to use their femininity to be successful in both the public and private spheres of life, therefore society is still looking through a patriarchal lens and does not extensively accept a successful women and female in the music industry in a positive way in our culture.

In the article “The Story of My Body” by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and the writing “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos” by Joan Morgan, both writings report about women are discriminated by different social perspectives. In “The Story of My Body”, Cofer points out us her personal narrative story about how the multiple cultural genders affect her as an individual person. In her writing, she divides her work into separate titles: SKIN, COLOR, and SIZE, LOOKS which are four supporting points about her article. In, “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos”, Morgan explains how black folk views of the hip-hop music which can release their pain and express themselves. Also, Morgan mentions that hip-hop music has some negative impacts on the black community. Although Morgan using lots of strong vocabularies and evidences develop the article, Morgan’s tone tends to more hip-hop style than academic which is hard to understand the idea of her piece of writing. In Cofer’s view is conveying us to understand the message which is to be the person who has optimistic and positive attitude no matter what body color he/she has. These two writings both are effectively persuading the reader how women are treated by society, but Morgan’s tone tends to more hip-hop style than academic, compare with Cofer’s writing is more clarified and organized by supporting her narrative experience.

For almost a decade now, women have been shown as a stereotype element in musical videos. Even after the introduction of great female talents in the pop culture industry, the visualization of women as a sex element in music videos hasn’t stopped at all. This is why Beyoncé's visual albums has always been a piece of art. If her first visual album was not already an art fanatic, her second album Lemonade surely lived up to its hype and should be considered as a master piece. Throughout the album, Beyoncé promotes black women empowerment, by putting herself in different scenarios throughout the album and showing different negative and vogue perspective of the society that women of her kind have to endure every now and then. She is not just talking about black women in the album, rather she is trying to portray a story that will motivate women of all race, and community. Through different tracks, she tries to free women from the negative stereotypes forced upon them by the unkind society. In this paper, we will be conducting a rhetorical analysis of the album, to understand for in depth meaning that it tries to represent.