Feminism In Rap Essay

Female rappers do not like identifying as feminist. The word feminism carries a negative connotation because people mistake it as women having resentment and hatred towards men. In her essay, “Bad Sisters: Black Women Rappers and Sexual Politics in Rap Music”, Tricia Rose defines a feminist as someone who “believed that there was sexism in society, wanted to change and worked toward change. Either wrote, spoke, or behaved in a way that was pro-woman…”(176). She continues by stating that, “[a]feminist feels that women are more disadvantaged than men in many situations and would want to stop that kind of inequality (176). Although Salt “N” Pepa do not identify as feminist, they are pro-woman and seek to empower their female audience. By using

To be a feminist is such a broad classification therefore it is divided into various subsections, in which Ruth Nicole associates herself with a group of feminism known as hip-hop feminism, in which I will thoroughly discuss within this essay. Ruth Nicole is a black woman that categorizes herself as a girl, by her definition a girl is far from independent. As well as a detailed discussion about the lived experiences of being and becoming in the body, which has been marked as youthful, Black, and female, along with the memories and representations of being female. As a result, Ruth Nicole wrote Black Girlhood Celebration in order to share her personal and political motivations of working with black girls within the community. A conversation

This successful woman released the first song with rap in it, which topped the charts in both The United Staes and The United Kingdom. Although the lyrics do not contain any depth, this is still considered a very significant accomplishment because a caucasian woman participating in an activity that is mainly dominated by Black and Latino men takes a lot of courage . Despite all odds, she was able to take on this new music genre and make something out of

In the essay from “ From Fly Girls to Bitches and Ho's" by Joan Morgan. Morgan writes of the qualities of hip-hop music and rap artists she appreciates such as its impactable , mesmerizing , powerful , strong and beautiful if used the correct way. She often says how it makes women feel degraded , it's not a great feeling to have when you think of it this way. In the essay “ From Fly Girls to Bitches and Ho's" that “Its music that that repeatedly reduces me to tits and ass” . Joan Morgan is after all a feminist but a female rapper . This makes her question what she's even supporting in a way.

In her article “The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto: Negotiating Spaces for Women,” Imani Perry argues that the objectification of women in the music industry is normalized in our society. Her purpose is to persuade us that most feminists who fight against the objectification and exploitation of women are ultimately colonized by the sexual fantasies of men. As a law professor at Rutgers Law School, Perry structures her text in a very effective manner. Using a general-to-specific organization scheme, she begins by outlining the recurring image of sexualized women in music videos, then presenting various cases of prominent feminist figures in the music industry.

As all other contributors were making their points they all had that one point in common. They seemed to have forgotten about those other rappers such as Common, J-Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. All rap songs are not just about women and money. Some are out to send a positive message and to give those that are oppressed a

In “Hip Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women”, McLune addresses the influence of hip hop’s choice of words towards African American women and females. McLune’s article is written in response to Powell’s opinions in “Notes of a Hip Hop Head”, along with various other hip hop artists, that black females are the leading cause of poverty and racism why black men undertake racism and poverty, as if women do not face these struggles from day to day. McLune disagrees with this remark and states that this is just one of many excuses that men use. McLune addresses an audience that is well educated along with informed with the

The author Jennifer McLune analyzes the standards of black women in hip hop and how the industry feeds of the degrading of women and women hating for their own personal success. She is trying to convince the fans of hip hop that this genre of music is sexist & degrading. McLune reasons for this is simple and that is to justify the fact that artists need to stop making songs like this and for women to take action against these songs, because the only thing these songs do is continue to give women a bad name. She continues to stress her point to the industry as well as acknowledging conscious artists by saying “they appear to care more about their own acceptance by mainstream artists than wanting to make positive changes in the culture” (McLune 222). But the

During the documentary a scene was shot at BET’s Spring Bling and a young male pointed out that women are determined to be b****** or women by the way they dress. Sexism is an issue that to society is not seen as important compared to the large number of black males incarcerated. The issue should be just as important if not more because one in four African American women is raped after the age eighteen. Most women who are called a b**** or another demeaning name think that it wasn’t referred to them, and either way is still unacceptable. Hip Hop is not being represented by men, which is why the decision of their lyrics is said the way that they

I liked the lyrics and the fact that Madiha Bhatti was pointing out about objectifying women in rap or hip-hop songs. She was direct and honest about the real story of our today's music. I will call her a brave person who mentioned this fact because her honesty may have brought many aggressive criticism and insulations for her. Today's rap music can be known as an offender to objectify women in the music. Although, not all music have this characteristic and degrade women, yet many popular rap songs are in this criteria.

In this book, Jeffrey Ogbar talks about the beginning of rap, where it started, some of the artists of this genre and some of the controversial topics the artists rap about. He also talks about the usage of the N word as well as men calling women the B word. In the first chapter of the book, Ogbar contextualizes the debate by talking about the history of the minstrel figure in American popular culture, relying mainly on the work of W. T. Lhamon and Patricia Hill Collins. He talks about how the earliest manifestations of hip-hop music in the 1970s came from the Black Power movement and often included direct rejections of minstrel tropes for example in the artist KRS-One’s song “My Philosophy”. Before going on a chronological study of the internal debates that many rappers have over their relationships with the minstrel trope, Ogbar finds the source of the debate in early twentieth-century black writers’, mainly W.E.B Du Bois, interest in elevating many portrayals of African Americans in the arts, versus Harlem Renaissance writers’ rejection of the emphasis on

Throughout history, women have been brushed aside as the inferiors of men. From the time of the Greeks to the modern day world, men have been the dominant beings. Mary Astell, an English feminist writer, says, “If all men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” She questions the societal norm of women in predetermined constrictive roles. This theme of a submissive and obedient female pervades many literary works, specifically those by Ayn Rand. Rand’s portrayal of women in her novel Anthem further drives the female into a position of inferiority.

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

Like many historical movements in society and popular culture, males tend to be in the forefront, even though women typically maintain a presence or leadership position within the movement. In spite of women, being present at the start of Hip Hop culture and having such a monumental role in the musically inspired movement, women have always struggled to be respected, admired, and perceived as equal or greater than their male

Since the beginning of its art form rap music has been subject to scrutiny throughout its existence. In a Theresa Martinez reading from the semester, the author describes rap music as a resistance. She builds on a theory of oppositional culture that was composed by Bonnie Mitchell and Joe Feagin (1995). In this article, “POPULAR CULTURE AS OPPOSITIONAL CULTURE: Rap as Resistance”, Martinez explains how African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans draw on their own cultural resources to resist oppression. She states that this very resistance to the dominate culture in