Sexual Scripts In Hip Hop Culture

In modern day society, popular culture has gained equal status to world issues and politics. Music, movies, and literature have started cultural revolutions and challenged the straight-forward thinking many individuals have accepted in the past. But while popular culture can advance new ideas and create movements, it also has the ability to challenge advancements society has made. Imani Perry’s essay, The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, focuses on hip hop and its negative impact on women and body image.

Music and society have always been closely related. For years now music has been apart of people’s everyday lives all around the world. Having so many different genres out there, it makes it easy to be appealing to so many different ethnic backgrounds. However, one type of genre in particular has seemed to grab the attention of a younger generation. Rap music has undoubtedly had its utmost impact on African American youth, since many of the performers themselves are African American. An overtly masculine culture dominates rap music and creates gender stereotypes that become abundantly popular to the youthful audience. Three constant themes that are found within the rap culture are encouragement of violence, the misogynistic representation of women, an extreme hatred of homophobia. Each theme plays a detrimental role in the process of defining black masculinity as well as shaping the values, morals, and beliefs that its younger audience adopts after tuning into this “gangster lifestyle”.

As female adolescence is a time in which girls come to terms with their rapidly changing bodies and perhaps heightened sexual desires, they are often left vulnerable to conflicting patriarchal (and heteronormative) messages in which simultaneously police and objectify their bodies. These messages are frequently reflected and inscribed by the media, and as Deborah Tolman writes, work to “divert them from the possibilities of empowerment through sexual desire” (Tolman 1994: 324). However, as it is important not to universalize the female adolescent experience, studies in recent years have looked at the implications of race in regards to adolescent female sexuality, particularly with African-American adolescent girls, in order to better understand

The misogynistic treatment of women in commercialized rap has become a widespread phenomenon which as a result has become commonly accepted by majority of the individuals in society. Rappers, in general, nowadays use women in their videos in a way which is both derogatory and exploiting. Black men in today’s society, especially in the entertainment industry, do not see women as their equals; rather they objectify them as being nothing more than sex objects. People in the Hip Hop industry do not believe that sexism and misogyny is as big of a deal as racism, thus they push this issue to the side by simply ignoring it and learning to accept it. This misogynistic portrayal of women is ruining the image if Hip Hop as both an industry and a form of expressive art. However, instead of taking action against this atrocity, many women simply believe that the images of women and their portrayal in rap videos does not represent nor refer to them as an individual and the type of woman they truly are. By being silent these women are allowing themselves to be victimized by the men of not only the Hip Hop industry but also general society. By not having a say in this matter of the false classification and portrayal of women, they are voluntarily allowing men to do whatever they please to do so, in any given time and with any approach they feel is necessary. They do not

Young women exploring their sexuality are often stigmatized by various factors in society. Latina girls are no exception and are, in fact, finding themselves placed in a negative spotlight more often that their peers. In Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself, Lorena Garcia looks into a group that has been labeled as “at risk” youth by interviewing a group of Latina girls between the ages of thirteen and eighteen who engage in safe sex. She also interviews some of their mothers. Her findings contradict the negative stereotypes that follow these young women because of their sexual activity. In doing so, she discovered that the statistics do not tell their entire story, making it difficult to understand why and how they go about their sexual activity.

1. My redefinition of Hip hop feminism differs from the “normal” definition of feminism, to me hip hop feminism is a way of living and thinking. Hip hop feminism is connected to the Liberation Movement although this movement focused on advancing women rights than civil rights I still believe it played a part with the Hip Hop feminism movement which focused on the rights for young black women in the hip hop industry. I believe this because both movements give women a new definition of what it is like to be a women and both fight for the women cause although they may not hit the exact issues they promote change. Hip hop feminism should fight for the rights of women in hip hop who don’t receive respect due to their sexuality and gender. Women’s perspective in hip hop should be changed and embraced as a powerful persona rather than sexual perspectives. In order to make my definition of hip hop feminism happen in the industry major change must be presented. First, we must create respect towards hip hop women and shut down the suppression of female power. The way in which this would happen is to stop the secularization of women in this industry and not support the hypermasculan culture hip hop is. Although I understand that not all sexualization will be abolished completely from hip hop due to it being part of the culture . However I feel if women were to maybe not givein to the

Misogyny is a tried and true American tradition from which hip hop derives its understanding of how men and women should behave. Critics argue that hip hop’s misogyny and promotion of traditional gender roles reflect mainstream American values. Feminists suggest that misogyny in hip hop culture is not a “black male thing”, but has its roots in a larger pattern of hostility toward women in American culture.

The article “ Hip-Hop Demeans women” written by Tricia Rose, talks about hip hop on sexism and women. She argues the changes of women’s position in the Hip Hop music which reflect it to the American black people’s culture. Rose breaks the total article into three sections, R.E.S.[.E.C.T-But Not the Kind Aretha Franklin Had in Mind, Explicit Isn’t Always Exploitative, “Free the Girl”:Hip Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women.

Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.

Hip hop and rap as a musical genre is a very controversial subject for nearly everyone. Its influences are powerful, both positive and negative. There are many positive influences of hip hop, and a few examples are the breaking down of cultural barriers, the economic impact, and political awareness of pressing and urgent issues. Though there are many positive influences, there are many negative influences as well. Some of the more heated debates of the negative influences of hip hop are that it glorifies violence, and the fact that the music sexualizes women and degrades them as well. Attached to the negative outlook on hip hop, there are also many stereotypes assumed by society towards this type of culture

Doug E. Fresh, a popular beat-boxer in rap music today, has been quoted saying, “Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change.” Although this is the original intention of hip-hop music, public opinion currently holds the opposite view. Since the 1970’s musical artists have changed the face of hip-hop and rap and worldwide, people – mostly teens—have been striving to emulate certain artists and their lyrics, which has created negative stereotypes for hip-hop music and also for those who choose to listen to it. With vulgar lyrics referencing drugs, alcohol, sex, and aggression, it’s no wonder these stereotypes exist. However, is music really the direct cause of how teens act,

Hip-hop culture and culture’s misogyny can be traced back to the golden era of hip-hop. In hip-hop, culture terms for men created an image of a “big-man persona” such as “baller” “pimp” and derogatory phrases such as “bitch” “ho” became common phrases to distinguish women. The rapper persona was to have a macho attitude, extravagant living, and having multiple women beside them was the way to express the Hip-hop lifestyle (Layne 1). Artists such as N.W.A., one the few pioneers of 90’s gangsta rap has associated their music with misogyny. The song titled “A Bitch Iz A Bitch” in the album Straight Outta Compton revolutionize

Magazines offer many opportunities for teenagers to consider and investigate their sexuality. In particular, sexuality advices and stories in magazines enables teenagers to understand personal sexual issues or problems that they might be having in a healthier light. Post-feminism attitudes have become very popular in teenage magazines for both male and female readers, this is partly because prior to the feminism movement women were never seen as having much sexual desire for men and women generally didn’t feel comfortable expressing their sexual attributes or sexuality. I will be examining three studies in this essay all by the same author ‘Sue Jackson’ involving textual analyses of problem pages, interviews with magazine staff and focus

In the 21st century, the overall topic of sex has become more mainstream and less taboo overall than ever before. In Jason Derulo’s music video featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Nicki Minaj, “Swalla,” it is evident that sexualization in media is easily accessible and viewed by many. There are millions of views for this music video: 797 million views and counting, to be exact. This music video is much like other music videos in this era because of the rising interest in the “mainstreaming of sex” due to the sexualization of culture. (Attwood, 2009, p. 1) In the video, the men are the center of attention surrounded by provocatively dancing, attractive women. Even the only female rapper in the song, who has a chance to be the center of attention, Nicki Minaj, plays into the sexual role that most women play in music videos. “Swalla” is a music video demonstrating that “sexual exposure is getting progressively louder and more public” and also shows women who are submissive to men and their sexual desires that articles like “The Sexualization of Culture” by Feona Attwood and the “American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls” argue for and against. (Attwood, 2009, p. 14)

Dating back many centuries, teen pregnancy was the cultural norm where women as young as twelve are married off to men to conceive their children. Back then, it was acceptable for young women to bare a child once first menarche and have as many children as her body could bare. In today’s society, teen pregnancy is looked down upon, yet sexual appealing imagery is solicited throughout social media, television networks, magazines, and music. So how is it that teen moms are subject to ridicule and mockery when they are ill educated, media influenced, and peer pressured into situations they never understood. This paper will discuss proper sex education services, teen pregnancy support programs, the impact of television reality, contraception management, and socio-economic difficulties.