Audre Lorde's Age, Race, Class, And Sex: Women

The Hip Hop music industry is infamous for being controversial. In the article Hip Hop’s Betrayal of Black Women there’s a debate on whether the exploitation and constant verbal slander of women should be acceptable just because it sales records. It presents the question that why is it that male poverty breeds sexism? Even though women may have lived in the same environment males still see women as the enemy in their music in an effort to sell records.

What does it mean to you to be a black girl? If you aren’t one, what do you see when you visualize a black girl? If your imagination limits you to just an afro-centric featured, loud and slang-loving, uneducated woman, then this piece is addressed to you. The persistence of the stereotypes concerning average black girls have chained us all to the earlier listed attributes. One side effect of this dangerous connection is the wide opening for a new form of discrimination it creates. Whether it is depicted through slave owners allocating the preferable duties to lighter-skinned black woman, or in modern times where a dislike in rap music categorizes you as not really black, segregation within black communities occur. Tracing all the way back to elementary school, my education on the subject of racial segregation has been constricted to just the injustices routed by dissimilarities between racial groups. What failed to be discussed was the intragroup discrimination occurring in the black society from both outside observers and inside members. Unfortunately, our differences in the level of education, in physical appearance, and in our social factors such as our behaviour, personality or what we believe in have been pitted against each other to deny the variety of unique identities that we as black individuals carry.

“For Colored Girls” is comprised of seven women who represented a different shade of the rainbow. The colors are brown, red, yellow, white, green, orange and blue. Their costumes and make-up transformed each of them and were symbolic of the color their character embodied. The ensemble acting made all of their roles of equal importance, without one dominating the other. These women together formed a bond through their various adversities, gradually taking them from strangers to acquaintances. From an objective view, the audience is allowed to simply observe the events as they take place (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011, pg. 82) chronologically. Throughout the movie during some of the conflicting and traumatic scenes, one of the women recites a

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) is a reality competition television series that main goal lies in finding America’s Next Drag Superstar (ANDS) by challenging drag queens with various tasks that include creating a couture ensembles, presenting oneself tactfully on camera, and acting in parodic challenges mocking pop culture and social norms. Each episode consists of a mini-challenge, where a queen has the chance of winning an advantage or title of team leader, a main challenge, where queens are judged on various skills of performance, and then a runway, where queens model costumes or clothes based off of a certain theme and then judged on their performance as a whole. Each form of expression represented on the show exemplifies Judith Butler’s queer theory by blurring the gender binary while also rejecting criticisms of being impediments to feminist movements. These actions that disavow the prominent gender binary system in America reveal that drag can be used as a tool to combat heteronormativity and promote a more progressive outlook on gender identity.

Lauryn Hill is the queen of R&B. Michael Jordan is the king of basketball. It is widely known that throughout American history, African American talent has been extrusive. Would it be ‘narrow-minded’ to describe someone’s talent in these fields as ‘black?’ While it may seem these ascriptions are a simple compliment, they also serve as a developmental handicap. In William Raspberry’s essay, “The Handicap of Definition” he highlights the stereotype of what it actually means to be Black by definition. Raspberry uses multiple examples to help acknowledge the underlying fact that the definition of black is restrictive, and how much of a toll it takes on African-Americans.

Double-consciousness, as coined by W.E.B. DuBois, refers to the struggle of oppressed groups in an oppressed society, and viewing those struggles through the eyes of the majority. Despite its incarnation over a hundred years ago, it is still just as relevant to today’s society as America still struggles with racial injustice and oppression. Beyoncé Knowles, one of the most prolific music artists of the 21st century, examines these injustices in her controversial visual album, Lemonade, which highlights the struggle of minorities through culture, oppression, and feminism, using imagery and song.

The irony in the challenges of life is that it helps us build character. But the irony in truth is that often times its right in front of us. Can we all subconsciously be capable of carrying ourselves within a barrier of “truths”? As a poet, writer, and political activist, Audre Lorde’s “The Fourth of July” describes an image of how much her mother rationalizes with certain truths: “As usual, whatever my mother did not like and could not change, she ignored” (222). Growing up in an era of segregation, and coming to terms with the realities of how cruel the world could be; as a result, sharing less than the truth was used as a barrier of protection. Nonetheless, in times of social injustice and racism, some truths come to light surrounded with

For nearly twenty years, Beyoncé has lived her life in the public eye yet she has always kept her cool, been submissive, and rather quiet when it came to her personal endeavors however after releasing the film “Lemonade”, we are able to see her in a vulnerable light. In Jeremy Helliger’s article: “Dear Beyhive: Stop Whining. Beyoncé Still Hasn’t Earned Her Album Of The Year Grammy” he addresses the idea that although Beyoncé was able to encourage black women to be proud and free, she also she missed the mark by adding raunchy, over the top content to her vulnerability.

Over the past few years tragic events seem to be surrounding our society. An array of killings, social protests, police brutality and racism have startled the nation. Lately celebrities have been addressing these issues more and more on TV, in interviews and in the public eye. One incredible artist just used her talent to address all of these issues and more in her new music video "Formation". Beyoncé is an iconic figure in our culture, spreading her talent, feminist views and activism worldwide. This video is one of a kind. It is not centered on her but on Black America. There have been many critics disagreeing with Beyoncé 's video. They felt that she spread negative messages of police throughout her video. Others, however, loved her video. They felt she used her platform to reach out and address issues. Supporters and critics of the video have expressed their opinions in many different ways. In this paper I will analyze this video that has been shared worldwide. The question I ask is: "How does Beyoncé depict the complexity of Black Americans?" In order to answer this question, I will apply Pentadic criticism to analyze this discourse.

In those years, racism was a strong and violent issue that not only referred to women but also to minorities such as black people, gays and single mothers. Today people are still struggle with these very issues. Racism in America is proving that this essay is sadly very relevant today and this minorities group reacts in different ways but always similar to Lorde’s description of poetry as a form of creativity as a class issue, thinking that in the 80’s poetry was the most economical way of communication. In recent years there has been an explosion of creativity by minority groups in form of: street-art, rap music, and

Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934 in New York City to immigrant parents from the West Indies. She learned to talk, read, and write somewhere around the age of four and wrote her first poem in eighth grade, which was then published in Seventeen magazine. In 1962, Lorde married a man named Edward Rollins and had two children before they divorced in 1970. However, in 1968 she moved to Tougaloo, Mississippi and met her long-term partner, Frances Clayton. Her earliest poems were often romantic, but in the 1960s became more politically centered due to the amount of civil unrest combined with confusion over her own sexuality. At the time many of her poems were written, more than one-fifth of the nation lived below the poverty line, and

Individualism is defined in the Oxford dictionary, as “the quality of being different from other people and doing things in their own way” (Turnbull, Deuter and Bradbery). It emphasizes the importance of setting goals for one’s self and staying true to their desires. In her short essay “Uses of the Erotic,” Audre Lorde stresses the importance of reclaiming individuality that has been lost due to society’s tendency to discourage the ability to feel and express emotions to their fullest capacity. As Lorde outlines in her short essay, the use of erotic encourages individualism by disregarding the societal norms set for women, urging them to reflect on their ability to feel emotions to their fullest capacity, and then allowing them to express those emotions to the rest of the world. With these actions, women may reclaim their individuality in a society that worships conformity.

On Wednesday the 23rd of November 2016, I had the opportunity to lead a group discussion on Lily Allen's song Hard out here. The members of my group consisted of myself, Jobin Dehdari, Romolo Ferrari, Colin Noort, Reza Siamek Riazi Kermani, and Sophie Thurston. To start with, we were all in agreement that Hard out here had a more profound impact in the form of lyrics, music, and video. The video shows more hidden messages than just reading Allen's text. Our discussion focused on Allen's main theme throughout the text, which is the discrimination of women. In particular, she criticizes the music industry for portraying women as sex objects.

Ella Marija Lani Yulich-O’Conner known internationally by her stage name Lorde is a New Zealand singer born on the 7th of November 1996. She was raised in Takapuna Auckland and become an international hit in the mid-2013 when Lorde released her debut single “Royals”. Lorde became the youngest solo artist to achieve a US number-one single on the billboard hot 100.