The Exploitation of Women in Hip-hop
Culture
By Ayanna
Hip-hop is the latest expressive manifestation
of the past and current experience as well
as the collective consciousness of African-American
and Latino-American youth. But more than
any music of the past, it also expresses
mainstream American ideas that have now been
internalized and embedded into the psyches
of American people of color over time.
A part of the learned mainstream American
culture is sexism and misogyny. Hip-hop culture
is frequently condemned for its misogynistic
exploitation of women, but this misogyny has
its roots in the culture in which we live.
Hip-hop but can be explored and used as a valuable
tool in examining gender relations. It brings
to surface the issues that face many young
people, such as discrimination, peer relations,
and self-worth, that can be considered in order
to bring about change in the misogynistic aspects
of hip-hop culture and American culture, in
general. For young people that do not hold
sexist ideals, mainstream hip-hop may influence
them to do so as it spreads and continuously
gains popularity. And others are directly and
indirectly supporting an environment that allows
sexism to continue.
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.
Hip-hop culture, started by black and Latino
youth in New York City, (by definition) encompasses
rapping (and now singing), deejaying, break-dancing,
and graffiti-writing, but has evolved to be
much more than that. It is now a lifestyle
for many young people mostly between the ages
of 13 and 30. It now involves music videos,
fashion, language, the club scene, and the
general way in which young people interact
with one another. Hip-hop culture is widely
used in commercials (Coca-Cola, Burger King),
fashion advertisements, video games, TV shows,
and there is even a hip-hop exhibit at the
Brooklyn Museum of Art. The most powerful and
influential part of hip-hop culture has come
to be rap music, a form of poetry that is said
over musical instrumentation. In recent years
rap music has developed a reputation of being
brutally honest, violent, and misogynistic.
Much of the music and many videos specifically
transmit, promote, and perpetuate negative
images of black women. All women, but mostly
black women in particular are seen in popular
hip-hop culture as sex objects. Almost every
hip-hop video that is regularly run today shows
many dancing women (usually surrounding one
or two men) wearing not much more than bikinis,
with the cameras focusing on their body parts.
These images are shown to go along with a lot
of the explicit lyrics that commonly contain
name calling to suggest that women are not
worth anything more than money, if that. Women
are described as being only good for sexual
relations by rappers who describe their life
as being that of a pimp. In many popular rap
songs men glorify the life of pimps, refer
to all women as they think a pimp would to
a prostitute, and promote violence against
women for 'disobeying.'
Of course, not all rap songs are misogynistic
and all black men do not speak and think this
way, but large percentages within hip-hop culture
do. The name calling disrespects, dehumanizes,
and dishonors women. If a man labels a woman
with any of these names, he may feel justified
in committing physical or psychological violence
against her. The name-calling may also be representative
of the way these men are thinking and feeling
the anger, disdain, and ill feelings toward
women. Joan Morgan, who refers to herself as
a hip-hop feminist, reveals, "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."[1] Many black
men within hip-hop culture who battle racism
and
oppression themselves everyday have been conditioned
by society not to trust or love, and if they
do not love themselves, it is difficult for
them to love women or anyone else in a healthy
manner.
Misogynistic hip-hop does not only expose
black men's pain, but it also shows the issues
that black women may want to deal with. Much
of the sexual exploitation in hip-hop culture
is done with the consent and collaboration
of women. A significant amount of misogynistic
hip-hop consumers are women, and hundreds of
bikini-donned women show up for the music video
shoots as unpaid participants.[2] Dance clubs
and backstages of concerts are flooded with
women who express willingness to do anything
sexually with a man to get drinks, money, jewelry,
or just to feel privileged and wanted.
Women, especially black women, have less access
to power, material wealth, and protection and
so have historically used sex (in prostitution
and various other domains) as the "bartering
chip" to gain access.[3] Misogynistic
ideas and practices from the past have been
passed
down to today's hip-hop youth. For example,
during slavery the black woman was often forced
to have sexual relations with any male (slavemasters,
overseers, and slaves) that desired her. Black
women were sometimes used as breeding instruments
to produce more human property, and at other
times forced to have sex to pay the for food,
the safety of her children, or to be treated
less harshly on a day to day basis. They were "paying" with
their bodies as a survival strategy.
Out of this emerged the stereotype of black
women as promiscuous and oversexed, and this
shaped some black women's sexual morality.
Some started to look at themselves as society
viewed them, and some accepted that they had
no control over their own bodies. When trying
to fit into white society after slavery and
take on ascribed white gender roles. Some black
men wanted black women to have a subordinate
role in the home while some women wanted men
to be the sole economic providers. They have
been, for the most part, unable to meet each
other's expectations, but these same obsessions
are demonstrated in hip-hop culture. Some women
want men to be the economic providers, and
use their sexual power to receive economic
gain from men. While some men within hip-hop
want women to be passive and have learned to
manipulate women by offering money and power
to them.
In a study done about black male/female relationships
of the hip-hop generation, many black men in
the hip-hop culture that were interviewed valued
economic resources and used these resources
as a way to manipulate and control women. And
some women negotiated with their bodies for
things that they wanted.[4] In order to gain
access to these things and to get the love
and attention from men that they want, some
women felt they must cater to the exploitative
images of what men want and think women should
be.
Many women defined their own worth on what
they can do for and get from a man. Some women
were willing to take risks with their bodies,
minds and hearts hoping to raise their socio-economic
status and gain security for their children's
future, and they have learned to use their
sexuality to do this. Vibe Magazine talked
to four women in the September 2001 issue who
all regularly had one-night stands or on-going
sexual relationships with rappers. One of the
women Vibe talked to is Nikki, a 30-year-old
woman who has had many lovers in the hip-hop
industry. Vibe said, "…her lovers
read like a Who's Who of rap."[5]
Her reason for partaking in multiple insignificant
relationships
with rappers was, "I've got nothing to
offer…No education, no good job, no nothing.
So why would a man want me, other than sex?
I felt I had to give, so I used myself."[6]
Many women like Nikki are put all of the blame
on themselves for being used by men. They assumed
and accepted that men would oppress and disrespect
them. As another one of the women described, "If
you had the right kind of man that wasn't controlling,
and you were like a team, it'd be cool…But
there's no man out there like that."[7]
The four women described a new low in relationships
between men and women within the hip-hop community.
Men thought that women were only worth giving
them sexual favors, and women thought men are
only worth giving them money.
Censorship of hip-hop music is not the solution.
Instead, the solution is to change the culture,
system, and ideology so misogynist lyrics are
not written. There are female hip-hop artists
and consumers who are trying to fight against
the hip-hop misogyny, but many times they are
not taken seriously. Some female artists try
to work within the current male-dominated industry
and play the expected misogynist role. Others
are seen as misusing sex and feminism and devaluing
black men, or just "shootin' off at the
mouth."[8]
Education is the first step in changing gender
relations in the hip-hop community. People
first need to be made aware that women's rights
are being violated verbally in the sexist lyrics,
in physical interactions at hip-hop events,
and in the general way that hip-hop youth interact
with one another everyday. Each individual
can remember the roots of his/her own internalized
sexist ideology. Knowing the history of this
ideology, we can keep history from being repeated.
A change in the hip-hop culture's collective
consciousness can spread to the larger population,
or vice versa. We need knowledge to act and
speak out against the exploitation of women,
not only in hip-hop culture, but in all cultures
everywhere.
1. Morgan, Joan. When Chickenheads Come Home
to Roost: My Life as a Hip-hop Feminist.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999. 74.
2. Morgan, Joan. 78
3. Morgan, Joan. 77
4. Hutchinson, Janis Faye. "The hip hop
generation African American male-female relationships
in nightclub settings." Journal of Black
Studies. Sept. 1999. 73
5. Dobie, Kathy. "Love's Labor Lost." Vibe.
Sept. 2001. 196.
6. Dobie, Kathy. 196.
7. Dobie, Kathy. 198.
8. Keyes, Cheryl. "Empowering self, making
choices, creating spaces: Black female identity
via rap music performance." Journal of
American Folklore. Summer 2000. 77.
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