Presentation Notes

What _­­­The essay is About

I decided to base my essay and research on how female sexuality is performed in the hip-hop culture. I decided to especially focus on how it’s performed in the music videos.

Reason For choosing this topic

The reason I have chosen to base my research on this topic is due to the massive change in hip-hop culture over the past thirty years in terms of the way we women are presented. I have personally noticed that there’s an exceeding amount of music videos where the woman always seems to be almost naked or performing an erotic dance in order to please the male partner in the video. Even the music albums of some female hip-hop artists are heavily sexualised and in some cases, pornographic.

I decided to base my essay on Laura Mulvey’s quote from her essay on the male gaze.

What I Found out during my research

During my research, I came across a wealth of information but for this presentation, I will only focus on some of the important topics that came up.

1.       Women have not always been identified as objects of sexual desire in hip-hop.

“In the 1980s, making it as a female rapper in those days was all about standing up to men and asserting the virtues of being a woman” (Selling Sex, 2005)

2. Depending on the concept of the music, women can be portrayed as objects of sexual and visual stimulation

“The easiest way for female rappers to gain recognition and acceptance in today’s Hip-hop scene is to trade on their sexuality” (Selling Sex, 2005)

3. Women can be considered a trophy, the prey or the weaker sex

“portrayal of...girls...is explored through hip-hop or music lyrics. Women are portrayed as hyper-sexual, their power restricted to attracting male attention, and young black men portrayed as predatory” (Maggie, 2009)

Feminism in Hip-hop

One of the main topics that I would have liked to go deeper into was feminism and feminity in hip-hop. The reason I wanted to explore this topic a bit more was because of an article I saw a while back about how the culture of hip-hop is fading.

Everyone’s idea of feminism is so different.

1:40 This next video explains how hip-hop brings to light the many issues in hip-hop music. She explains that the fact that women are eroticised shouldn’t be ignored.

This next video talks about the fact that being a woman in the hip-hop industry isn’t a big deal. That being seen rather than heard isn’t always a bad thing.

What is Feminity  

There are so many different ideas as to what feminity is. But I did find a good video on YouTube by Judith Butler who explains that people aren’t open to stepping out of the “gender norm” Start at 4:32

Conclusion

I understand that hip-hop identifies women with sex for many reasons. For example, a woman’s performance of sexuality can portray an image of power and dominance but it can also portray an image of objectification.

Femininity in Hip-hop?

Research

I'm currently doing some extra research for my essay on how women are sexualised in hip-hop. At the moment, I have been very interested in how femininity is performed in the hip-hop culture. The reason for this interest was because an article I came across that spoke against femininity among male rappers:

"Here’s what Lord Jamar had to say about girly-man rappers:

“First of all, it’s not just jabs at Kanye West. It’s anybody promoting the feminization — of the Black man in hip-hop culture. Anybody that I see out there, rocking dresses and all of that type of sh*t, I might shoot a jab at." http://diaryofahollywoodstreetking.com/category/gay-rappers/

You can see from this short piece in the the article that feminism is something that's almost looked down upon. To be feminine is to be weak as most hip-hop male artists believe. I also came across another article that greatly intrigued me. It was about a young male rapper who dared to wear a dress to a TV interview. The rapper was also critizied for being a strong support of gay rights. 

"ASAP Rocky says people in hip hop, who aren’t down with the gay program, are “small-minded” and “stupid”. That’s while the rapper credits himself, Jay Z and Kanye West for keeping true to Hip Hop culture — tights, skirt and all!

Here’s what the cross-dressing emcee ASAP Rocky told the NY Daily News:

“I came up in a world that was just crazy — and it was hectic and kind of radical at the same time.
For me, growing up in Harlem and then migrating down to SoHo and the lower East Side and chillin’ down there and making that my stomping ground. That was a big thing, because I’m from Harlem, and downtown is more artsy and also more open-minded. So I got the best of both worlds. It was like being on the streets and then being in school at the same time, and I tried to keep my hands in everything just so I wasn’t missing out on any fun." 

http://diaryofahollywoodstreetking.com/asap-rocky-fights-for-gay-hip-hop/

I also found a video by a group of video bloggers who strongly believed that feminine clothing on a man has no place in the hip-hop culture. 

This video is very opinionated in the way it discusses what should and shouldn't be portrayed in a hip-hop music video. 

Hip Hop Lyrics Demeaning to Women?

Women in Hip Hop Lyrics

I found this brilliant video of an interview between singer, Drake and an interviewer known as Katie Courin. She asks Drake about the way hip-hop lyrics demean women and describe them. I thought that Drake's response was very interesting!

He defends the hip-hop lyrics by explaining that it's simply humour and mostly about "the way you say it". 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boloHgCmVNQ

I also found an article that discussed hip-hop lyrics and how they might not always be demeaning to women.

"Many hip hop artists do exploit women of color and many song lyrics objectify and disrespect women, negatively influencing young women.
But, I think it’s all about perspective. If one is focused, hip hop can have a positive impact on one’s behavior, and the poetry of hip hop can teach one about life. For example, Tupac Shakur and Nas are hip hop legends. Their song lyrics can have a positive impact on the lives of many young women of color. In “I can,” Nas encourages positive outcomes for young students. The song promotes self-confidence, optimistic thinking, and self-appreciation. In “Keep ya head up,” Tupac Shakur promotes valuing women, rather than exploiting them. “I wonder why we take from our women, why we rape our women? Do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women, time to heal our women, be real to our women.” Instead of trashing women, Tupac provides a message of hope to young women who are struggling"  - http://ealert.mysistahs.org/features/about_hiphop.htm

The writer explained that the lyrics in hip-hop videos are not always demeaning to women and also gave a very good example of a music video. Here's a link to the video of Tupac's  'I Can'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi-MIKb_J1w

I also found this useful article that discussed sexualisation in the lyrics of music during the 60s. I thought that I might be useful if I should decided to research deeper into the meaning of lyrics in hip-hop songs. 

"Since music videos didn’t really start to exist until MTV came out in the 1980s, sexualization in songs was basically wrapped up in the lyrics. Even in songs that have blessed the world with their very existence and are beloved by millions, sexualization shines through:

“Well she was just seventeen/And you know what I mean/And the way she looked was way beyond compare”
“I Saw Her Standing There”, The Beatles

“It was an itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie yellow polka dot bikini that she wore for the first time today”
“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini”, Brian Hyland

“(Why don’t you come out) with your red dress on
(Come out) Mmm, you look so fine
(Come out) Move it nice and easy
Girl, you make me lose my mind”
“Sherry”, The Four Seasons

“Some like ‘em fat, some like ‘em tall
Some like ‘em short, skinny legs and all
I like ‘em all, huh, I like ‘em proud”
“Mother Popcorn”, James Brown

There’s also the ongoing idea that women are owned by men, or should be:

“When I saw you walking down the street
I said that’s a kind of girl I’d like to meet
She’s so pretty, Lord she’s fine
I’m gonna make her mine, all mine”
“Hey! Baby”, Bruce Channel

(This song also encourages street harassment, a practice that is still looked upon as socially acceptable. Think about it: men driving by a group of women and honking? It happens a lot more than we realize).

I could go on to list a thousand more songs from the 1960s that objectify women, but I have a word count, and I think you get the picture. The fact of the matter is, if you’re looking at songs about women that came out in the ‘60s, you’re going to get a heck of a lot more that talk about how pretty a girl is than how smart or strong she is".

The Gaze

The Gaze

It's been a while since I've posted anything but I've decided to go ahead and do some catch up! We spoke about The Gaze in a previous lecture. The Gaze is a theory that woman are objectified and purely presented to the male viewing audience for sexual and visual stimulation. I found lecture to be one of the most interesting lectures so far.

"While the ideas behind the concept were present in earlier uses of the gaze, the introduction of the term “the male gaze” can be traced back to Laura Mulvey and her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which was published in 1975. In it, Mulvey states that in film women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera (and thus the gaze) comes from factors such as the as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres. While this was more true in the time it was written, when Hollywood protagonists were overwhelmingly male, the base concept of men as watchers and women as watched still applies today, despite the growing number of movies targeted toward women and that feature female protagonists" http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/faq-what-is-the-%E2%80%9Cmale-gaze%E2%80%9D/

I've done some very brief reading about a film maker and director known as Laura Mulvey. She wrote an essay on the male gaze and I was only able to find a few pieces of her essay for some reason. Here's a very interesting quote that I recently found:

"Woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of

erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, sheholds the look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combined

spectacie and narrative"

She explains that men have become the main target audience for film and women have almost become part of the props in cinema. I agree with her theory that women are objectified. I'm hoping to base my research on this theory for my essay. 

(update)

After some thorough search, I found the original essay by Laura Mulvey titled, Visual Pleasures & Narrative Cinema.

Sexualisation of Women

How Women Are Sexualised 

I've decided to base my research essay on the way women are sexualised in the music industry! I've been reading many books about how women are objectified and viewed within the industry. Mostly, I've been watching documentaries and reading articles. Here are a few samples of my research so far. 

This video was short documentary about how women are treated in the general music industry. I would like to focus my research on a more specific music genre. I think that R&B and Hip-hop are probably the most interesting routes for me to go down. 

An interesting quote I heard in this video mentioned that "Brittany...is sending a message that is okay for women to be objected and submissive". 

Another interesting resource I found was from the Guardian on-line. It was an article based on sexual content in the media. 

One of the images used had this note beside:

The singer Rihanna has faced criticism from parents' groups for her music video in which she shoots someone who raped her. Photograph: Joe Stevens/Retna Ltd/Corbis

I could use specific artists in my essay as part of my analysis. However, I'd like to focus on the topic more than artists. I will use few named artists but probably not very recent ones. 

Here's an interesting paragraph from the Guardian article about parents worry over sexual content in the media. 

"Findings from a survey conducted for the Bailey review show that:

• Two-thirds of parents had come across clothes, toys, games, music videos or other products that they thought were inappropriate for the age group they were aimed at.

• 40% of parents said they had seen things in public places (shop window displays, advertising hoardings) that they felt were inappropriate for children to see because of their sexual content.

• 41% of parents said they had seen programmes or adverts on TV before 9pm that they felt were unsuitable or inappropriate for children because of their sexual content.

• Of those parents who had felt the need to complain about these issues but hadn't, over 60% said that they had not done so either because they didn't think anything would be done or they didn't know who to complain to.

• Around half of parents felt that celebrity culture, adult style clothes and music videos are encouraging children to act older than they are.

Bailey has previously said: "For us to let children be children, we need to let parents be parents. That means giving parents the support and encouragement they need to help their children understand and resist the harms they face.

"But it also means putting brakes on ever greater commercialisation and sexualisation facing children in modern society. Only then can we look to create a truly family friendly society that protects children."

including statistics in my essay may also come in handy in terms of proving factual information or supporting a statement from other sources. 

Favourite Artists - iO Tillett Wright

Favourite Artists - iO Tillett Wright

I've been doing a lot of research into photography lately for my latest graphics projects. I came across an amazing talk via TED.com and discovered a photographer who believes in receiving equal rights for the LGBT community. Her photography is raw, natural and exactly the sort of style that I'm looking to create for my project.  

You can see that majority of her photos are black and white. They're candid and beautiful in presentation. They also have an almost vintage feel to it. 

Modernism & Postmodernism (1)

What is Modernism

Today's lecture was based on modernism. For the next few lectures, we'll be discussing what modernism and postmodernism is.

There are three stages of modernism: 

- Crisis in the representation of reality

- The Rise of abstraction 

- Abandoning the aesthetics

We discussed each of these stages thoroughly and I also went ahead and researched into each stage for myself.  From what I have gathered from this lecture, I understand that Modernism can be seen as a sort of development in design of all kinds. It is also argued that we might not be in a modernism stage, but rather, we are in a Post Modernist stage.

Crisis in the representation of reality:

"representation could be thought of as means of depicting or portraying of a subject, which relied upon the connection between the rendition and the original". 

We discussed a great deal about how the representation of reality has changed in design. Photography has contributed greatly to the way society sees images. Before photography, artists were hired to paint an image of what they saw. If someone where to see that image/painting they only had the option of believe it for what it was. It could be argued that photography has drastically changed the way in which designers represent an image.

"In a similar manner, artists turned to photography as a means of documentation outside of the content of abstract, purely conceptual art and instead focused attention on the political and social climates connected to the image" http://www.andrewschroeder.net/2009/03/24/crisis-of-representation/

The rise of abstraction:

We spoke briefly about abstract art and how it may a new way in which designers view imagery. Abstract art could be a way of breaking out of a set of rules. Abstract art has only recently been accepted as an art form. Realism in art and design is something that will always be there but abstract art is almost like a rebellion against the traditional way of designing.

"Artists like Monet, Manet, Pissarro and others, bravely all helped break out of the classical tradition , allowing us to see that art could be more than we had come to accept. In their time these paintings were seen as revolutionary". http://www.arts-fine.co.uk/paintings-for-sale/abstract-realism.html

Here are some examples of modern abstract art.

"This abstract realism is a form of art that sits between realistic depiction of the world and a non representational abstraction. No longer are the two separate and opposed, but come together to strengthen each other and form an alloy. The artist who can make realistic images, but takes that skill and creates a more abstract painting that is greater than sum of them both"

Abandoning the aesthetic process:

This was a part of the lecture that I was especially interested in. The reason for this was due to the fact that I study graphic design. Graphic design can focus heavily on rules and specific styling. Despite the fact that we have some kind of artistic licence, we are still expected to follow an unspoken set of rules and formatting in order for our work to be considered. 

Abandoning the Aesthetic process is a time in which artists dared to stop following a set of rules in order to make aesthetically pleasing art work. Modernism is basically about abandoning the rules. 

"If the rules inherent in one tradition are abandoned or proscribed, another set of rules will replace it. Thus we find that the modernists, in breaking all the rules of harmonious composition, in turn generated a set of rigid rules that are simply the opposite of the rules they replaced, rules that guarantee that complex coherence is permanently denied."

I found this quote very candid in the way it explained that explains how no matter how badly artists try to diminish "the rules", we still manage to develop a new set of them. 

My Favourite Creative Practitioners - Max and Eduard

My Favourite Creative Practitioners

For the next few months, I'll be using this blog to talk about my favourite Graphic Designers and other artists.

Max & Eduard

Last year I've researched the history and orientation of the Helvetica typeface. Helvetica typeface is one of the youngest typefaces I've research so far. This means that it's quite modern. Here's some information that I've discovered about the Helvetica Typeface and the creators Max & Eduard. Although, they're not entirely graphic designers, I still love the fact that they have such a huge impact the design of type today. 

"The original Helvetica was designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry (Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei). Haas was controlled by the type foundry Stempel, which was in turn controlled by Linotype." 
The original name for Helvitica was actually Die Neue Haas Grotesk. It was closely based on a typeface knows as Schelter-Grotesk. The typeface was created to be something safe and basic. "This neutrality was paramount, and based on the idea that type itself should give no meaning"

Here's an image of what the Helvetica Typeface looks like:

Here's an image of how Max and Eduard's typeface is also used in today's modern businesses!