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.