Patriarchy is a Bitch Introduction Hip Hop culture is often criticized for the use of misogynistic language and imagery. Calling a female “bitch“, “hoe“ or “slut“ and having scarcely dressed women dance for the entertainment of men is not an unusual practice for Hip Hop artists, but who is to blame for such a disgraceful portrayal of women? - The most common form of critique of the representation of females in hip hop culture is to denounce the artists and the culture, that glorifies this kind of language and imagery, rather than to get a better understanding of what role the capitalist patriarchal structures play in popularizing this phenomenon. I argue, that the misogyny exercised in Hip Hop is a reflection of capitalist patriarchal …show more content…
As Byron Hurt states in his documentary “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes”, “People call you soft, or weak or a pussy or a faggot, and no one wants to be any of those things, so everyone stays inside the box”. There is a pretty narrow ideal of what is considered to be a real man in Hip Hop culture. While the young African american males were already struggling to be accepted in society, they will at least make an effort to fit in with their peers and confirm to the hyper masculine image the patriarchal representation and the misogyny, even though some of them do not consider this appropriate and a few artists even condemn this behavior and express their disapproval through their lyrics. One of those artists is the late, great Tupac Shakur, who is considered one of the best rappers of all time. In “Keep Ya Head Up“ Tupac expresses his affection with conflicts faced by young black women. Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots I give a holla to my sisters on …show more content…
I think that the responsibility on how Hip Hop will develop is on the audience as they dictate the market, so maybe it is time to deviate from what is put in our faces by mainstream media and to make up our own mind of what we want the standard to be and how we can accomplish