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Misogynistic Femininity In Hip Hop

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Recommended: Effects of media on racial and gender stereotyping

Hip hop and rap music have always been a magnet for controversy, both within the music and the actions of hip hop artists themselves. Although there is a wide variety of hip hop and rap music, it is important to note that despite this, the messages used have been identified as homogenous. Hip hop has also been a medium for messages, such as cultural, political, and social. This essay will focus on the scope of hip hop from its roots, cultural significance, reproduction of gender and racial constructs, misogynistic themes towards women and African American women in particular, claiming of power within academic literature in two songs, ‘Famous’ by Kanye West and ‘Back Home’ by Zeds Dead and Freddie Gibbs.

Firstly, the cultural …show more content…

Guevara confirms this by stating that women in hip hop music and culture try to conform to a “socio-culturally traditional” idea of femininity (Guevara, cited in Haugen 2003, 429). Hip hop music defines what constitutes lady like and “unladylike” forms of behaviour that women are allowed to carry out (Haugen 2003, 432) in accordance to stereotypical views of how middle aged and middle class white women should act, such as indirectness and powerlessness in speech (Haugen 2003, 434). With this in mind, hip hop also brings cultural awareness of race and how modern day society behaviour of ethical minorities or people of colour are dictated by systematic and institutionalized racism. This point establishes that hip hop aids in the reproduction of gender roles in society, and further emphasizes the roots of hip hop, showing that it is more than a form of entertainment. Furthermore, it was found that hip hop music promotes a culture that acts as a pivotal social medium for young women and men from communities of colour to establish their gender (Kitwana, Collins, and Watkins, cited in Munoz-Laboy, Weinstein, and Parker 2007, 616). In addition, the contextual scene of dancing to hip hop in clubs allows the expression of gender roles, where men have to be authoritative and competent in dance to get women (Munoz-Laboy, Weinstein …show more content…

Misogynistic themes play a strong hand with the claiming of power as the theme of inferiority, specifically of African American women in comparison to men or women over other women interplay to form powerful social messages regarding gender expectations in contemporary society. This statement is supported by Pough (2015, 9) who states that rap is both “sexist and degrading” to black women. Likewise, Hooks notes that misogynistic themes are ingrained within the “racially and sexually oppressive capitalistic patriarchal system” and thus affects rap music as it operates within this system (cited in Adams and Douglas 2006,

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