Summary: Intersectionalities In Straight Outta Compton

Intersectionalities in Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton is the critically acclaimed and financially successful biopic following the pioneering rap group N.W.A. (Metacritic.com, 2015). Rising in the late 1980s and somewhat quickly disbanding in the early 1990s, N.W.A. has had a profound effect on the subgenre gangsta rap, and well as causing much controversy at a time during which drugs and gang violence heavily affected communities around the United States, including the city of Compton (Jennings & Esquivel, 2015). During N.W.A.’s career, the group prompted conversations on censorship, the First Amendment, and police brutality. N.W.A. would also prompt conversations on the use of derogatory terms like “fag” and “bitch,” violence in music, and overall misogyny and homophobia within the realm of hip hop. The movie itself only reflects the

AND SEXUALITY N.W.A. have been known to spate explicit lyrics like: "But she keep cryin' 'I got a boyfriend' / Bitch, stop lyin' / Dumb-ass hooker ain't nothin' but a dyke" (N.W.A., 1988). In this lyric alone, N.W.A. reflects both misogyny and homophobia. Karen Sternheimer discusses the connection between the two in Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media Is Not the Answer: “Homophobia is also deeply connected with misogyny. As anything connected with femininity becomes devalued, men who appear to relinquish their superior position in the gender order are also subject to ridicule” (2009). The homophobia found in gangsta rap also finds correlation in other spaces, including black institutions and the mainstream middle class, though N.W.A. and other hip hop acts are often the main targets in mainstream culture ("Gangsta Rap and American Culture,” p. 416, 2004). Because N.W.A. were main targets, their criticisms from the LGBT community would seem like a main conflict in Straight Outta Compton. But like the criticism faced by women on their misogynist lyrics, the issue again goes