Hip Hop Music Effects On Women Essay

There is a direct relationship between what is portrayed in music and the effect it has on its audience. Generally speaking, in modern music, woman have been placed in a certain mold. The molds portrayed in music have caused women to have negative self-perception. Through the lyrics presented in the songs and the images portrayed in the music videos, certain hip-hop songs may cause women to view themselves in the same light portrayed in the songs. The tone, lyrics, and images presented in the songs effect the intended audiences immensely. Hip hop music that objectifies black women negatively affects their self-perception because they view themselves as commodities.

Although some may say that music doesn’t directly affect the way a person acts, there has been evidence to prove that it does in fact change emotions and the way people act. Music heavily influences a person’s mindset by shaping what they place value on in the world or what they might hold dear. Music also tends to affect people’s persona and how they portray themselves to the world. Certain types of music are associated with certain demographics of people. For example, hip hop music is usually associated with the black community, and black men and women have strong connections with its songs and lyrics. Objectifying hip hop music

portrays men as dominant and disrespectful but still are flocked with female attention because of their economic status. Because this domineering behavior is glorified in objectifying hip hop songs, many young black males strive to live the lifestyle of those rappers. This high desire to live like the rappers cause them to obtain negative mannerisms that affect the way they view women and the way women view them. In turn, black women believe that without the mannerism portrayed in the objectifying hip hop songs such as “twerking” or “dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance” (Oxford dictionary), they will be deemed worthless or overlooked by black men.
When hip hop first emerged in the 80s, the ideas presented were new, fresh, and somewhat controversial. Artists such as Run DMC, The Fresh Prince, were well known artists who jumpstarted their careers without having any lyrics that disrespected women. Even when hip hop became more popular in the 90s, well known artists such as Tupac respected women. Women were held to a high standard before the objectifying lyrics became popular. During this time period, women dressed, acted and even spoke differently. The more aggressive and provocative the lyrics became in hip hop songs, the same happened for women and their mannerism.
In the text “Effects of Black Sexual Stereotypes on Sexual Decision Making among African American Women” the author states that sexual stereotypes affect the sexual decision making of African American women.

The sexual stereotypes are usually those represented in hip hop music and exemplify the figure Jezebel. Jezebel was a woman from the Bible who could not control her sexual drives. She was promiscuous and fell to temptations. “The Jezebel image,” Davis writes “perpetuates misguided messages about the sexuality of African American women that persists today.” The negative images of black women that permeate the media also affect the way black women view

themselves.
The representation of women in objectifying hip hop music causes them to believe that the raunchy behavior and video vixens portrayed in the lyrics and music videos are the ideal standard. The song “D*** Pleaser” by Lil Wayne and Jae Millz exemplifies hip hop music that objectifies women. In the song’s lyrics both artists rap about their sexual escapades while constantly disrespecting women. Lil Wayne says, “Now get low and touch ya toes for my people./And if you ain’t f****** them then you ain’t f******* me either.” The first line is demanding the female to move her body in a certain way for the enjoyment of the domineering males present. The second line makes the implication that the woman wants to gain the affection of Lil Wayne, but he doesn’t want to accept her advances unless she gives herself sexually to his friends as well. Throughout the song, women are constantly referred to as “hoes” or “sluts.” The repetitive vulgar language as well as the tone of the song implies that the artists do not respect any female that approaches them. In order for these females to earn any type of attention, they have to degrade themselves by submitting to any requests made by those males even if it jeopardizes their integrity.
Davis clearly expresses the origination of the objectification of black women in this excerpt:
“Hammonds (1995) argues that the world’s preoccupation with African American women’s sexuality began when Europeans’ made initial contact with the African continent. Hammonds posits that the nineteenth-century image of the African woman was linked to that of a prostitute through the capture and public display of the Hottentot Venus’. The Hottentot female was Sarah Bartmann, an enslaved African. Bartmann was objectified and placed on public display for exhibition to the masses because scientific experts considered her genitalia and buttocks sensational and extraordinary. Commentators considered the genitalia of Bartmann and other African women as ‘primitive’ and a sign of their sexual appetites. These beliefs became the foundation of Western thinking and treatment of the Black female body.”
This excerpt is a prime example of how Black women were objectified from the moment they were realized to have different bodies. From that time period, black women were sexualized and placed on display. The hip hop songs that objectify women do the same thing in their lyrics to women that was done to Sarah Bartmann. Jae Millz verse in “D*** Pleaser” includes the lines, “She remind me of this hoe I used to f*** named Sabrina/Ugly lil thang from the home of the ravens/I only kept her round cause her ass was amazin.” In these lines, Jae Millz makes it clear that he has no other attraction to this women if it was not for her body.
Male hip-hop artists, are not the only ones who can be pinpointed for the objectification of women in their music. Female hip hop artists such as Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Lil Kim, and Trina can be deemed as provocative and feed into the stereotypes of black women presented in hip hop culture. Nicki Minaj, for instance, is a prime example of how hip hop culture has shaped her as a female artist. From her debut as an artist in the early 2000s Nicki Minaj has undergone a series of plastic surgeries that have, without a doubt, made her more favorable to her male audiences and created a standard for her female audiences. With procedures such as breast and buttocks enlargements, women are only fueling the fire being kindled by the hip hop industry. In the song “Thro Sum Mo” by Rae Sremmurd featuring Nicki Minaj and Young Thug, within the first fifteen seconds of the music video, the video vixens are shown “twerking”. They are wearing provocative clothing and the lyrics rapped in Nicki Minaj’s verse do nothing to combat the misogynistic tone of the song: “Ass fat, yea I know/You just got cash, blow some mo'/Blow some mo', blow some mo'/The more you spend it, the faster it go.” Nicki promotes the objectification of women in her verse. She states in these lines that as long as there is an influx of money, the more the woman’s buttocks will shake for the pleasure of the males present. When black women are exposed to the misogynistic culture expressed in the lyrics and videos of hip hop music, they are subject to become desensitized to it. With female artists also promoting the culture, audiences of black women who look to these artists as role models will succumb to the misogyny present in the music.
In the research conducted by Ellen Nikodym titled “The Effects of Objectifying Hip-Hop Lyrics on Female Listeners,” there is clear evidence that audiences are affected by the type of lyrics they are exposed to while listening to music. Specifically, within the genre of hip hop, Nikodym reviewed experiments in which different groups of people listened to either sexual or misogynistic lyrics. Those participants who were exposed to misogynistic lyrics expressed sexual aggression towards females. The “cultivation theory,” Nikodym says, “argues that the more a person observes the worlds of sex portrayed in objectifying music, the more likely they are to believe that that world is reality.” Nikodym’s statement can be applied for all aspects of objectifying hip hop music. Both women and men can easily succumb to the misogyny presented in the lyrics. For black men it causes them to be entitled and to act in whatever way they can to mirror the artists in the songs, and for black women, they dress and act in such a way that would be favorable to these men mislead by these artists.