U.N.I.T.Y addresses Queen Latifah’s learned experiences of sexual harassment, domestic violence, and the music industry by placing the responsibility squarely on men’s shoulders for perpetuating stereotypes of the “hoe, bitch” culture. In the first stanza, she reflects that most 90’s hip-hop almost always promotes one black woman’s narrative. Judith Butler states that “various cultural discourses converge into a prevailing understanding of what it is a girl or a boy”. (where is this from) This idea of establishing identities as a learned process is important in dissecting this hoe-bitch culture that Latifah condemns. This hoe, bitch culture absorbs into our muscles and brains because of media representation and evolves into our gender norms …show more content…
In one such critique, the author likens Queen Latifah stance to eliminate the widespread use of “hoe, bitch” to “Christian squares who rallied against rock and roll. “ (O'Neill) Brendan O’Neill of The Telegraph is one of those critics, arguing that there is always someone campaigning against evil lyrics in hip-hop. He states that the anti-hop hop baton has passed to feminist and black activist’s new edgy and radical campaign to excise words such as hoe and bitch. Muskogee-battling activists are to O’Neill “swore wives of late 1980’s American parental advisory strike” on every album and moves. He critiques Queen Latina and feminist hip-hop as a patronizing movement to protect fans from their own worst instincts. Feminists have an allergy to free speech, as drab people made uncomfortable by popular music. He believes black women hip-hop artists such as Queen Latina; want to quell lyrical content within popular music for the sake of preserving decency and …show more content…
Queen Latifah can be both public in rap culture and critical as “black female rappers can maintain a public presence while they counter negative presentation of black womanhood that exist within hip hop culture.” (Pough 279) However, in mainstream hip hop culture, black women exist as visible non-speakers who garner attention as sexual spectacles as “black rappers affirm pleasure and privilege through expressions, style choices, and subject matter.” Media and pop culture are importance spaces where black girls and women are most visible, however, hip-hop is a cultural space where black women can navigate. Black women only enter the masculine world as rap video vixens, or as rappers: Queen Latifah taking up the former. The ho, bitch culture off the rap video vixen is the controlling image that is part of dominant vernacular. To pass that image off as merely popular music does not let us analyze and unpack how images becomes popular and important to hip hop success. Hip-hop feminism extends black feminist thought by looking at hip-hop self-representation to talk about everyday experience and the operation of power. Everyday life includes the practices, spaces, and worldviews in which black women participate. Honoring the lived experience of black women over the “bitch, hoe” objectification is formidable in rethinking hip-hop and
The very title of the song endorses the use of the expression “bad b*tches”. In the music industry, the used of the word “b*tch” is not uncommon. It is most commonly used by men as a means of degrading women. Female rappers, like Trina, try to change what is a degrading word and turn it into a compliment. Female rappers like herself use this “bad b*tch” persona as a defense mechanism. They call themselves these distasteful words before a man has the chance to do it. They see it as strength and rejoice in beating them to the punch. It is a dangerous game they are playing. Throughout Trina’s song “Da baddest b*tch” she referred to herself as a bad b*tch multiple times. “I'm representin' for the bitches/All eyes on your riches” Trina’s depiction of a “bad b*tch” in this song is a woman that is concerned with money and the possession of money; A woman that would do anything to make money no matter the cost. This message is a harmful one. The word “b*tch” is not empowering; it is demeaning. Women give men an excuse to refer to them as “b*tches” because women call themselves’ and other women “b*tches” and “bad b*tches”. Women need to wake up and really that they will not be respected by men or either other women with such behavior. Calling yourself a “b*tch” or “bad b*tch” is a welcome mat to disrespect. Women should resist the catchy lyrics and clever hooks of the songs both me...
Queen Latifah played a big role in the hip hop industry as a female MC, and still is relevant to this day. She influenced millions of people especially in the black community for equality between women and men. She’s an American song-writer, actress, fashion producer, model, female MC, feminist, television producer, record producer, and talk show hostess. The Hip-hop culture began around the 1970’s in Bronx, New York and it was mostly amongst the Black and Latino community at that time. Hip Hop emerged out of an atmosphere of disappointment, anger, hate, discrimination, and disillusionment which; made it easy for the audience to comprehend and enjoy the music not as a song, but as a public personal message for each person to understand. Hip-hop was born in numerous places: in the neighborhoods, in the parks, playgrounds, bedrooms, bathrooms, a broken home, and even on the street corners. MC-ing and DJ-ing were at the center of this emerging culture, but hip-hop was always bigger than just the music, it was also break dancing and graffiti. The hip-hop fashion was very popular back then and some materials are coming back in today’s fashion as well: kangol hats, big bright jackets, gold jewelry chains, brand name sneakers like Adidas, established sportswear, tracksuits, large eyeglasses, big waist belts, jumpsuits, and any kind of over-sized clothing. The graffiti was a new form of expression that employed spray paint as a story on walls as the canvas. The police called that vandalism; but the people of hip hop called it art: a form of self-expression. Hip hop has been largely dominated by male artists, but there have been some notable exceptions. Queen Latifah was one of the few early female exponents of the styl...
Hip hop is a form of art that African Americans have been using to get away from oppressions in their lives and allowed their voices to be heard in some type of way. As soon as big corporations seen the attention hip hop brought to the scene, they wanted to capitalize on it. These corporations picked specific types of attributes that some hip hop artists had and allowed it to flourish. The attributes that these artists carried were hypermasculinity, homophobia, violence and sexism. In the book, Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose discusses some of these specific attributes. One of the most damaging attribute is when hip hop is used to sexualize and demean everything about being a woman. Tricia Rose writes about this issue in chapter 5 of her book
When looking at the landscape of Hip-Hop among African Americans, from the spawn of gangsta rap in the mid 1980s to current day, masculinity and an idea of hardness is central to their image and performance. Stereotypical to Black masculinity, the idea of a strong Black male - one who keeps it real, and is defiant to the point of violence - is prevalent in the genre. This resistant, or even compensatory masculinity, encompasses: the hyper masculinity rife in the Western world, misogyny, and homophobia, all noticeable in their lyrics, which is in part a result of their containment within the Black community. The link of masculinity and rap music was established due to this containment, early innovators remaking public spaces in their segregated neighbourhoods. A notion of authentic masculinity arose from the resistant nature of the genre, but the move to the mainstream in the 90s created a contradiction to their very image - resistance. Ultimately, this in part led to the construction of the masculinity defined earlier, one that prides itself on its authenticity. I’ll be exploring how gender is constructed and performed in Hip Hop, beginning with a historical framework, with the caveat of showing that differing masculine identities in the genre, including artists
In the article “ From Fly to Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan, she often speaks about the positive and negative ideas associated with hip-hop music. Black men display their manhood with full on violence, crime, hidden guilt, and secret escapes through drugs and alcohol. Joan Morgan’s article views the root causes of the advantage of misogyny in rap music lyrics. In the beginning of the incitement her desires shift to focus on from rap culture condemnation to a deeper analysis of the root causes. She shows the hidden causes of unpleasant sexism in rap music and argues that we need to look deeper into understanding misogyny. I agree with Joan Morgan with the stance that black men show their emotions in a different way that is seen a different perspective.
The healthy relationships portrayed in the media are few and far between, which leaves Black women to make choices based on the options they have and perceive. For that reason, it is not complicated to understand why Black women are the least likely to marry in the environment of the over-sexed woman and a pimp. The portrayal of Black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. To understand more fully the media’s role in shaping the culture of African-American experience, one must first examine the stereotypes projected by TV stations like, BET, MTV, and VH1. The songs and music videos created by such hip-hop artists as 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg have built ...
Oswald, Janelle. “Is Rap Turning Girls into Ho’s?” The Black Book: A Custom Publication. 3rd ed. Ed. Sam Pierstorff. Modesto: Quercus Review Press, 2012. 171-175.
Despite its increasing popularity, hip-hop music often implements misogynistic ideals by portraying women as sexual objects or as helpless beings in need of savior.
The article discusses the fact that hip hop “provides a lens [through which white students and faculty at institutions] interpret Black culture” and that because of this not only is the Black female’s view of herself being manipulated, but black males expect what is being promoted by hip hop culture from them, and so does every other person (Henry, West, & Jackson 238). A professor at North Carolina Central University spoke about how he dislikes how hip-hop has influenced the way his students dress, he said “ They look like hoochie mamas, not like they’re coming to class” (as cited in Evelyn
This song represented the time in 1993 when women in the hip hop culture were not taken seriously as males, so Queen Latifah had to call the judgmental people out. U.N.I.T.Y has the significance impact of feminism, just like her first two albums as an artist. How every man, she states calls a women “ho” or “bitch” she defends by saying “Who you calling a bitch?”. Another song that has been recalled as an importance of women in hip hop is the song (9) “Give It To You” by Da Brat. “So let it go, Cause my shit is tight, Take it how I give it, And enjoy the night”, she is talking about the males, if they have something to say about the women in the rap industry they should let it go before things get out of hand. The importance of this song was that ladies in hip hop are able to fight back stronger. In the song (10) “Lost Ones” by Lauryn Hill is about her talking about a person she has a brutal honest message to. This song has an important impact on women who would want to be in the hip hop culture because it is the woman's choice to decide what she wants to do. In 1998, she releases this song to brings an influence to women, if feeling threatened by men, women should refuse to be treated in any type of way that is
She seems to be in full control of her identity, her image, and her music. It appears as though her actions and created self-image is of her own volition, with little influence from others. Because of this independence she isn’t subservient to patriarchy, but infect she uses the patriarchal philosophies of femininity, commonly accepted and projected in hip-hop music, and reclaims them for her own. This reclaiming allows her to become a model of female empowerment, reversing the standard of female inferiority commonly found in hip-hop and more widely Western culture. She is providing a voice for women and queer culture, in a male-dominated and overwhelmingly sexist and homophobic
In the late 1970’s hip-hop/rap music emerged as one of the most popular musical genres, and it remains as one to this day. However, there is a big difference in the content of a song like Sugar Hill Gang’s 1978 single “Rappers Delight” and a modern day rap song. When hip-hop music first began it served as a type of party music that was made primarily from African American men. The music quickly gained popularity, and before long, members of all races were enjoying it. However, in the early 1980’s hip-hop music became more of a mirror into ghetto culture rather than just upbeat enjoyable music. Rappers began to write edgy lyrics celebrating street warfare, drugs, and promiscuity. Unfortunately this style of hip-hop never died off, and now it
The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
As one moves past the initial onslaught of rhythmic beats that calypso has to offer, it is difficult to miss the way in which it reverberates with negative and demoralizing images of women to their male counterparts. Whether it is within the lyrics of Sparrow’s “Drunk and Disorderly” or Square One’s “My Ding-a Ling”, an ample number of verses are often dedicated to making lewd comments about the female body and the suggestive body language described through thinly veiled rhymes and puns, can be offensive depending on the listener. The half naked models being displayed on the various album covers of calypso, soca and rap mix tapes further reinforces these negative connotations. This bandwagon has been jumped upon by many, including the rap genre in the last two decades, wanting to capitalize on a marketing strategy that generally purports to flag consumer attention, playing on their sense of eroticism. The sections titled “Music, Sex, Sexism” and “Woman Rising” within Peter Manuel’s text: Caribbean Currents, dive into the many issues surrounding gender within music as well as female portrayal specifically in calypso. Observations can be made simply by reading through the textual comparisons. Many aspects of this subject area allude to the fact that the issue of gender portrayal in music can be construed differently depending on who the critical listener happens to be. With the increased awareness and heightened sensitivity to the way in which females are portrayed in popular media, it is important to reflect on the impact these lyrics have on male-female relationships within the communities who most often enjoy this music genre.
The negative perception of women throughout popular culture in the form of music has greatly impacted the portrayal of women on today’s society. This study involves on examination of sexist ideologies in dancehall lyrics that portray women in stereotypical and negative manner. This particular king of music explored in the study is dancehall music, a popular genre in Jamaican culture today. The primarily focus is on the effect of popular songs have on women in society, as well as how song lyrics can cause objectification of women and how are the roles of men and women reflected.