Hip Hop And Feminism

"She is the hoe that comes with money, she is the hot snooty chick in the club, and she is the replaceable gyrating dancer in the corner of the screen", These are not my generalizations about life but are in fact stills from the hip hop videos that run rampant on all music channels. Of course you can disagree and say 'not all of them are like that!' but most of them are - 70% of them are most likely to show women in similar light. The others are mostly female artists performing their own personalized vain portfolios or the handful 'feminist' artists that have adopted their sexuality as a weapon against that which has oppressed them and a niche few that make you stop and pause, filling you with a sense of awe - but those are very rare.

So why is it that this presentation is widely accepted and even anticipated by one and all, why doesn't anyone even think it is weird or questionable anymore? But the most important question, why do the women out there continue to subscribe to this ideology and in fact adopt it as a lifestyle of their own?

These questions aren't new nor are they unrecognized. But sadly the detailed analysis between hip hop and women are usually held behind closed doors. A critical look at the culture and ways of understanding and changing it are spoken about but these observations get piled up in books and documentaries. Hip hop is the culture of the streets but the elitist discussions of such important issues fail to reach the streets and the people who subconsciously ingrain the submissive mentality that goes hand in hand with the lifestyle.

The image of the black female is that of being oversexed. Her body is her ticket to socio-economical wellbeing and it is this mentality that has been time and again hammered into them. The only way a female artist can survive in the industry is if she subscribes to these ideas. Thus her sexuality, she has been told in this culture is her only means to an end - whether the end be money, mate, fame or survival. And thus she continues to subscribe to this cycle in order to continue to survive in the culture she is a part of. The submissive role comes as a prerequisite of her gender and she has no choice but to give in - or so she is made to believe.

The void of feminism in hip hop cannot sadly be subscribed to men. It is the doing of the women themselves who have survived so long under these circumstances and conditions that they do not view their treatments as nothing out of ordinary. For them the rights of the women and the idea of feminism itself is an alien and foreign stream of thought best suited for the white women. It is seen as ignorant of the workings of the culture that they belong to. And any attempts to prove otherwise are scorned upon by the women themselves while the men don't even bother acknowledging it.

By Khadeja Pyrabel (Contributor) http://www.PlanetUrban.com.au/gsitemap/