I agree with bell hooks’ example that some rap music is used to further misogyny in the media because most of the lyrics of this type of music talk about having sex with women, talk about certain women’s body parts, or talk about women in degrading ways. Furthermore, the music videos for these rap songs almost always feature really attractive looking females dancing in very provocative ways with little to no clothes on. In Part 8 of bell hooks’ Cultural Criticism and Transformation where she discusses the topic of rap music, some clips of music videos are shown. In these clips, I do not think I ever saw a woman’s face up close, but I do remember seeing a lot of different women’s butts up close. In addition, I do not listen to a lot of rap music, but I do not think I have ever heard a mainstream song that talks about how the guy actually loves the woman for who she is or how much the guy enjoys her company or how it does not matter what she looks like because he will still love her anyway. The message that I get from watching these music videos and listening to these songs is that females are prized not for who they are but for how they look. The media is using “male privilege” in order to say that males are more valuable than females because throughout those clips the faces of the rap artists were clearly present whereas the camera just focused on one aspect of females – usually the butt. Also, most of these songs are sung from the perspective of the males and not from the females because most of the famous rap artists are males – not females.
You bring up a great point Heather, and I think that the majority of rap artists are male because in this day and age so many of the rap listeners are male just like Bell Hooks said in the video. The media is making it so that young males want to hear about women and their looks rather than the woman's personality and what not which may not necessarily be the right thing but its what the media is "pushing" in order to make money.
ReplyDeleteHeather you bring up a great point that the media frequently portrays woman being valued for their looks rather than their skills, especially in music videos as you mentioned. It's like the male rappers in these videos are trying to attract their audience (mostly young males) by showing what they consider the rewards of being successful which is often a massive house, flashy cars, and gorgeous, half naked women. If the women in these videos were dressed in conservative, work attire portraying successful business women, it just wouldn't be as appealing to the rapper's audience.
ReplyDeletecai58- I enjoyed your point that "If women in these videos were dressed in conservative work attire portraying a sucessful business women, it wouldn't be as appealing." I very much agree, then again, back to the white surpremacist theory, if white heterosexual powerful males wanted to create this image as the sexiest would it be as appealing to the rest of society? Or is this just a rule of nature- less clothing means more appeal for men?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a shame that there is so much sexism in the popular music business. There are, of course, a number of amazing female MCs, but they have a huge uphill battle to become and stay popular in the totally male-dominated industry. Further, often they have to resort to sexualizing themselves to stay on top of the charts. The double standard in the music industry is glaringly obvious. We have a long way to go to promote gender equality in this realm.
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