After reading the material for this week, one piece stuck out to me: Seduced by Violence No More by Bell Hooks that discusses "misogynist rap music."
In a general sense, addressing all the literature from this week, the idea of "victimization" of women in forced sexual situations caught my attention. The authors argue that there is almost a lack of respect for the self because of the way they have been brought up. Sometimes, young women are just told "it is the way it is." Unfortunately, this idea has led many women down a path where the expectation of respect from men is minimal. No author, however, approaches this issue objectively. When emotion is involved, there is no objective way to approach the subject. Specifically, talking about rape that was mentioned in a couple readings, there is no clear cut explanation of what rape looks or feels like because everyone constructs this idea differently. It is inherently connotative. Women who have had this type of experience will, of course, differ in their views and post-feelings regarding what happened to them. This is because we socially construct our pasts to view them in a way we choose - a way that works for us and serves to make meaning out of
particular situations. As I read on, I recalled a documentary I had seen several years ago that highlighted the genre of rap music and the fierce competition among black women to be a part of rap music videos. Many women admitted to sleeping with the rappers or their friends in order to get more camera time than other women. At the end of the day, women were merely seen as objects in the music videos - sexual
fantasies that surrounded the male rappers. Though I did not find the original documentary I had seen as a teenager, I came across a similar video that discussed the objectification of women in rap videos:
Rap has essentially become a product...it is something to be sold. And in the process of selling it (in order to sell it), there seems to be a requirement that some sort of exploitation of women will grant that rapper status among his peers. Portraying women as "pieces of candy", if you will, proves to the hip hop culture that the rapper has "made it" or has been accepted and idolized. What, however, does this do for women? While the men are still moving up in the business and making tons of money, women are still fighting to simply prance around like objects for four minutes while men call them derogatory names in their own music. The problem that I see is that this particular culture - the rap/hip hop culture - limits women's success and creates this image that dancing half-naked next to Lil Wayne suggests that you have "made it" in the industry. The structure of the industry itself, is outweighing the agents within that structure. How do these women break through and change that expectation? Or, is it even possible?
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