Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Hip-Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes
I know little about "Hip- Hop Beyond Beats and Rhymes," aside from the fact that a chapter of the movie is called "Women and Bitches." First of all, the label right off the bat offends me, but i do have some insight to the correlations between the hip-hop culture and women, or "bitches," a commonly used reference to women and girls. I interpret "and" in the title:"Women and Bitches" to take the place of "verse" (Women vs. Bitches) because these two words are completely conflicting with one another. When i think women, i think sensible, mature, the gender: female and respected. "Bitches" are those who lack all these qualities, yet why do we hear the term "bitches" replacing "women" as the more common word for the female gender in too many cases. Ms. Mondie gave me insight, through her poem, of the exploitation of women, especially black women, through slavery and how they are still being exploited in modern day america, but the tables have turned. Instead of slave owners, their are "rappers," who give themselves what they feel are justifiable excuses for why it is okay to devalue women in their lyrics. I thought hip-hop was all about changing the norm in a fresh way with fun and liberated lyrics? Why is it that women can still be considered "bitches" and "hoes" by the opposite gender and it be acceptable? It is hard enough for women to receive equality in this world and depreciating the female gender through rap lyrics only sabotages the ability for women to be taken seriously and be seen for more than a "bitch that should get out of the way," a statement that Ludicrous emphasizes in his song "Move Bitch."There are a wide range of people who listen to Rap/ Hip-Hop music. Unfortunately, among these people are young kids. Children hear the lyrics and it brainwashes them to think that what they hear is the truth, but what they hear is a lot of times in this genre of music is awful and against the morals that are expected of in these young, liberated generations (including mine).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Coco, I agree with you. It's ironic how "bitches" is usually used to replace women. However, in this section of the movie, its seems as if bitches and women are separate terms. It was extremely concerning to me to witness women arguing that there was a difference between bitches and women in hip-hop and in general. The women said that the term "bitch" being used in the hip-hop songs wasn't referring to them specifically and so they took no offense to it. This made me question who was responsible. I think that the men in hip-hop were the ones to ultimately brainwash women into thinking that if the term bitch didn't apply to them, than it was okay for the rappers to call other women bitches. I can't understand this but it has become a norm; It has also become one aspect of hip-hop that sells many of its records. Finally, I appreciate the last part of your post stating that children are effected by the exploitation of women in hip-hop. If the norms of exploiting women and rapping about violence continue to be norms, I think that the next generation will be worst than today. One major question I'm starting to think about because of all this is the survival of the hip-hop industry if it were to change its principals and norms.
ReplyDeleteQuiana brings up the question of who is responsible for the degradation of women in hip-hop and for the belief that calling a woman a "bitch" is acceptable. I agree that the rappers play a huge role in this, because it is their image that stands behind the rap lyrics and videos, and they are the ones profiting from the exploitation of women. At the same time, however, I think that women need to take a look at themselves and learn to self implicate, something I have been trying to do myself. This is difficult, and it is much easier to just blame the rapper, or blame the media or someone else for words like "bitch," "slut," and "ho," but I believe that women play a role in this culture of name calling as well. How many times have you heard a girl call another girl one of these names? I certainly have done it. I believe that there is a lot of hypocrisy and denial surrounding women in hip-hop, or even on a broader scale, women in today's popular culture. I am offended by music that I feel degrades and exploits women, yet I commonly use words like "slut" and "bitch" without a second thought. This is troubling to me, because it shows that I am part of the problem. Similarly, when watching the video on Friday, I felt conflicted because while on the one hand I was appalled by the way men were treating women as purely sexual objects at the Florida hip-hop festival, I also felt disgusted by the incredibly revealing clothes the women wore and the way in which (most) of them allowed themselves to be man-handled and treated as though they were objects instead of people. It is hard to know who to blame for all of this. Is it the rapper's fault for making the music? Is it the women in the videos faults for allowing themselves to be shown in that way? Or is it our fault for buying into this culture even though we know better?
ReplyDelete