The Exploitation of Women in Hip-hop

Speak, here it is. It might sound a bit rusty but this is it.



The Exploitation of Women in Hip-hop

Sexism and misogyny is a continued part of hip-hop culture. Exploitation of women in hip-hop has become an accepted part of it by artists and audiences alike. And while this is true, hip-hop’s critics blame the music without investigating it further.

In this generation of hip-hop, music videos run rampant with images of women, Black women in particular, dancing half-naked in front of rappers while the cameras focus on their body parts. These women dance to lyrics that continually degrade them. This suggests that women are good for nothing more than sex and so they are treated as sex objects and nothing more. Take the music video for “Tip Drill” performed by popular mainstream artist Nelly for example. This video, filled with images of women simulating sex with each other, dancing in the nude, and pictured in one degrading pose after another, was quintessential soft-core porn. Just when the song’s hook, which proclaimed a preference for a woman’s behind rather than her face, said it all, the video managed to say much more (qtd. in Watkins 217). This prompted students at historically Black Spelman College to protest an appearance Nelly was scheduled to make on the campus to raise money for a bone marrow drive. It also brought the students to bring “Hip-Hop Week” to the all-female campus. The students tackled the subject of the impact of hip-hop in urban, suburban and rural communities and the exploitation of women in the music industry. One freshman, Kristin Kelly talked about its purpose, “Hip Hop week allowed us, as young adults and Black women, to explore hip-hop; more than just the music videos and beats, but the culture and history as well.”(Richards and Muhammad 1)

Back to misogynistic hip-hop. Rap made slang aimed at women like “skeezer,’’ “hootchie”, “chickenhead”, and the ubiquitous “*****” staples of African-American lexicon. They’ve become so accepted that many women use them freely to attack other women and, even more alarming, to describe themselves. Whereas hip-hop has spiritually and financially empowered African-American males, it has boxed young women into stereotypes and weakened their sense of worth (qtd. in George 186-187). With that said, one must ponder the question that weighs heavily on one’s mind: Who’s to blame for the exploitation of women?

As I’ve said before, hip-hop’s critics blame the music and the artist without digging deeper. The blame can not be placed on the music and the artist alone. Much of the sexual exploitation in hip-hop culture is done with the consent and collaboration of women. A significant amount of misogynistic hip-hop consumers are women, and hundreds of bikini-donned women show up for the music video shoots as unpaid participants. Dance clubs and back stages of concerts are flooded with women who express willingness to do anything sexually with an artist to get drinks, money, jewelry, or just to feel privileged and wanted (Ayanna 1-2). I was watching a VH1 special about the exploitation of women in hip-hop and it takes an inside look at what goes on behind the scenes. It was all about the “video girl”, which has become a mainstay of contemporary music videos and many artists and directors simply won’t make a video without a harem of scantily clad women. Video girls have gotten a great deal of attention since Karrine Steffans, a former video model, released her book Confessions of a Video Vixen. On the special, Steffans focused on her own experiences with exploitation, and discussed why a lot of young women choose to dwell in the world of being a video model. Myself being a model who has been asked to appear in videos, I can sort of identify with the things she talks about of that life. Unlike her, I choose not to appear in music videos where the casting director would tell me that I have to wear this or that and dance like this or that.These directors might tell me that if I don’t do this or that then I won’t get a part in that video. If I’m not comfortable doing it then I won’t do it. I respect myself too much to stoop down and do something degrading just because I think it may land me where I think I want to be. A lot of young women choose that life because they think it’s glamorous and can lead to bigger things such as acting in a film. For some, it could happen. For most, it’s a hopeless dream. It’s hopeless because in these videos they are just bodies without faces. I say that because a lot of the audiences wouldn’t recognize these women on the street. They’re just nameless and faceless. It’s as if they are merely accessories for the rapper. Therein lies the problem; many of these videos portray women as objects and not people.

But these women choose to do it. Why? Because they like the attention. Steffans herself said she initially liked the attention that it got her, but it is sad that these compliments are not so much reaffirming the person as they are objectifying them. This has little to do with self-esteem although some of these women do it because of the need to feel important and/or loved by the rappers whose videos they grace.

Some people are fed up with misogynistic and sexist hip-hop but they know it’s not going anywhere because it’s accepted. When asked why she thought artists make destructive music like this, one woman Lauren Harkrader spoke out: “Society is misogynistic, American society is patriarchal and so on, so it already sets things up. But a lot of the commercial music takes that to a higher level and really endorses it, or normalizes it, makes it something acceptable. Young, impressionable people are going to buy into that and the whole cycle perpetuates…’’ (qtd. in Chela 1). From the lyrics on the radio to the videos on the tube, rappers engage in an aural and visual assault on the minds and bodies of Black women. This cultural attack on Black women would warrant a state-of-emergency even if the madness began and ended in the studios, but it doesn't. More and more, Black men and boys are reciting these lyrics until they become the mental script that directs their interactions with Black women even as these tracks advocate the real-life hatred and violence toward women. Clearly what rap has become, what it constitutes and perpetuates is a direct threat to Black women who relate to men who listen to and are persuaded by a music that prides itself on being the epitome of reality, not the studio-contrived production that it really is. Given this, Black women walk under the constant threat of being preyed upon by men that step to the beat of a sampled drum loop produced by platinum-laced pied pipers who proclaim themselves pimps. It has become an expectation that every gangsta rapper's CD will have an obligatory "whoop that trick" song in their rap repertoire. Gangsta rappers take the persona of the pimp as their street archetype of choice. To be a pimp means that the possibility of slapping, beating or otherwise assaulting a woman is just a look or a word away. This valorization of violence sits at the center of the current image of the rapper. And many rappers are being turned out by an industry that is invested in keeping Black men in the role of violent-prone sexual predator. The normalization of the abuse of Black women only works to condone such crimes and leaves the Black community complicit in the beatings and killings that go down. No lyric is innocent when it advocates the outright infliction of violence on the bodies of Black women. We are implicated in this madness until it stops, for who will be the ones to stop it, except ourselves?

Tawanna Holmes

Great message Shardaye. I remember when they protested against Nelly, personally I was glad when I heard that the students at Spellman College were protesting against Nelly.

Deacon57

I once listed Queen Latifah and MC Lyte as two of the best rappers of all time and not only did men attack me but to my surprise women did also
Just as Black people's biggest problen is not loving their blackness so it is that women's biggest problem seems to be not loving their gender
Deacon

tarah86

Also another issue to point out is the capitalization of hip hop by the music labels. I was watching Beatstreet for the first time 2 months ago and I was shocked and ashamed at how degrading the hip hop image has become. When the rappers performed there was no use of curse words and derogatory language, no women in tight and/or little clothing booty shaking. Everybody(men and women) were enjoying themselves. Dancing to the music, and having fun in a positive way. Hip hop used to be the voice of the people-a way for the youth to express themselves in artistic ways, to keep them from falling down in society. Now since it has become mainstream it mostly on what sells-being a pimp, i'm a thug, look at that booty. I am slowly drifting from hip hop and listening to other and/or older genres. Boy, history is going to be hard on hip hop.

AYCEEBEE

Long have a railed on this subject; with my daughters, with other men; to no avail. I can see why unenlightened young males would embrace objectifying women (sorry baby girl, but the baser, ruling nature in not-yet-overcoming male minds is under the sign of the dog) and I won't lie, it's even hard for me to turn away from a scantily clad, well shaped woman parading before me. Bottom line...only women can change the landscape. Can you see a bunch of brothers getting up and dancing to a song or rap in which a white artists urges, "Get up all you monkey mothers, mug like you tougher than the others. Monkey ******s this, monkey ******s that..." and saying, "I don't listen to the words, I just like the beat...there are some that are like that, but they're not talking about me, so it doesn't bother me?" As long as women fill the floor to dance to music like that, as long as they keep buying the music, as long as the women continue to get on all fours with them, the dogs are going to be dogs.

Diezelbase

Well that was a great piece. I'd like to say that I love yall either way, pregressive and empowered or half naked, shakin ya ass in the club. Can we just reach a happy medium? I mean if we didn't like it, you wouldn't do it, right?